If you’re a migratory bird, congratulations on learning how to read. Good work—but there’s some bad news. Your species is feeling the effects of climate change, and it’s not a particularly pretty picture.
The 2010 “State of the Birds” report on climate change, co-published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and experts from the nation’s leading conservation organizations, says that hundreds of species of migratory birds (as well as many oceanic birds, and Hawaiian birds, and coastal birds, and, well…all kinds of birds) are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
From the report summary:
Rising sea levels are expected to inundate or fragment low-lying habitats such as salt marshes, sandy beaches, barrier islands, and mudflats. Increasing frequency and severity of storms and changes in water temperatures will impact quality and quantity of coastal habitats and alter marine food webs. … Migratory species such as shorebirds are also vulnerable to changes in stopover and wintering habitats. … Increased temperatures will drastically alter surface water and vegetation in the arctic, resulting in major changes in bird abundance and distribution. … Predicted changes in temperature and rainfall will probably reduce vital habitats for waterfowl and other wetland birds.
That’s a lot of changes for a lot of birds. But what does that mean for how people will be affected by climate change? The Audubon Society’s Glenn Olson says it best: “The dangers to these birds reflect risks to everything we value: our health, our finances, our quality of life and the stability of our natural world.” That is to say: As birds go, so go humans.
As exemplified by the canary in a coal mine, birds are excellent environmental barometers. And the story they’re telling us in this report is that almost all species of birds are in some sort of danger of being adversely affected by climate change.
As the report astutely summarizes:
Global climate change is altering the natural world in ways we are only beginning to understand. One message emerges loud and clear: only committed collective action can protect nature’s resources. It is up to us to safeguard birds, their habitat, and the environment we all share and depend on, for our own lives and those of future generations.
This report doesn’t just affect you, Bird That Has Learned How to Read. It affects us all.
Photo: mikebaird's flickr photostream/Creative Commons
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