The news is bad. The news is good.
This summer from my vantage point on the Northern Coast of California, flocks of hundreds of California Brown Pelicans, larger than normal, flew South every evening and returned the next morning to feed on the sardines. This Pelican had been on the endangered species list, on the brink of extinction. Not anymore.
My mentor David Brower would stop and stare every time he saw a Brown Pelican in the early 2000s. He would halt the conversation, put down his martini, and just watch it until it flew out of view. They symbolized the period of natural restoration of his dreams. This summer there were more Pelicans than I could count.
A recent study published in Science projected that in the last 50 years we've lost 3 Billion birds on the North American continent. Estimates are that there are about 10 Billion birds total in North America, so the proportion is substantial.
Habitat loss, house cats and pesticides explain a fair amount of this decline, which has been particularly hard on grasslands birds like meadowlarks.
But even in this data there are signs of hope. Populations of raptors -- eagles, hawks, falcons, owls and vultures -- are up almost 200% during this same time.
This summer I saw a bald eagle in Bolinas for the first time ever; it was like a giant compared to the Cooper's hawks that normally visit that old cypress tree. Stopping the use of DDT and rat poisons, habitat protections, and a general improvement in most environmental factors have all played a part. The Endangered Species Act, under recent attack by the Trump Administration, deserves its share of credit as well.
What might you make of this mixed record? There has been an overall decline in the number of birds and an increase in some charismatic species. With climate change, we face altogether new levels of threat. What I am struck by is that some interventions by thoughtful humans and governments have had a positive effect, an effect I can see with my eyes, effects I can see in my lifetime. Inadequate as they may be, they are bright spots in a sometimes dreary terrain.
Hope springs from the sense of the possible. If we can bring back the Bald Eagle and the California Brown Pelican, what else can we do?
Vice President, Climate-Smart Agriculture @ Environmental Defense Fund
4 年Halting climate change is by far the single best thing we can do for birds. Audubon released its Birds and Climate (Survival by Degrees) report last fall and the results are clear - if we stay on our current trajectory and allow the planet to warm 3°C, nearly 3/4 of North American bird species are at risk of extinction. But, if we choose a different course and limit that morning to 1.5°C 2/3 of the species can be saved. There have been some great success stories over the past 50 years, Brown Pelicans, Ospreys, and Bald Eagles among them. Thank you for sharing this story.?
Ah, yes Adam, I was telling the story of David Brower and his pelican counting over martinis recently when I stopped north of Pismo Beach, CA to find about 1,000 brown pelicans roosting on the rocks and cliffs there. We have to remember that things can change for the better or we will give up trying.
Group Chief Risk Officer at AIA
4 年Hi Adam I’m with you...we saw the same with the manatee in Florida, among others. Nature can be resilient. And so can we. Miss you!
CEO, Chief Marketing Officer | Innovation &Entrepreneurial Strategist| Founder| Board Member I Global Business Growth Expert connecting fashion, technology and sustainability.
4 年Lovely piece and so important to keep this outlook in mind.