Last column, I wrote about the co-incident and related global emergencies of pandemics, climate change, and biodiversity loss. A friend asked me to help her understand the relationship. I struggled a bit to provide a clear explanation. A couple days later, a good illustration almost literally flew in my face.
Many bird species live on our property. Woodpeckers and flickers nest near the telephone poles; California and spotted towhees hide in the shrubs. Oak titmice nest in the curves of our tile roof. Hooded orioles feast on our aloe blooms and chatter in the oaks. House finches and Anna’s Hummingbirds nest in the thorny branches of our bougainvillea.
Finches also like the grape vines growing on our patio trellis, but that’s not a happy alliance. Our daily activities disturb them. We don’t like cleaning up their droppings, especially when they’re stained grape-purple.
This year my husband decided not to cede the trellis to nesting activity. I was hesitant about the decision but firm that if he went ahead, he should remove nests before they contained eggs.
He ditched a half-built goldfinch nest. I guiltily hoped they found a good spot nearby. I didn’t think about it again until I woke to the soulful call of mourning doves. Sure enough, a pair have taken over the spot the finches had first claimed.
So, how does this bird story relate the three emergencies? Biodiversity may be the best entry point.
As I reported last column, North America supports three billion fewer birds than we did in 1970. As bird populations decline, the birds that survive in the greatest numbers are those which have evolved to live close to humans.
Biodiversity loss results in a concentration of birds whose survival specialty isn’t pollinating or pest control but gregariousness: they can handle living near humans.
Goldfinches are not an endangered species, but we did substitute a pair of very common doves for a pair of less-common finches. We caused a little rip in the biodiversity web.
This dovetails with pandemics because crows, doves and pigeons are being implicated in transmitting bird diseases to humans more readily than other wild bird species. Here we are, isolating from a pandemic and then clearing a space by our house for the next potential bird flu transmission.
According to the CDC, most birds which harbor diseases transmittable to humans are shorebirds like gulls and terns or waterfowl like ducks and geese. Adding crows and pigeons to this bad boy list would seem to increase the likelihood for pandemics, since they’re regulars in every neighborhood.
My example doesn’t necessarily link directly to climate change. Nevertheless, in Earthwatch projects on which I have worked around the world, climate change has been implicated in mispatches between insect hatchings and migrating birds’ arrival to feed.
Hotter climate has also resulted in drought-stressed forests which fall to beetles and other insect predators, reducing bird habitat for birds.
Climate change will continue to drive a loss in biodiversity, affecting particularly species that cannot adapt to the human-induced pace of change. Loss of habitat will continue to drive wild species into closer quarters with humans, increasing the potential for pandemics.
Pandemics in turn may divert our energy from the other emergencies of climate change and biodiversity.
In our first 200,000 years, homo sapiens’ actions made barely a blip on Earth. But as we’ve poked and prodded every surface, we’ve messed with the ecosystem and its self-correcting properties. Our actions are not without consequence. Now every bird is that canary in the coal mine.
— Karen Telleen-Lawton serves seniors and pre-seniors as the principal of Decisive Path Fee-Only Financial Advisory in Santa Barbara. You can reach her with your financial planning questions at <redacted>. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.
Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist
This article was published on June 1st, 2020 in Noozhawk – you can read it “in print” here.
Karen Telleen-Lawton is an eco-writer, sharing information and insights about economics and ecology, finances and the environment. Having recently retired from financial planning and advising, she spends more time exploring the outdoors — and reading and writing about it. The opinions expressed are her own.
KTL at CanyonVoices dot com
