I remember my elementary days when many of my friends would sport ‘Save the Manatees’ t-shirts from WWF. Well on the bright side the manatees are still alive, but on the downside they are facing another danger that is threatening their ability to survive as a species. Social media led to the end of manatee (also known as sea cows) boat killings, but this new threat is global warming. Global warming has been proven to produce red tides, most commonly down in California and in the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf of Mexico is a prime location for the manatees. Red tides cause uncontrollable blooms of algae that persist in warm winters during the winter months. The toxins contained in these algae blooms are toxic to mammals who breathe them in. The toxins can cause paralysis and prevent the manatees from being able to breathe on their own. Their bodies shut down and they die. Since January 149 manatees have been found dead off the coast of Florida, while 11 have been rescued by local zoos. In 1996 the record for red tide killings of manatee was 151, and officials have confidently announced that this year we will surpass this previous figure.

What will it take for people to jump on the global warming bandwagon? People are dying, animals are facing extinction, and our homelands are slowly sinking below sea levels. Yet we keep finding the urge to drive from our house to the grocery store instead of walking, and buying new IPhones that contain metal from environmentally degraded African countries. Social media has worked in the first campaign for bringing awareness to the manatee’s plight. It also worked in raising hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars for climate change induced Hurricane Katrina and the 2006 tsunami. Is social media a sufficient outlet for creating a revolution to combat climate change and save the manatees in the process?