Saying Goodbye To Our Birds

Why has there been a 30% reduction of North America’s bird population since the 1970s?

No one knows.  Of course, there are obvious suspects: loss of habitat, toxins that affect life span and/or fertility, climate change, and reductions in food supply, faster cars, more plate glass windows, the expanding population of house cats–even wind turbines, though that effect is small and extremely well studied.

Yet the point is that environmental issues like these are often complex, leading some people to rash and incorrect conclusions.  Perhaps, paralleling climate science, there are people who attribute this to the ineptitude or corrupt nature of the international community of ornithologists.

IMO, the real answer lies hidden, simply because the systems under investigation are so complicated and intertwined.  It is possible that there are objects of scientific inquiry that will never be understood due to the way the human mind evolved over the last 200,000 years.  For this reason, it’s perfectly possible that the true nature of human consciousness or the ultimate building blocks of the universe will forever remain mysteries.

But disappearing birds?  I doubt it.  Give them time.

In the meanwhile, let’s be more cognizant of what we’re doing to nature. The overwhelming probability is that the culprit is some combination of what we’re dumping into our environment.