[MCN] Are we saying bye-bye to the birds and the bees?

[Lance Olsen]

Science  19 Sep 2019:
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw1313

Decline of the North American avifauna
Kenneth V. Rosenberg1 <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/09/18/science.aaw1313#aff-1>,2 <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/09/18/science.aaw1313#aff-2>,* <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/09/18/science.aaw1313#corresp-1>, Adriaan M. Dokter1 <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/09/18/science.aaw1313#aff-1>, Peter J. Blancher3 <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/09/18/science.aaw1313#aff-3>, John R. Sauer4 <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/09/18/science.aaw1313#aff-4>, Adam C. Smith5 <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/09/18/science.aaw1313#aff-5>, Paul A. Smith3 <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/09/18/science.aaw1313#aff-3>, Jessica C. Stanton6 <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/09/18/science.aaw1313#aff-6>, Arvind Panjabi7 <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/09/18/science.aaw1313#aff-7>, Laura Helft1 <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/09/18/science.aaw1313#aff-1>, Michael Parr2 <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/09/18/science.aaw1313#aff-2>, Peter P. Marra† <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/09/18/science.aaw1313#fn-1>
Abstract
Species extinctions have defined the global biodiversity crisis, but extinction begins with loss in abundance of individuals that can result in compositional and functional changes of ecosystems. Using multiple and independent monitoring networks, we report population losses across much of the North American avifauna over 48 years, including once common species and from most biomes. Integration of range-wide population trajectories and size estimates indicates a net loss approaching 3 billion birds, or 29% of 1970 abundance. A continent-wide weather radar network also reveals a similarly steep decline in biomass passage of migrating birds over a recent 10-year period. This loss of bird abundance signals an urgent need to address threats to avert future avifaunal collapse and associated loss of ecosystem integrity, function and services.

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“I just want it to be clear that the mainstream environmental movement has been asking very little of people for decades,” said Bea Ruiz, also an organizer with the U.S. national [ Extinction Rebellion ] team. “There’s no element of, ‘We are in an emergency. We all need to do more than what we’re doing.”


Extinction Rebellion’s radical philosophy
July 22 2019
https://thinkprogress.org/the-radical-philosophy-of-extinction-rebellion-5857d3955b57/ <https://thinkprogress.org/the-radical-philosophy-of-extinction-rebellion-5857d3955b57/>
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A recent Ambio article by some heavyweights in climate sets out the situation well enough. 

A team including the likes of Will Steffen, Paul Crutzen, Veerabhadren Ramathan, Johan Rockstrom, Marten Scheffer and Hans Joachim Schellnhuber begin the abstract of their article by saying “Over the past century, the total material wealth of humanity has been enhanced …”  

They end it saying,“we risk driving the Earth System onto a trajectory toward more hostile states from which we cannot easily return.”

Their analysis is echoed across the scientists side of the situation. But it doesn’t take a scientist to get the drift of what’s going on. 

Liam Denning is former investment banker, former editor of one of the Wall Street Journal’s most closely read columns —Heard on the Street — and a former columnist for Financial Times. Writing about the merits of the Green New Deal for Bloomberg, Denning has come to the conclusion that, “We have built our standard of living on forms of energy that we now know pose a threat to our very existence,” and that, “this is a conversation that is long overdue — and necessarily begins with a shout, not a whisper.”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/14/heat-and-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it/ <https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/14/heat-and-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it/>



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