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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.

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Laura Raedeke

EcoFaith Network NE MN Team
Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, MN

Northeastern Minnesota Synod

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NE-MN Synod ELCA with Saint Paul Area Synod Care of Creation

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