Recently I was invited to write a blog about the impact of climate change on birds by the main organiser of the Climate Change and Consciousness Conference that is being held at Findhorn in April 2019. That blog is now live, and I’m publishing it here as well, with the agreement of the conference team.
Over a hundred years ago, when coal mining in the UK was producing the fossil fuels that first drove the industrial revolution, canaries were used as early warning signals for danger. One of the hazards faced by miners then was the release of toxic gases, particularly carbon monoxide, and canaries were more sensitive to them than humans. The birds were kept in cages at the coal seam face, and if they showed symptoms of sickness the miners knew it was time to evacuate, before they too succumbed to poisoning.
There is a potent and poignant symbolism to that for us in the world today. The mining of coal was, and still is, one of the major contributors to human-caused global warming. While we collectively are finally waking up to the danger that climate change poses to us, birds are already being seriously impacted by the effects of our use of fossil fuels. A comprehensive report issued by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2013 found that between a quarter and half of all bird species in the world are highly vulnerable to climate change. In 2015, the US-based bird conservation organisation, the Audubon Society, released detailed studies that identified 314 species of birds –nearly half of all North American birds – as being severely threatened by global warming. In January 2017, an article in the Guardian newspaper entitled “The 10 species most at risk from climate change” featured three groups of birds on their list – Hawaiian honeycreepers, Baird’s sandpiper and the Adelie penguin.
These are very sobering reports that touch me, and I suspect many others, very deeply. Birds are integral and special parts of the inter-connected web of life on our planet. Amongst their many collective ecological attributes, they perform the longest migration of any species (the Arctic tern, which travels each year from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back again, experiencing near-perpetual summer as a result), and they include the only terrestrial species that overwinters in Antarctica (the emperor penguin). They also perform vital ecological functions such as the pollination of many plants and the dispersal of seeds.
In addition, birds are very important to us for what they symbolise. They are masters of two elements – earth and air – which represent matter and spirit respectively. Indeed, some birds, such as ducks and geese, are at home in three elements – earth, air and water. I’ve sometimes thought if I had the opportunity to live on Earth as another species I’d choose to be a duck, because of its ability to experience, and thrive in, those three different habitats!
The two defining and special features of birds (or at least most birds) are flight and song. Although many insects and some mammals such as bats are able to fly, it is birds that we most associate with the mastery of flight. Their soaring in the air has become symbolic of spirit and the upliftment and freedom we experience when we are each in tune with our innermost self and positive energy is flowing in our lives. The singing of birds represents self-expression and creativity, and is a source of inspiration to anyone who takes the time to listen to the dawn chorus or the song of a lark in flight. Because many birds appear to sing for the sheer joy of it, they represent the joyous feeling each of us experiences when our hearts are open and we express our individual passion and inspiration in words or deeds. Birds also represent some of the other positive qualities that people aspire to in life – the dove, for example, is a widely used symbol for peace. The inspiration for Eileen Caddy (one of the founders of the Findhorn Community, where I live) for the title of her autobiography, ‘Flight into Freedom’, was also derived from the symbolism of birds.
Each autumn and spring I marvel at, and am deeply touched by, the daily arrival of large numbers of pink-footed geese at Findhorn Bay, a few hundred metres from my house. They come in skeins, often several hundred strong, to stop over for the night during their twice-yearly migrations from north to south and back again. Their calling to each other as they fly, and their constantly changing aerial configurations that optimise the effects of slipstreaming with one another, are an ongoing source of joy and wonder for me.
In recent years I’ve been connecting more and more deeply with birds, not only because of their presence where I live and in the ecosystems I visit, but also, I believe, because they, like all life, are calling out for help at this time. During a recent visit to the Araucaria (monkey puzzle tree) forests of Chile, I had the experience of birds seemingly coming to meet me whenever I entered their habitat. On many days, when I walked into one of the forest areas, birds would either fly and land close to me, or call out from nearby, drawing my attention to their presence when I hadn’t seen them. It was as though they wanted to connect with me, to show themselves to me, as beautiful representatives of the diversity of life on our planet, so that I could be touched and then act to help protect them.
I’ve had similar experiences during my work with Trees for Life to help restore the Caledonian Forest in Scotland and wrote a blog about a remarkable encounter I had with a cormorant in Glen Affric one day. I spent almost two hours getting close to the bird, eventually watching it at eye level from less than 10 metres away, where it was perched on the branch of an aspen tree at the peak of its autumn colours. It was one of those magical meetings with another species that affirmed and strengthened my inner connection with Nature, and is a memorable gift that I will treasure for the rest of my life.
The potential loss of birds in our world therefore has serious spiritual consequences, both on a personal level for someone such as myself and for humanity as a whole. This is in addition to the severe ecological impacts that their disappearance would entail. Climate change is just the most visible and well-publicised of the devastating effects that humans are having on all other life on the planet.
Those effects, which range from massive soil degradation and tropical deforestation to overfishing and ubiquitous plastic pollution, are, like climate change, direct consequences of the all-encompassing illusion that our present day culture operates under – that we are separate from Nature, and that what we do does not affect the world around us.
It is the tacit acceptance of that illusion in all aspects of our culture that enables and empowers our destructive impacts to continue unchecked. By contrast, the vast majority of indigenous cultures, where people live in close relationship with Nature, have the interconnectedness of all life as central to their values and belief systems. The essential oneness of all life is also one of the core themes of the Deva messages that Dorothy Maclean received in her meditations in the early days of the Findhorn Community.
Whilst climate change is a serious and immediate challenge, it is not the most severe threat to the fabric of life on our planet. During the last million years or so, the Earth has gone through a number of alternating Ice Ages and warm interglacial periods – we are currently living through the latest interglacial. The vast majority of species and natural habitats in the world survived those climatic changes, which were more dramatic in their temperature swings than the one that humans are causing just now, and they would do so again, if it were not for the multiple other impacts we are having on them. It is us as humans who will be most dramatically affected by climate change, because, for example, many of our major cities are situated on coastlines and our intensive agricultural systems are highly sensitive to changes in rainfall patterns.
Climate change will undoubtedly adversely affect many species in addition to us, but much more serious impacts to the overall web of life are being caused by other human actions such as habitat loss, over-exploitation and pollution. Because they are relatively high up in the food web, birds are particularly susceptible to ecological disturbance and disruption. According to Birdlife International and the IUCN, 1,375 species of birds (about one eighth of the total) are threatened with extinction. That figure, and comparable data for other groups of organisms, has led scientists to conclude that the planet is now in the early stages of a sixth mass extinction event – a biological holocaust comparable in scale to the asteroid impact 65 million years ago that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and about 75% of all species on Earth.
This is the most serious of all the problems we are causing in the world today. Whereas the climate will almost certainly change again in future, perhaps becoming cooler in say 10,000 years when a new Ice Age develops, it would take something on the order of 5 million years for the planet’s biodiversity to recover from a mass extinction. That is the time estimated by scientists that it took for a comparable number of species to evolve again after the dinosaur mass extinction event.
Birds have already suffered greatly from human-caused extinctions. Of the 312 terrestrial vertebrate extinctions that are known to have occurred since the year 1500, 156 of those (ie 50%) are of birds. Two of the most notorious extinctions at human hands are of birds – the dodo and the passenger pigeon. The former, a large flightless bird, has become emblematic as a symbol of extinction, having been wiped out from its only home on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean by 1693, a few decades after the settlement of the island by Europeans.
The passenger pigeon was formerly the most numerous bird in North America, with vast flocks that darkened the skies when they migrated being common at the time of European arrival there. Its total numbers were estimated at between 3 and 5 billion individuals. Uncontrolled hunting and habitat destruction due to deforestation led to the species’ depletion, and the last individual, a female known as Martha, died in a zoo in Cincinnati in the USA in 1914.
Amongst the most endangered birds today are the Philippine eagle, the California condor, the kakapo (a flightless parrot endemic to New Zealand) and the giant ibis. All of those have very small populations and are literally hovering on the brink of oblivion. They are the modern day equivalent of the canaries in the coal mine, as they have the sad distinction of being on the front line of species at risk of disappearing from the planet. They are the visible tip of the iceberg of the impending mass extinction event.
While extinction is the ultimate, irreversible catastrophe to befall a species, birds are seriously imperilled in other ways as well. Another bird I regularly see in my local area is the fulmar – a sea bird that nests on the coastal sandstone cliffs a few miles to the east of Findhorn. Whenever I come across fulmars, I marvel at their ability to glide effortlessly along, just a few feet out from the cliff edge, and sometimes very close to where I’m standing and at the same eye level as me. Their grace and aerial agility are like an avian ballet dance that touches my heart.
I was therefore truly shocked in 2004 to read reports of studies that had been done on fulmars in the North Sea, off the east coast of Britain. Scientists found that 95% of the fulmars they examined had pieces of plastic in their stomachs. The dead birds they checked had an average of 44 pieces of plastic in them, and one bird had a total of 1,603 pieces. Fulmars are surface feeders, skimming the sea and catching fish as they do so, and are therefore particularly susceptible to eating plastic that is floating on the water. Now, whenever I see a fulmar, I take a deep breath and remember that in addition to being a beautiful bird, it is also an aerial receptacle of our plastic rubbish – it’s a very disconcerting and depressing realisation. It’s also a very graphic symbol of the fact that we do not live our human lives in isolation, but affect the world around us with all our actions.
It was in 1962 that Peter and Eileen Caddy and Dorothy Maclean established the Findhorn Community and its ongoing experiment in deep attunement and co-creation with Nature. The central themes of the messages that Dorothy received from the Devas in her meditations then – that all life on Earth is intimately connected and interdependent, and that human love has a profound, positive effect on whatever beings it is directed towards – are even more relevant today. They make a clear and strong statement about the importance of humanity re-awakening to our oneness with, and interdependence on, all other life on our planet.
1962 was also notable for the publication of Rachel Carson’s landmark book, ‘Silent Spring’, which drew the world’s attention to the effects of pesticides and herbicides on nature, and raised the spectre of a spring without the songs of birds. Like the early Findhorn experiences, the book drew attention to the interconnectedness of nature, and the fact that human actions affect the whole, often in unforeseen and unpredictable ways. It acted as a wake up call to the world and was one of the key catalysts for the birth of the modern day environmental movement.
Since then, positive action has been taken in some areas – for example, the use of DDT, which caused thinning of egg shells in brown pelicans and peregrine falcons in North America through bio-concentration in the food chain, was banned in many countries. However, despite that and other successes, the essential and necessary shift of human consciousness to one in which we base our culture on the reality of the oneness and interdependence of all life has still not taken place. The wake up call has not yet been heard by enough people, and as a result our mainstream culture is still sleepwalking towards the twin cliff edges of climate change, which will be a disaster for humanity, and the ecological meltdown of habitat loss and mass extinction that threatens all life on Earth.
In this respect then the imminent danger of climate change is itself functioning as a ‘canary in the coal mine’ that is alerting us all to the very real risks that our present day culture and lifestyles are posing to the future of life on our planet. It is the wake up call that can rouse us collectively into much needed action, based on the recognition that our lives are interwoven with, and dependent upon, all the other species we share the world with. This is the opportunity that the present crisis offers us. If we can rise to the challenge, we can create a new human culture that will allow our spirits, inspiration and actions to soar like an eagle and sing like a lark. Then we will truly be brothers and sisters with the birds, and can co-create together a positive future for all life on the planet.
I share your concerns for the environment, especially the need reinstate Scotland’s ancient forests in their original and more varied form, instead of the present forestry monoculture. However, I firmly believe that climate change is a scam. A scam that makes vast amounts of money for various big businesses, including that of a certain Mr Gore.
I would urge any fervent climate change believer to download the USHCN temperature data for the USA, and graph the original, unadjusted values. I have done so, and the sceptics’ claim that this data shows the mid-1930’s to be the hottest era in recent times, is indeed true.
That is by no means the end of the story, but it should be sufficient in itself to highlight the fact that we are not being told the complete truth. Or maybe, even any truth.
In science, deriving the result yourself from first principles is infinitely more satisfying, more enlightening, than anything which other people might tell you. If you don’t believe me, that is not a problem. I do not expect you to. I do hope you will check the facts for yourself, though. Then, perhaps, also inquire a little more deeply into other claims made by climate alarmists.
(Also posted on CCC19 blog)
DDT but now we are faced with even more chemicals that are killing in mass especially Ivermectin. When was the last time you saw a dung beetle? This kills 147 days after going through the cow or sheep. 80% of breeding wader food comes from dung related species and conservationists would rather point at crows and foxes for a reason for decline and not even mention silage!!
Hi Alan,
Great to read your blog and see wonderful photos. I share,of course, your assessment of the many threats to birds – I am a ‘bird man’ too! I would list them in this order of seriousness – and this from 48 years since I graduated in ecology, after visiting nearly all the global habitats and carefully observing trends in Europe….1) loss of habitat to agriculture or following agricultural intensification, or other economic uses – particularly forests, wetlands, coastal zones; 2) persecution and disturbance – of raptors especially, but also recreational uses especially alpine zones; 3) pollution and poisoning – in particular pesticides and loss of insects; 4) climate change.
I list climate change at the end. Firstly, it is a catch-all phrase, ambiguous in the extreme, as you point out, it has been a natural ‘risk’ to which birds as with any other lifeform have to be adapted – and the ‘anthropogenic’ component additional to that. In my own detailed and published work my assessment is that about 75% of the 1 degree shift since 1900 is natural – part of a long term cycle, with shorter cycles riding on top. I am far from alone in that estimate- indeed, careful reading of the IPCC reports shows that is in line with their assessed level of uncertainty in the science. This shift is a 1000 year peak to peak cycle. Go back to the last peak and white storks were nesting in Edinburgh! And the Vikings were raising cattle in Greenland. This cycle has been ramping down slowly since the Holocene era peak (of this current interglacial) about 8 cycles ago, when the lake village dwellers of the Somerset Levels ate pelicans for breakfast. For at least two of these cycles, the Arctic Ocean was free of summer sea-ice: there was no catastrophic meltdown and no known extinctions.
This long cycle is virtually ignored in western science – but not by the Russian Academy of Science, nor the Chinese Academy, both of which tried to persuade scientists at the IPCC until about 2004….when political changes in Russia and China (signing agreements to receive massive carbon credits) led both academies to stop issuing statements drawing attention to the cycles. Several smaller cycles operate on centennial and decadal scales – and at least five cycles peaked between 1980-2016. The last of which was ENSO (‘el Nino’) which has an amplitude of 0.6 degrees….and coming on top of the 1000 year peak, led to the ‘record’ warmth that the media insists is anthropogenic.
Don’t get me wrong – there IS a CO2 component, but at 25%, then all the ‘mitigation’ via emission controls, if successful say by 2050 to achieve 50% reduction, will deal with only 12.5% of the ‘driving force’. Thus, Nature will decide! And according to recent projections by both Russian and Chinese published papers…they expect a downward tilt, with serious consequences for food supplies. Don’t tell our friends in Greenpeace, but CO2 might just act to ameliorate the drop!!! There are two UK/US papers from top-labs that model precisely this, both published around 2013.
I follow the science closely and can send you references if you like.
Meanwhile, back in the UK…..we have lost how many breeding birds to climate change? I would say the red backed shrike was a candidate…but the decline began before the temperature change. We have gained – little egret, great white egret, cattle egret little bittern, golden oriole, bee-eater – and there are a dozen glossy ibis braving the winter snows of Ireland. For sure, as Europe has gotten warmer by 1 degree, some birds have contracted their range, others have expanded. On balance, Europe-wide, it looks about equal. But all of this pattern – from 1900 to the present day is not a guide to the future, because the cycle peak can last another 100 years or more, or, it can go down for half a century – which is what many scientists expect to happen. These natural cycles are a combination of changes to solar output (most likely UV light) and storage and release of heat by the oceans. The ability to predict and model these forces is only just beginning – the first ocean cycles paper was in 2008! It predicted no significant warming for the next 10-20 years, and thus far, subtracting ENSO, they are right.
The problem as I see it is that everyone concerned with the demise of bird populations is desperate for a simple, single message solution, and they turn a blind eye to the consequences of ‘mitigation’ (loss of forests to biofuels; invasion of remote areas for hydro-power and wind turbines).
I am currently on a project (eco-spiritual) in the Spanish Sierra Nevada….the last three decades have seen the place dry out and biodiversity has suffered overall – some desert species arriving, but mostly loss of abundance in others; however, right now, we have had deep cold and torrential rain – in line with what happened here throughout the last trough of the 1000 cycle……known as the Little Ice Age. It snowed in the Sahara last month!
Anyway – I ramble. Good to hear your thoughts. I would be very interested in the 2019 conference…..just like water, global ice stores ‘memory’…..maybe the Arctic leads the way in a meltdown of collective consciousness. Oh – yes, on one aspect of consciousness, very current – there is a massive gender bias in climate science…no cycles, and they can’t handle irregular periods…I wrote a paper on’t for the 2016 World Congress of Anthropology but not got round to publishing!
very best wishes
There is so much debate about ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming’ – is it actually happening or is it ‘fake news’ as some would claim? How quickly is it happening and what will be its implications? Is the trend a natural one or is it the result of the activities of man or a combination of both? Is there anything that we can do about it? Certainly all important questions worthy of our attention.
However, I wonder if we need to step back one level from that discussion and more importantly look at the greater and perhaps more fundamental question, as humans, of whether or not we are treating this planet and its environment with the respect that it deserves?
In a world where we see a ballooning population, ongoing environmental degradation, rampant consumerism and accelerating resource extraction, do we need to revamp the way that we see the Earth and its so-called “resources”? Do we need to re-assess our role in the natural world and fundamentally change the way we view the other species, both flora and fauna, that we co-exist with on this ‘special jewel in the universe’?
I feel we need to establish a more respectful and less self-centred attitude, as a solid baseline, in our relationship with the rest of the planet. Surely any further efforts or initiatives to mitigate or deal with the effects of ‘climate change’ can build on that and prove beneficial, not only for ourselves, but for all the species that inhabit this planet.
Indeed, that is a good take on the subject. Also, I do not feel that the actions of the climate change and renewables promoters are necessarily good for the planet, or for people.
They are big businesses, by and large motivated by the same greed that drives the fossil fuel industry to pollute.
Alan — Very eloquently expressed. I agree whole-heartedly with your views regarding a change of heart and a change of how we treat the natural world, of which we are an integral part.
While I certainly understand Judith’s frustrations (having experienced the same feelings myself at times), I also feel compelled to do whatever I can to reverse the systemic abuse of this beautiful planet and all of its inhabitants.
PS. good to see your blog again – missed reading it
Hi John,
Thanks for the feedback, both about this blog, and also about having missed reading it for the past few months. It’s good to know my writing and photos are appreciated!
I’ll be posting more regularly again now, and also including articles from my travels to places such as Chile.
With best wishes,
Alan
Nicely written.
I do not see us humans gathering together and stopping pollution and cleaning up our earth. While there are many of us who read Silent Spring and many of us who see the destruction, there aren’t enough of us who are willing to step up and clean up. Two years ago, I put out a call on social media, wrote to my Mayor, and asked my city to head out and clean up. I recieved some curious replies. No one showed up on the day. No one. I picked up some trash myself but in the end, my action made no difference.
On the website of Canada’s department of environment, I see the words mitigation and adaptation. It looks like that is Canada’s approach to anthropogenic climate destruction.
Hi Judith,
Many thanks for your feedback on this blog. In the past I’ve sometimes felt myself the sort of frustration you describe, and it can be easy to get dispirited and lose hope. However, I choose instead continue doing positive things myself, and to look for and support positive work elsewhere. There are in my experience a lot of very good people doing excellent work, but not necessarily getting any publicity for it. I’ve found in my own life that every action no matter how small or seemingly insignificant is nevertheless important and may well go on to inspire people I’m not even aware of. I’m sure that someone somewhere will have been inspired by your efforts, so please keep on doing good work – the planet needs me and you and everyone who’s aware of the problems to take positive action at this time. In my view the change starts with individuals like us; governments in many cases will be the last to change and I think its unrealistic to expect them to take the sort of pioneering leadership roles that are required – they’re too immersed in the present system to be able to do that.
With best wishes,
Alan
Wonderful, Alan! Beautifully written and gRaceful yet very exact in its descriptions and messages. Conscious action in sending love to the natural world and in how we live our lives in whatever ways we can. Suggestions & ideas? Thanks very much.
Many thanks for the feedback, Elizabeth!