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from the better-go-find-me-some-more-worms dept.
Disappearance of meadows and prairies, expansion of farmlands, use of pesticide blamed for 29 percent drop since 1970.
The number of birds in the United States and Canada has dropped by an astonishing 29 percent, or almost three billion, since 1970, scientists said on Thursday, saying their findings signalled a widespread ecological crisis.
Grassland birds were the most affected, because of the disappearance of meadows and prairies and the extension of farmlands, as well as the growing use of pesticides that kill insects that affects the entire food chain.
"Birds are in crisis," Peter Marra, director of the Georgetown Environment Initiative at Georgetown University and a co-author of the study published in the journal Science, was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Forest birds and species that occur in a wider variety of habitats - known as habitat generalists - are also disappearing.
"We see the same thing happening the world over, the intensification of agriculture and land use changes are placing pressure on these bird populations," Ken Rosenberg, an ornithologist at Cornell University and principal co-author of the paper in Science told AFP news agency.
"Now, we see fields of corn and other crops right up to the horizon, everything is sanitised and mechanised, there's no room left for birds, fauna and nature."
More than 90 percent of the losses are from just 12 species including sparrows, warblers, blackbirds, and finches.
The figures mirror declines seen elsewhere, notably France, where the National Observatory of Biodiversity estimates there was a 30 percent decline in grassland birds between 1989 and 2017.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 23 2019, @02:49AM (2 children)
Check out China's population effect of their "One Child" policy. Spoiler alert: population still grew, quite a bit.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 23 2019, @02:59AM
One Child failed for the same reason communism failed. People under-reported their children and over-reported their economic productivity. Any plan that requires people to be honest is automatically doomed to failure. This naive fool EJ can't quite seem to grasp the reality of human nature.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 23 2019, @08:35AM
What a fucking stupid comment. Really... You don't realize that the KIDS of the people at the time when 1 child policy was enacted, still had their ONE child?? And they didn't exactly die instantly either. So of course the fucking population will grow. But it will also AGE.
https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/china-unprecedented-demographic-problem-takes-shape [stratfor.com]
You see those numbers??
Now see Philippines,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_Philippines#/media/File:Bev%C3%B6lkerungspyramide_Philippinen_2016.png [wikipedia.org]
it's a fucking disaster waiting to happen because TOO MANY KIDS. Even Thailand has got a hold of their population,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Thailand#/media/File:Bev%C3%B6lkerungspyramide_Thailand_2016.png [wikipedia.org]
Want another exploding population graph?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Nigeria#/media/File:Nigeriapop.svg [wikipedia.org]
In all those exploding population graphs, even if you limit to ONE child only, you will still get population increase simply because there are so many kids already and those kids will have their children.
Not understanding population demographics like this is almost as bad as failing at global warming. "We reduced carbon emission - so why is it still getting warmer every year??"