Reflection

The theme I decided to focus on for my project is how climate change affects Sea Turtles as endangered species. I’ve seen many different species of fish and marine animals, however, one animal that I’ve always wanted to see in person is a turtle. I chose this topic as I’ve noticed how much turtles have been affected by human activity recently. For example, Turtles drew a lot of attention in 2017, when a video went viral of a plastic straw being pulled from a turtle's nose. However, as time passes and climate change becomes more prominent, the population of turtles will decrease, due to the lack of male turtles hatched. When turtles are hatched, the gender of the turtle is based on its nesting temperature. If the nesting temperature is below 27.7 degrees celsius (81.86 degrees Fahrenheit), the turtles will be male, however, if the temperatures are above 31 degrees celsius(88.8 degrees Fahrenheit), they will be female. Eventually, if the earth becomes too hot, there will not be enough males to produce more generations of turtles causing them to potentially become extinct. In my piece, I portrayed this idea using turtle eggs being cooked on the sand, as well as newborns trying to escape the heat. My goal was to display the urgency of this matter, as turtles could eventually become extinct if global warming continues. In the smoke rising from the hot pan I added a female sign to indicate how female turtles could slowly become dominant, resulting in the decline of reproduction in the turtle population. Lastly, I drew a hand lighting the fire of the pan, as we humans are one of the main factors that contribute to climate change. By bringing more attention to global warming and taking it seriously as an issue that needs to be addressed, we can all play a role in helping preserve our planet and what is left of it.