Happy 50th birthday Earth Day! As the world is still coping with the COVID-19 crisis “Digital Earth Day Events” are scheduled to take place today, 22 April 2020, to comply with social distancing and stay-at-home guidelines. In reality, “Earth Day is every day, and anywhere you are” but take a moment to join in as “Earth Day goes digital with 24 hours of action”
Image: CC Flickr by World Wildlife Fund: Two Elephants in field of yellow flowers, Cloudy Sky
This year’s theme is climate action/climate change. And as elephant conservation is of utmost importance to those of us who love elephants let us take a look at: “African elephants and how they are affected by climate change!“
“Hello and welcome to ‘African Elephants and How They Are Affected By Climate Change.’ This is an African elephant. Well, actually this. African elephants are the world’s largest land animals. They can be up to 7.5 meters long (24.606 feet), 3.3 meters high (10.82677 feet) and weigh six tons. Sadly, African elephants are classified as vulnerable to extinction, no thanks to climate change.
African elephants need about 150 – 300 litres of water each day (39.62593 – 79.25186 gallons) of water each day. This means that when heat rises and the water dries up the elephants will be in danger. They are also in danger because of deforestation that is destroying their homes. Elephants are also prone to many diseases and sensitive to high temperatures. As diseases become more frequent and heat rises things are only going to get worse for elephants.
They have slow reproductive rates, meaning it’s harder to increase their population. And if you are in danger of dying out you need to increase your population. If droughts increase elephants’ reproduction can get muddled, too, Because birth peaks line up with rainfall peaks. That means they reproduce during the rainy season. (Population+)
But it’s not all bad for the elephants, though. They live across a range of diverse habitats. That means they’ve adapted to a variety of climates. This map shows they live all over Africa. Elephants also eat a variety of plants. That means if one plant species dies out they can simply eat another.
What can we do to help the elephants, though? Well, we can secure fresh water areas that experience drought or might experience drought. This means that the elephant will have more water even through drought. I even donated 5 pounds myself (savetheelephants.org)
But how does climate change occur? Climate change is when greenhouse gasses rise up into the atmosphere creating a barrier that deflects the sun’s rays and keeps the planet cooler. But we are releasing too many greenhouse gasses (through cars, deforestation, and things like that) And that is creating a thick barrier of gasses that is keeping the heat in, therefore warming our planet up.
Thank you so much for watching! If you didn’t catch all the information I have a couple of scenes laid out or you can look at my collage. Drawn, edited, scripted and voiced by Carys Balaam. Information and map from WWF website.” Transcribed by Elephant Spoken Here
Thank you, Carys, for such an enjoyable and informative video about our African elephants! Watch YouTube video “African elephants and how they are affected by climate change!”
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Image: Earth Day 22 April 2020 Fiftieth Anniversary poster
For more information on Earth Day visit the Earth Day website
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Elephant Spoken Here facebook
Images: CCFlickr: by astrabaer8283 B&W elephant family South Africa & World Wildlife Fund, 2 Elephants in field of yellow flowers Cloudy Sky; by Earth Day, 22 April 2020 Fiftieth Anniversary poster
Image: CC Flickr by astrabaer8283 : B&W elephant family, South Africa