A shocking number of birds are in trouble(arstechnica.com)
arstechnica.com
A shocking number of birds are in trouble
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/06/a-shocking-number-of-birds-are-in-trouble/
30 comments
Have you read about hedge ecosystems? Particularly in England where forest cover is low, hedges are habitat. I think a lot of exurbs in the US could learn from that.
On a side note, I share your philosophy. This year we have had deer and even a fox in the yard. Downside of it all though: ticks.
On a side note, I share your philosophy. This year we have had deer and even a fox in the yard. Downside of it all though: ticks.
I'm in the early stages of learning about them! We have a thicket with some hedges on the right side of our property that I don't touch much. There's wild blackberry and rose vines that grow around some of the naturally occurring hedges. I trim the vines back a bit to incentivize growth and so they don't take over the hedge, but they've been providing a nesting space for the bushtits that protects them from predators.
Second to that, our property is lined with previously unmaintained Golden Goddess bamboo (the clustering kind, not the invasive kind). I was originally going to remove it because frankly I'm not a fan of them, but I read an article about how bamboo provides much needed cover for birds that are migrating or traveling in general. I've started shaping the bamboo at about 8-9ft to incentivize lower tier growth and I regularly trim out dead shoots. This seems to have upped the number of birds who hang out in them when it's hot out, though I don't think they can nest in the bamboo. An added bonus is that dying bamboo fertilizes itself by dropping it's leaves at the base of the plant first, basically resulting in mulch.
I have ticks too, and they suck (pun intended). Beneficial nematodes right as spring turns will cut down their population immensely and does not result in harm to plants or wildlife. I've found they're incredibly hard to buy in stores, but easily available online. Beneficial nematodes will also chew through your mosquito population if you have those.
Second to that, our property is lined with previously unmaintained Golden Goddess bamboo (the clustering kind, not the invasive kind). I was originally going to remove it because frankly I'm not a fan of them, but I read an article about how bamboo provides much needed cover for birds that are migrating or traveling in general. I've started shaping the bamboo at about 8-9ft to incentivize lower tier growth and I regularly trim out dead shoots. This seems to have upped the number of birds who hang out in them when it's hot out, though I don't think they can nest in the bamboo. An added bonus is that dying bamboo fertilizes itself by dropping it's leaves at the base of the plant first, basically resulting in mulch.
I have ticks too, and they suck (pun intended). Beneficial nematodes right as spring turns will cut down their population immensely and does not result in harm to plants or wildlife. I've found they're incredibly hard to buy in stores, but easily available online. Beneficial nematodes will also chew through your mosquito population if you have those.
I'm not sure if your kind of bamboo works well but you might think about leaving stems for bees that nest in tubes.
https://www.honeybeesuite.com/upright-hollow-stems-are-bette... https://sites.tufts.edu/pollinators/2021/04/the-right-way-to...
https://www.honeybeesuite.com/upright-hollow-stems-are-bette... https://sites.tufts.edu/pollinators/2021/04/the-right-way-to...
Love to learn about the nematodes. I have been using peppermint oil and cinnamon for bugs, and tallow to deter deer. However, racoons have been stealing my tallow!
Now the tallow is in multi cheese clothes.
Now the tallow is in multi cheese clothes.
> what's being stated in this article can be undone if you make minor changes.
Sir, they are talking about extinctions! They are saying exactly that we are NOT coming back from this loss. But great story though otherwise.
Sir, they are talking about extinctions! They are saying exactly that we are NOT coming back from this loss. But great story though otherwise.
If a species is extinct it can come back. There's evidence to support this happening.
Largely, my message is to prevent future extinctions if possible, and that means people stop building their homes as if humans live in a vacuum.
Largely, my message is to prevent future extinctions if possible, and that means people stop building their homes as if humans live in a vacuum.
Thank you for sharing this, it warmed my heart this morning.
Nature has a long memory. Somehow, those endemic species find their way back!
One thing encouraging to me is how much more data we have available now through things like eBird and radar, at a scale that couldn’t even be imagined before. Hopefully this leads to continued insight and action where needed.
Birds can also be detected automatically by sound. The Merlin app is highly effective at recognizing bird calls. It's been a game changer for inexperienced birders.
iNaturalist also is an impressive app, all species not just birds.
"hope" is not a plan
This, along with the insect and amphibian apocalypses, require MUCH more attention.
While it gets less attention than climate change, and is intertwined with it (rapid habitat change, destruction, etc.), the real threat here is a collapse of the food web, which has far greater and faster consequences than climate change. Our species is entirely dependent on the planet's food web, and without it, our population drops to single-digit percentages really fast...
While it gets less attention than climate change, and is intertwined with it (rapid habitat change, destruction, etc.), the real threat here is a collapse of the food web, which has far greater and faster consequences than climate change. Our species is entirely dependent on the planet's food web, and without it, our population drops to single-digit percentages really fast...
It's a crime against humanity to give authorisation, licenses and whatnot to these giant agro industries that pour tons of pesticide per hectar and have been turing natural farms into monocrops.
Nobody ever asked me whether i was okay with that, but i get charged a tax if I want to grab a plastic bag for my groceries, which I find sensical, but the asymmetry between indvidual contribution to the environment demise and industrial practices is massive, so is the different treatment trader joe vs mega corp.
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Proof of point, top comment here is a feel good one about how small changes can "fix" this problem, reality is people need space and food, more people == less animals, we are just pretending its not true.
I remember reading about the number of birds killed by cats. It was a staggering numbers: “We estimate that free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.3–4.0 billion birds and 6.3–22.3 billion mammals annually.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2380
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2380
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Agriculture is the primary cause of deforestation and biodiversity loss, making it the biggest killer.
Animal agriculture, which accounts for 75% of agricultural activities, is particularly responsible for this devastation.
Our love for burgers and cheeses contributes significantly to the problem.
Animal agriculture, which accounts for 75% of agricultural activities, is particularly responsible for this devastation.
Our love for burgers and cheeses contributes significantly to the problem.
ACTUALLY it is not animal agriculture, but plant agriculture, which is responsible for this devastation among birds. It is the thousand-acre mono-crop soybeans and wheat and corn fields that destroy habitats and flood the world with pesticides, which kill the bugs that the birds feed on. Animals, on the other hand, tend to regenerate grasslands and restore wildlife habitats. If you really want to help fix the environment then you should consider not eating plant-based food.
Apologies, but you are mistaken.
> thousand-acre mono-crop soybeans and wheat and corn fields that destroy habitats and flood the world with pesticides
https://ourworldindata.org/soy
More than three-quarters (77%) of global soy is fed to livestock for meat and dairy production. Most of the rest is used for biofuels, industry or vegetable oils. Just 7% of soy is used directly for human food products such as tofu, soy milk, edamame beans, and tempeh.
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/06/23/most-of-...
Less than half of the world’s grain harvest is eaten by people ... nearly half of all grain is either burned as fuel or eaten by animals. The ... second-biggest crop, maize, was even less likely to end up on a plate: humans ate just 13% of global output
Feeding grain to animals does generate food for people indirectly, in the form of milk, meat and eggs. However, this process is highly wasteful. For every 100 calories of grain fed to a cow, just three emerge as beef.
> Animals, on the other hand, tend to regenerate grasslands and restore wildlife habitats
https://ourworldindata.org/biodiversity
https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammal-decline
Thankfully we have options to build a better future. If we can reduce agricultural land – and primarily land use for livestock – we can free up land for wild mammals to return.
> If you really want to help fix the environment then you should consider not eating plant-based food.
https://yourveganfallacyis.com/en/vegans-kill-animals-too
Crop fields do indeed disrupt the habitats of wild animals, and wild animals are also killed when harvesting plants. However, this point makes the case for a plant-based diet and not against it, since many more plants are required to produce a measure of animal flesh for food (often as high as 12:1) than are required to produce an equal measure of plants for food (which is obviously 1:1). Because of this, a plant-based diet causes less suffering and death than one that includes animals.
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/our-glob...
Our global food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss, with agriculture alone being the identified threat to 24,000 of the 28,000 (86%) species at risk of extinction. The global rate of species extinction today is higher than the average rate over the past 10 million years.
Firsty, global dietary patterns need to move towards more plant-heavy diets, mainly due to the disproportionate impact of animal agriculture on biodiversity, land use and the environment. Such a shift, coupled with the reduction of global food waste, would reduce demand and the pressure on the environment and land, benefit the health of populations around the world, and help reduce the risk of pandemics.
Secondly, more land needs to be protected and set aside for nature.
Thirdly, we need to farm in a more nature-friendly, biodiversity-supporting way, limiting the use of inputs and replacing monoculture with polyculture farming practices.
> thousand-acre mono-crop soybeans and wheat and corn fields that destroy habitats and flood the world with pesticides
https://ourworldindata.org/soy
More than three-quarters (77%) of global soy is fed to livestock for meat and dairy production. Most of the rest is used for biofuels, industry or vegetable oils. Just 7% of soy is used directly for human food products such as tofu, soy milk, edamame beans, and tempeh.
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/06/23/most-of-...
Less than half of the world’s grain harvest is eaten by people ... nearly half of all grain is either burned as fuel or eaten by animals. The ... second-biggest crop, maize, was even less likely to end up on a plate: humans ate just 13% of global output
Feeding grain to animals does generate food for people indirectly, in the form of milk, meat and eggs. However, this process is highly wasteful. For every 100 calories of grain fed to a cow, just three emerge as beef.
> Animals, on the other hand, tend to regenerate grasslands and restore wildlife habitats
https://ourworldindata.org/biodiversity
https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammal-decline
Thankfully we have options to build a better future. If we can reduce agricultural land – and primarily land use for livestock – we can free up land for wild mammals to return.
> If you really want to help fix the environment then you should consider not eating plant-based food.
https://yourveganfallacyis.com/en/vegans-kill-animals-too
Crop fields do indeed disrupt the habitats of wild animals, and wild animals are also killed when harvesting plants. However, this point makes the case for a plant-based diet and not against it, since many more plants are required to produce a measure of animal flesh for food (often as high as 12:1) than are required to produce an equal measure of plants for food (which is obviously 1:1). Because of this, a plant-based diet causes less suffering and death than one that includes animals.
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/our-glob...
Our global food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss, with agriculture alone being the identified threat to 24,000 of the 28,000 (86%) species at risk of extinction. The global rate of species extinction today is higher than the average rate over the past 10 million years.
Firsty, global dietary patterns need to move towards more plant-heavy diets, mainly due to the disproportionate impact of animal agriculture on biodiversity, land use and the environment. Such a shift, coupled with the reduction of global food waste, would reduce demand and the pressure on the environment and land, benefit the health of populations around the world, and help reduce the risk of pandemics.
Secondly, more land needs to be protected and set aside for nature.
Thirdly, we need to farm in a more nature-friendly, biodiversity-supporting way, limiting the use of inputs and replacing monoculture with polyculture farming practices.
It is not so clear cut https://youtu.be/sGG-A80Tl5g
Thank you for posting this!
Numerous scientific studies confirm this, but the meat/dairy industry spreads propaganda and misinformation to protect itself.
The meat industry is borrowing tactics from Big Oil to obfuscate the truth about climate change
https://www.salon.com/2022/11/11/the-meat-industry-is-borrow...
Inside big beef’s climate messaging machine: confuse, defend and downplay
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/03/beef-ind...
The Big Beef With the Meat Industry’s Advertising Tactics
https://medium.com/@jodi_64782/the-big-beef-with-the-meat-in...
Revealed: group shaping US nutrition receives millions from big food industry
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/dec/09/academy-nutr...
Why Right-Wingers Are So Afraid of Men Eating Vegetables
https://newrepublic.com/article/171781/meat-culture-war-cric...
How BIG MEAT and DAIRY Fooled You (With Lies and Propaganda)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8xWvJMSFsI
Rapid global phaseout of animal agriculture has the potential to stabilize greenhouse gas levels for 30 years and offset 68 percent of CO2 emissions this century
https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal...
Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding...
If the world adopted a plant-based diet we would reduce global agricultural land use from 4 to 1 billion hectares
https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets
Plant-Based Lifestyles Now ‘Imperative’ For Survival, IPCC Climate Expert Says
https://plantbasednews.org/news/plant-based-lifestyles-imper...
The meat industry is borrowing tactics from Big Oil to obfuscate the truth about climate change
https://www.salon.com/2022/11/11/the-meat-industry-is-borrow...
Inside big beef’s climate messaging machine: confuse, defend and downplay
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/03/beef-ind...
The Big Beef With the Meat Industry’s Advertising Tactics
https://medium.com/@jodi_64782/the-big-beef-with-the-meat-in...
Revealed: group shaping US nutrition receives millions from big food industry
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/dec/09/academy-nutr...
Why Right-Wingers Are So Afraid of Men Eating Vegetables
https://newrepublic.com/article/171781/meat-culture-war-cric...
How BIG MEAT and DAIRY Fooled You (With Lies and Propaganda)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8xWvJMSFsI
Rapid global phaseout of animal agriculture has the potential to stabilize greenhouse gas levels for 30 years and offset 68 percent of CO2 emissions this century
https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal...
Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding...
If the world adopted a plant-based diet we would reduce global agricultural land use from 4 to 1 billion hectares
https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets
Plant-Based Lifestyles Now ‘Imperative’ For Survival, IPCC Climate Expert Says
https://plantbasednews.org/news/plant-based-lifestyles-imper...
Are you a vegan?
Unreasonable question. If they answer yes, that allows you to respond they're just biased. If they answer no, that gives you an opening to say they're a hypocrite for laying out an argument and ignoring the implications when doing so would affect them personally.
Either way, they're making an argument on the subject matter, and you're trying to make it about them. That makes me think you're not actually interested in discussing the subject matter.
Either way, they're making an argument on the subject matter, and you're trying to make it about them. That makes me think you're not actually interested in discussing the subject matter.
Indeed, I am not interested in getting into a discussion with a vegan.
When I moved to Oregon I moved just North of a 600+ acre nature reserve. My property has numerous 40+ ft tall trees and plenty 10-20+ ft trees. The closest body of water is a large river and few people have ponds in my neighborhood. One of the goals I had was keeping plants that are favorable to the soil first and local ecology second (come to find out there's not much of a difference there). Much of the gardens pre-existed my presence here, so I expanded them with geraniums. I started composting and fertilizing the soil. I controlled for weeds using aggressive, non-invasive ground cover that include pollinator friendly blooms and cover.
I figured, if you build it they will come, and they very well did. The bird population around my neighborhood boomed this spring. There are two feeding frenzies I've observed at morning and in the afternoon. Birds will line the trees and some of my hanging steel lines used for lights. I was able to verify every single bird species was represented at least once in our backyard within a one week time period.
Then, the ecosystem of my neighborhood started to whiplash. Rats boomed as they fed on the habits of bushtits and finches throwing seed on the ground and easy access to feeders. I modified the feeders so that rats could not shimmy up them. Eastern Grey Squirrels were already present in my back yard, which are invasive, and more showed up. I started to build some traps to be able to move them. Then, one of the birds I wasn't tracking showed up. Two hawks made a nest and began policing the boom in rats, local cats minorly brought down the bird population. The Eastern Grey's were wiped out by something and native squirrels nested the tree closest to my house. My hypothesis is that they were chased out by some larger Robins; the native species of squirrels we have are much more shy and less predatory to birds than Eastern Grey's. It was a stunning series of events that occurred over about a two week period. Things have normalized and settled down quite a bit but I was truly astonished how minor changes and thoughtful additions could impact the small, medium, and bird of prey populations in such a small locality.
Next I plan on adding a bat house or two to build up the local bat population to police bugs in my yard and I'm planning a water feature in the form of a small solar powered fountain. What I've learned, or rather had reinforced, is that by making a place that is friendly to these creatures I achieved my soil health goal. The increased soil health brought in big worms, the birds aerated my lawn for me, my ground cover and grass took off as a result, and now much of the ecosystem does the work of maintaining plant and soil health for me.
Point being, what's being stated in this article can be undone if you make minor changes that make it more safe and happy for birds, even in a city. That and making a place for birds also has knock on effects for soil, bugs, and plants. They have a huge role in our ecosystem.