These Birds In NC Vulnerable To Climate Change: Audubon

NORTH CAROLINA — Following a study that showed the staggering number of birds already lost in North America, a new report says two-thirds of American birds, including species that make their home in North Carolina, are at threat of extinction unless something is done to address climate change.

The report from the National Audubon Society studied more than 600 bird species and determined how vulnerable they are from the warming of the planet. Of the 604 bird species the society studied, 64 percent, or 389 bird species, were either moderately or highly vulnerable to climate change if the planet warms at its current pace (a global temperature rise of 3 degrees celsius by 2100).

Hope remains for a majority of birds if policies and efforts are put into place to ensure that global temperatures don’t rise more than 1.5 degrees celsius, the report says. If that goal is accomplished, 76 percent of the birds at threat become less vulnerable and 38 percent of the species will no longer be vulnerable.

“Our findings in this report are the fifth alarm in a five-alarm fire,” David O’Neill, the society’s chief conservation officer, wrote in the report. “Still, there is reason for hope if we act now.”

The losses were more stark during the breeding season for birds. Audubon projects some locations may lose up to 106 bird species under current warming trends during the breeding season, including a “pronounced loss” in the northern parts of the Midwest and the Northeast.

At least 50 birds vulnerable to climate change were also high on lists for conservation. Of those, 16 were birds Audubon considers a priority in conservation efforts, including the wood thrush, the piping plover and the baird’s sparrow.

Audubon also explored the impact rising temperatures will have on birds locally. In North Carolina, 28 species were highly vulnerable and 35 species were moderately vulnerable to climate change. Some of the highly vulnerable species include the red-headed woodpecker, the brown-headed nuthatch and scarlet Tanager.

“A lot of people paid attention to last month’s report that North America has lost nearly a third of its birds. This new data pivots forward and imagines an even more frightening future,” David Yarnold, CEO and president of the Audubon Society, said in a statement.

The society provided the following five steps citizens can take to reduce the effects of climate change:

1. Reduce your use of energy at home and ask your elected officials to support energy-saving policies that reduce the overall demand for electricity and that save consumers money.
2. Ask your elected officials to expand consumer-driven clean energy development that grows jobs in your community – like solar or wind power.
3. Reduce the amount of carbon pollution released into the atmosphere. In order to drive down carbon emissions, we will need innovative economy-wide solutions that address every sector of the economy – like a fee on carbon. Another option is to address carbon emissions one sector at a time like setting a clean energy standard for electricity generation.
4. Advocate for natural solutions, from increasing wetlands along coasts and rivers that absorb soaking rains to protecting forests and grasslands that are homes to birds and serve as carbon storage banks, and putting native plants everywhere to help birds adapt to climate change.
5. Ask elected leaders to be climate and conservation champions.

Read the full report from Audubon.