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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 Phoenix666 on Monday September 23 2019, @12:54PM (2 children)
"Disappearance of meadows and prairies, expansion of farmlands" is a canard often repeated by misanthropes. The arable land in America was long since cultivated. There aren't people out there clearing forests now like they did in the 1800's. If anything, it's farmland that's shrinking as suburbs expand.
So clearing land is just not a factor. Pesticides may be responsible. Some research says they are, others differ. We have precedent that says changing our pesticides can affect wildlife, such as when we banned DDT and birds recovered.
There's a countervailing phenomenon that TFA didn't mention: wildlife is re-colonizing our cities. In Brooklyn there are robust colonies of monk parakeets. Peregrine falcons nest in Central Park. Bald eagles have begun nesting in Inwood Park at the tip of Manhattan. Coyotes have been seen in neighborhoods in the Bronx. Racoons have been raiding the trash in Sunset Park, in Brooklyn.
We have this idea that if there are humans, nothing else can survive, but the wildlife moving back into our cities, even our biggest, busiest, loudest cities, seem to be telling us something different. Perhaps species adapt to new pressures and learn to exploit new circumstances.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 23 2019, @02:56PM (1 child)
Wow, there is some seriously disturbed level of anti-environment bullshit. Housing and farms have been increasing steadily just about everywhere. You should probably put the keyboard down and find some other hobbies.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday September 24 2019, @01:44PM
You might have missed this phrase:
And Phoenix666 was right about farmland too. From this article [ufl.edu].
The author was later off by an order of magnitude due to bad math (0.7% decline, not a 7% decline), but it is still a decline.
Truth is an absolute defense against nonsensical claims of "anti-environment bullshit".
What I think is relevant is that farmland is probably more intensively exploited than it was a few decades ago. They've probably ended a number of feeding opportunities for birds over the years.