Ninth+Grade+Project

Quinlan Moran 9th grade proj. Rough Draft The majestic brown pelican, a symbol of seaside life. The brown pelican is a sight to behold, one of the largest and most spectacular birds seen along the Louisiana coast. (Flosher) The brown pelican makes its home in the marshlands of the Gulf Coast, it nests, hunts, and shelters its young in this tranquil and pristine habitat. (Flosher) This bird is a caring and loving parent to its young. Brown Pelicans watch over, protect and teach their young for three years after they hatch. (Flosher) The brown Pelican does this as a pair, both parents take care of the babies. The brown Pelicans are similar to us all, fragile and in need of rules to protect them. Right now they are in crisis, being killed by the dozens, by the hundreds, by the thousands, today, tonight, and tomorrow. Where: in the middle of one of the most pristine natural habitats in the world the Gulf Coast. When: right here, right now, just next door. What: The Gulf oil spill. They, as we all are, threatened by this man made ecological disaster that has never been equaled in scale. The only difference is the effects on the Pelicans can be seen now, the effects on us all will be seen in the years to come. The Ocean Biome: The largest and most pure natural eco system in the world. It’s where life on this planet began over 300 billion years ago. (Richmond) It is made up of salt water. It covers 70% of the earth’s surface today. (Richmond) The Tempters vary -2 degrees C to 36 degrees C. The ocean averages at 17 degrees C. (Teachers Association) The coldest area’s of the ocean are in the arctic/polar regions, and warmest ocean areas are by the equator. The polar and arctic regions are mostly covered in ice. The oceans average depth is 2.3 miles below sea level. (Teachers Association) The ocean is the most vast natural environment on earth. There are more living thing in the ocean than anywhere else on the planet. The ocean sustains us all with life giving food, medicines and countless other attributes. The ocean also plays a major role in our environment on land, the quality of our air, the weather patterns and how our world renews itself we all rely on the ocean for life. There are over 2 million different species of animals that live in the ocean. Some of the living things are kelp, they provide us with most of our oxygen and can grow from 6 inches to 2 ft everyday. (Ocean Plants) The ocean is also home to the largest mammal on earth, the blue whale. The ocean has one of the most spectacular sights in the world, its’ coral reefs. Reefs only grow in specific areas of the ocean, they are very fickle about conditions, and are only in water temps that very from 68 degrees F to 82 degrees F (** change to Celsius). ** (Ocean Plants) The oldest creatures on the planet live in the ocean, the sea turtle, they can live up to 150 years old. (Teachers Association) On April 20th 2010 all hell broke loose and the world worst human caused environmental crisis occurred. On this day 11 people died and on this day the offshore drilling vessel in the Gulf of Mexico exploded. This happened on one of (BP) oilrigs. It happened because there was a methane bubble that escaped from the well and expanded as it came to the surface, and blew up. (Wolfpack5) The methane bubble also made multiple holes in the main welling pipe. Till this day we are still trying to stop that leak, its letting out over 200,000 thousand gallons of oil a day. (Wynn) The whole leak overall was 5 times worst than what they had thought it to be. Now they have tighter expectations on the oilrigs. The ironic part of this whole issue is that they just inspected the rig 2 weeks before the explosion and they said it was a perfect inspection. Now I am going to switch to the topic of the many animals that are being affected by this disaster. There are multiple animals that were affected, such as thousands of fish species, mammals in the water, and anything that eats the animals from the sea. The whole food chain in the gulf is now dysfunctional, it won’t work properly for 100’s of years. One of the main things that were effected were the sea birds in the area, they were harshly effected by this spill, because they only get food from the sea, but they can get the fish or they will get sick. The animal I am going to speak on behalf of today is the Brown Pelican. This animal is a sight you can only see in the pristine marshes of the gulf, and in Peru. The animals neck color changes during matting season to brown, that why it’s called the brown pelican. These birds are particularly at risk because it dives beneath the water to get its food, but it harder to get the fish because they need to see the fish. They are also at risk because they just started to recover from their population loss 40 years back. (Flosher) They are also at serious risk because they have a heavy coat of feathers. There fore their coats get soaked in the oil and they die of hypothermia, they can’t fly and they drowned in the water. Also the fish they are eating are poisoned, and becoming harder and harder to fined, such as the mullet, hearing, and menhaden. (Flosher) These animals and 100’s of others need our help now. There is more than just an impact on the environment in the gulf, It impacts the whole entire world. It impacts everything in the world. The carbon levels in the ocean are off balance there for can alter every animal in the ocean. The carbon levels in the air have gone up drastically since April 20th 2010. It hurt the fisherman in the whole gulf because the fish are over the level of toxicant, that mean you will get sick if you eat them. There fore the fisheries are out of business because they can’t sell any fish. We are already in a depression, and the disaster made it even worse, the depression levels went down 25% more in the gulf. (Gore) Because of the oil spill more coral reef are dying off, the water temp is changing, and the kelp is dying off (Gore) It also hurts anyone in Mexico because they are as concerned in this disaster as we are and they also live on it. So what I am trying to portray to you is that this whole spill isn’t just the people that live by its problem, everyone is affected by it. The reason everyone should be hands on involved in this disaster is because it effects everyone. This accident is world altering not just for the ones who live near it but also for everything on the earth. If you think this doesn’t affect you your crazy. We should also help Mexico’s fishermen because they cant get fish, and that there only way of making money. If we don’t act now it just going to get worse! We need to act now or our whole pristine habitat by the coast will be desolated of life for the next 100 years. If we don’t act now in the next year dozens of fish and bird species will be on the endangered list or extinct. Already the fragile marshland eco systems have wipeout or severourly altered by this oil spill. The people around the Gulf are getting sick more often. There has bin more cases of asthma attacks since BP oil Spill. We need to help out; the whole world does if we want to keep this area of land pristine as it was before. My lifestyle contributes to the solution; all of our lives contribute to the solution. By being hear right now talking about these huge issues, thinking globally, and acting locally. By educating ourselves in these eco issues, by our baby steps in recycling towards healing our planet. These are all ways we contribute to the solution. These things weren’t even talked about a generation ago. These are new issues and new solutions. We are all thinking about saving the planet, we talk about global environmental issues, we even choose to use less power and take shorter showers. That all contributes to the cause, the cause of saving our planet. This is an environmental crisis is a reality and people are becoming more and more aware of it everyday. More people are helping than ever before and that’s still not enough. So we need everyone to contribute. The main government agency that’s helping the oil spill and all environmental issues is NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Association) This agency is contributing a lot of their time and effort to the oil spill in the gulf. They contribute a lot of money and fundraise a lot. They also come up with most of our ideas to clean up the Gulfs. Right now they are coming up with boats that their engines pick up the oil as they go through it. They also are trying to fix the leak that is 5000 ft bellow the surface. The other big government agency is the presidential branch. They taxed BP for the damage they caused. They put most of that money to the fisherman that are jobless, and to clean up the gulf. America might be taking the lead on this crisis but they are not alone they have any other developed countries behind them. “Everyone is in the cause together to fight the oil spill, or the issues in general.” In 2007 my family and I went on a vacation in the Gulf of Mexico, I went to cancoon. It was beautiful the tropic’s. The water was warm and crystal clear. I said I hope I can take my own kids there one day. Now there is only one way to make this happen, if we all help clean the gulf, one step at a time. No one country, no one company, not even one hemisphere can solve this issue. It is truly going to take all people in all nations committed to the future of this planet. To ensure that the environment of the future are handled in a spirit of openness, a spirit of cooperation, and with a good scene of science and technology, to limit the impact on all of our eco systems.