Miranda Raimondi is a senior at Eckerd College in Florida.
There is no Florida mammal more beloved & iconic than the manatee, as said by U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan of FL. The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission states that 890 manatees have died in the first seven months of 2021, higher than the previous annual record of 830 deaths in 2013. Despite this alarmingly-high number, manatees were reclassified in 2017 as no longer endangered, & now, perhaps predictably, Florida congressmen seek to reinstate that former status for the manatee.
Sadly, the question must be asked: What good will it do? While the manatee should definitely be reinstated as endangered, the main cause of their demise is climate change, which has caused the significant die-off of their key food source, seagrass. What we need right now are bold solutions to address climate change. Congress is currently in the process of negotiating the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package. Incorporating measures such as carbon pricing, renewable energy standards, and investments in clean energy would go a long way to address the source of the problem for manatees and the ocean. Ask your members of Congress to support bold climate measures today at cclusa.org/house. Too often we fail to see the feedback loops caused by our own neglect of the planet, but if we addressed them, manatees will not need to remain on the endangered species list.