Reversing Biodiversity Collapse and Slowing Climate Change: In Saving the Earth, We
Save Ourselves
1. Last year alone, the 20 largest climate-fueled disasters in the U.S. caused $145 billion in
damage, and the loss of 688 lives. Countless numbers of other living creatures, including birds
and pollinators, were also destroyed, along with their habitats. Biodiversity loss is one of the top
threats to humanity in the next 10 years, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Risks
Report 2023, which reports that more than a million species could be faced with
extinction. These are species we depend on for crucial services, such as pollinating crops,
fighting the spread of disease or helping clean our water, says The Nature Conservancy, which
urges policies that conserve the full diversity of life on Earth, across land, ocean and freshwater
ecosystems all while working together with Indigenous peoples and local communities to respect
and include their needs and traditions. Recognizing the urgency of halting and reversing
biodiversity loss, 190 countries at the U.N. Biodiversity Conference in Montreal late last year
adopted a framework to protect 30% of lands, oceans and waters. 40 nations, which
collectively represent over 30% of global GDP and a quarter of global landmass, have signed on
to the 10-Point Plan for financing biodiversity in an effort to confront the interrelated
biodiversity and climate crises.
2. Between 1970 and 2014, the global wildlife population shrank by 60 percent, while global
CO2 concentrations climbed above 400 parts per million, and are still climbing. Yet nature
itself presents our best hope of reversing these trends: through 1) forest restoration, which
supports natural carbon sequestration, protects people and wildlife from catastrophic wildfires
and nurtures watersheds that sustain people, wildlife and waterways; 2) healthy grasslands and
prairies that prevent erosion, absorb carbon, filter water and support crucial species, such as
monarch butterflies. The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has worked for years to show
how conserving and restoring these native ecosystems can safeguard critical drinking-water
supplies, remove carbon from the atmosphere and help communities withstand the effects of
climate change. Success won't come solely through politics, science, or technology, but will
require a far larger public constituency with a greater emotional and spiritual
understanding of the interdependence of all species. When we help to save the Earth, we also
help to save ourselves.
3. According to the North American Bird Conservation Initiative, birds are in crisis: The U.S.
and Canada have lost 3 billion breeding birds since 1970, with seventy species at a tipping
point for going extinct. Bird populations have declined in nearly all landscapes, victims of
habitat loss, invasive species, climate change and disease, according to The Nature
Conservancy. As climate change shifts growing seasons, many birds are unable to match their
migrations with the availability of food and habitat for nesting. An Audubon report on birds and
climate, a comprehensive study that analyzed decades of data, showed that more than half of
North America's birds are shifting their ranges to meet their needs. It is unknown whether their
needs will be met, but there are things we can do to help birds in our yards and parks: 1) reduce
threats presented by outdoor cats, pesticides and windows; 2) help cut carbon emissions by
making smart decisions about how we live and travel, and by advocating for renewable energyand regenerative agriculture; 3) restore bird habitat, which can mean planting trees or creating native grass and wildflowers, and wetland areas for grassland birds.
4. Researchers at Cornell University's ornithology lab tell us that birds are "an early warning of
environmental changes that can also affect us," and warn that even in the 50 years since the
adoption of The Endangered Species Act, our North American total bird population has
plummeted by one-third, with grassland birds particularly threatened by intensive farming,
urbanization, shifting climate and habitat loss, and the rapid spread of trees and shrubs
once held at bay by periodic fires. In their new book, "A Wing and a Prayer: A Race to
Save Our Vanishing Birds," journalists Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal write that the U.S. has
twice as many people and billions fewer birds than in 1953, when ornithologist and educator
Roger Tory Peterson wrote his book "Wild America" after a 100-day trip around the U.S. The
authors urge us to install bird feeders and nesting boxes, buy bird-friendly coffee, control cats,
take children birding and voice your support for conservation efforts at both the local and
national levels. They write of the thousands of people across the country volunteering to work
on conservation efforts toward restoring grasslands, wetlands and ranch lands. At the same time,
researchers at the Smithsonian's Migratory Bird Center are using radio telemetry receivers to
track birds across the Great Plains from Canada to Mexico's Chihuahuan desert, while biologists
are working with farmers and ranchers to implement practices that lessen the toll of intensive
farming - eliminating hedgerows and buffers, fewer crop types and more pesticides - in
order to foster survival of both livelihoods and native birds. The future of birds - and of
ourselves - is up to us to care and to act.

Laura Raedeke
EcoFaith Network NE MN Team
Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, MN
Northeastern Minnesota Synod