VISIONS

A “Silent Spring” Draws Closer

The disappearance of many common birds from our everyday lives bodes ill for the future of the global environment.

By Cynthia G. Wagner

Populations of many familiar birds are experiencing dramatic declines around the world, reports BirdLife International. In its latest State of the World’s Birds report, the organization looks with alarm at the trend not just for the loss of birds, but also for what this loss indicates about biodiversity.

With some 10,000 species, birds are a “building block” of biodiversity and are found everywhere in the world. Individual species may occupy very small ranges, restricted to very narrow conditions, so environmental changes have immediate effects. Even migrating birds offer clues to climate change, as their migratory patterns shift. Birds’ health and well-being are thus critical indicators of environmental conditions, according to BirdLife International.

While species declines have been occurring for centuries, an alarming recent trend is the loss of large populations in more temperate zones. In the past four decades, the numbers of 20 common birds of North America have been cut in half. And in Europe, 45% of common birds are in decline, including the European Turtle-dove, which has lost 62% of its population in the last 25 years.

BirdLife International holds humans directly responsible for the plight of birds: “Expanding and intensifying agriculture and forestry destroy and degrade habitats,” the organization states. “Inadequately managed fisheries, ever-spreading infrastructure, invasive alien species, pollution and overexploitation all pose serious problems. Climate change, with impacts already visible, may be the most serious threat of all. These threats have deeper causes, rooted in our failure to accord wild nature its true value.”

Humans can also work to solve the problem, and in fact governments all over the world have committed to slowing or halting biodiversity loss by 2010. But, says the organization, “reluctance to commit what are often trivial sums in terms of national budgets means that this target is almost certain to be missed.”

Taking the step from commitment to action will require that conservationists make a stronger connection between biodiversity preservation and the livelihoods and well-being of the world’s peoples, the report concludes.

About the Author

Cynthia G. Wagner is managing editor of THE FUTURIST.

For more information, contact: BirdLife International, Wellbrook Court, Girton Road, Cambridge CB3 0NA, United Kingdom. Web site www.birdlife.org.