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New Audubon Science: Two-Thirds of North American Birds at Risk of Extinction Due to Climate Change
NEW YORK (October 10, 2019) – Today, the National Audubon Society announced a groundbreaking climate report, Survival by Degrees: 389 Bird Species on the Brink. “Two-thirds of America’s birds are threatened with extinction from climate change, but keeping global temperatures down will help up to 76 percent of them. There’s hope in this report, but first, it’ll break your heart if you care about birds and what they tell us about the ecosystems we share with them. It’s a bird emergency,” said David Yarnold, (@david_yarnold), CEO and president of Audubon…
North America Has Lost 3 Billion Birds, Scientists Say
‘Over the past half-century, North America has lost more than a quarter of its entire bird population, or around 3 billion birds.
That’s according to a new estimate published in the journal Science by researchers who brought together a variety of information that has been collected on 529 bird species since 1970.
“We saw this tremendous net loss across the entire bird community,” says Ken Rosenberg, an applied conservation scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, N.Y. “By our estimates, it’s a 30% loss in the total number of breeding birds…”‘
Most US birds are facing extinction unless we take action
Like the canary in the coal mine, birds foreshadow danger to humans. Our nation’s birds are facing more and greater threats to their survival than ever before.
A study published in September in Science journal documented that since 1970, North America has lost about 3 billion birds, more than one in four birds on the continent. The National Audubon Society just released a report, Survival by Degrees, finding that 389 bird species in North America are at risk of extinction due to climate change, and more vulnerable than ever from rising temperatures and climate-related events.
The report clarifies what can be done…
Greta Is Right: Study Shows Individual Lifestyle Change Boosts Systemic Climate Action
“It is really important that scientists, or other messengers who communicate with the public, model those behaviors that reduce carbon emissions to drive their point home,” one of the authors, Professor Elke Weber, said in an interview released yesterday by Princeton University.
“Our new research showed that the carbon footprints of those communicating the science not only affects their credibility, but also affects audience support…
WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin
The State of Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere Based on Global Observations through 2018…
Carbon Dioxide Reaches Highest Recorded Levels In Human History
“We are in an unprecedented era, at no point in human history has carbon dioxide levels been this high, presenting concerning questions over what lies ahead.
This week the World Meteorological Organization published their yearly report on the “State of Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere,” compiling data up to 2018.
The report, unsurprisingly, found that carbon dioxide reached an all-time high in 2018 since pre-industrial amounts. The highest recorded measurement in 2018 was 415.70 ppm on May 15, 2019, higher than it has ever been during human history…”
Climate change doomism as bad as denialism
“The reality is that different people are going to be motivated by different things, and some amount of concern and even fear can motivate—we know that, psychologists have established that. But it can also elicit other, disabling instinctual reactions—paralysis and disengagement. Different people are going to respond differently…”
Mysterious Lobster Deaths In Cape Cod Raise Climate Change Concern
Last month, lobstermen in Cape Cod Bay hauled up something disturbing. In one section of the bay, all of their traps were full of dead lobsters. Research biologists went to work trying to solve the mystery, and what they found suggests we may see more of this as the climate changes…
Wind turbine design and placement can mitigate negative effect on birds
URBANA, Ill. – Wind energy is increasingly seen as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, as it contributes to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. It is estimated that by 2050, wind turbines will contribute more than 20% of the global electricity supply. However, the rapid expansion of wind farms has raised concerns about the impact of wind turbines on wildlife.
Research in that area has been limited and has yielded conflicting results. A new study, published in Energy Science, provides comprehensive data on how turbines affect bird populations…
Small adjustments to wind turbines can reduce impacts on birds, new study finds
Research analyzed data from 1,670 wind turbines and 86 bird observation routes across 36 states between 2008 to 2014.
“We found that there was a negative impact of three birds lost for every turbine within 400 meters of a bird habitat,” Madhu Khanna, professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois and co-author of the new study, said in a statement. “The impact faded away as the distance increased…”