As a child, spotting the first robin of the spring was a happy moment; we were taught it was a good moment to make a wish, just as you do when you see a shooting star. That wish today would be that the robins don't become extinct.
In the past couple of weeks I've had people back in Iowa telling me they've seen robins already this year, posting joyously on their Facebook walls that the red-breasted winged ones are back. This has always been a cause to exhale and acknowledge that another winter has been survived, that the worst of winter is generally behind.
Learning of the robins' premature arrival I thought of "silent screams" because in essence that is what it is.
The winged ones are telling us that things have changed--their behavior change is screaming a message few care to observe or listen to. Birds are one of the best studied groups of animals and the data on their changing patterns has accumulated in large numbers all around the globe.
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Is this the end of migration?
"Climate change is affecting bird behaviour at a staggering rate. Some 20 billion have already changed their flight plans"
"At a recent high-level congress attended by 200 migration experts, leading Spanish ornithologist Miguel Ferrer estimated that 20 billion birds have changed their migrating habits in the last few decades. The biggest single identifiable reason behind such a massive behavioural shift, involving 70 per cent of the world's migrating birds is – surprise, surprise – climate change.
"Long-distance migrators are travelling shorter distances, shorter-distance migrators are becoming sedentary," says Mr Ferrer, who works for Spain's Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) in the Doñana National Park, one of the key European "stopovers" in bird migration routes. "That has a knock-on effect on almost everything they do, from breeding habits to feeding habits to their genetic diversity, which in turn affects other organisms in their food chain. It's a huge behavioural change, forced on them by rising temperatures."
Birds & Climate Change: On the Move
Nearly 60% of the 305 relatively widely distributed bird species found in North America in winter are on the move, shifting their ranges northward by an average of 35 miles. Audubon scientists analyzed 40 years of citizen-science Christmas Bird Count data — and their findings provide new and powerful evidence that global warming is having a serious impact on natural systems. Northward movement was detected among species of every type, including more than 70 percent of highly adaptable forest and feeder birds.
...It is the complete picture of widespread movement and the failure of some species to move at all that illustrate the impacts of climate change on birds. They are sending us a powerful signal that we need to 1) take policy action to curb climate change and its impacts, and 2) help wildlife and ecosystems adapt to unavoidable habitat changes, even as we work to curb climate change itself.
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California's vast array of climates has enabled PRBO to research the long term effects on birds in the coming years due to climate change. The state was divided up into eco-regions.
Lack of water and salination of water due to sea level were among the most prominent factors. Thermal stress due to higher temperatures and lack of vegetation due to water shortage and higher temperatures was another common theme in each section of the state.
This PDFprovides a summary of predicted effect of climate change, especially for wildlife.
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Modeling Bird Distribution Responses to Climate Change
California's terrestrial ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to future changes in the global climate, including increased temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, and changes in human infrastructure and development.
Information on the potential effects of climate change on bird communities can help guide effective conservation and inform land management decisions.
We are using climate models and multi-source bird data, networked for the first time thanks to the Avian Knowledge Network, to predict current and future species distributions for California terrestrial breeding bird species. Currently, we have 60 species available for viewing. These California Partners in Flight (CalPIF) focal species represent 5 major habitat types found within California including riparian, oak woodland, scrub, conifer, and grassland habitat types.
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Other Climate Change News
Program to Curb 'Black Carbon' Pollution on Obama's Chopping Block
Elizabeth Mc Gowan
Environmental organizations weren't feeling any love on Valentine's Day when the White House announced that it would slash funding for retrofitting dirty diesel engines in the 2012 budget.
Now they're hopeful an enlightening report about the climatic benefits of curbing soot and ground-level ozone emissions will force President Obama to experience a change of heart.
Remarkably, slicing these pollutants on a worldwide basis by 2030 could halve the projected increase in global temperatures in the first half of the century, according to a report issued by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) this week.
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Inspector general backs NOAA in climate-change dispute
A review of e-mail exchanges between federal scientists and British academics embroiled in a politically charged dispute over climate change found no misconduct at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to a report just released by the Commerce Department's inspector general.
"We did not find any evidence that NOAA inappropriately manipulated data ... or failed to adhere to appropriate peer review procedures," wrote Inspector General Todd Zinser in a letter and report sent Feb. 18 to Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., who had requested the review.
In addition, the report "found no evidence to suggest that NOAA was noncompliant" with the 2001 Information Quality Act, or the 1999 Shelby Amendment requirements for Freedom of Information Act release of documents on scientific deliberations.
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New Zealand quake sends 30 million tons of ice loose from glacier
ENN News
The 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck New Zealand on Tuesday, killing at least 75 people in Christchurch, also shook loose 30 million tons of ice from the nation's longest glacier, sending boulders of ice into a nearby lake.
Tour boat operators in the area said parts of the Tasman Glacier calved into the Tasman Lake immediately after the quake, breaking into smaller icebergs and causing 3.5 meter-high (11-foot) waves.
"It was approximately 30 million tons of ice, it's just a massive, massive, massive scale," said Denis Callesen, the General Manager of Tourism at Aoraki Mount Cook Alpine Village.
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U.N. leader asks Hollywood for help in fight against global climate change
Ban Ki-moon, the normally buttoned-up Secretary General of the United Nations, swept into Los Angeles during Oscar week playing the role of Hollywood pitchman.
His message: Make global warming a hot issue.
"I need your support," he told entertainment industry insiders during a daylong forum Tuesday that focused on recent heat waves, floods, fires and drought, which scientists link to human-induced climate change.
"Animate these stories!" Ban pleaded. "Set them to music! Give them life! Together we can have a blockbuster impact on the world."
If the pitch sounds a tad desperate, it's not surprising. In recent years, public concern over climate change has plummeted in the polls, U.N. efforts to craft a new global climate treaty have been unsuccessful, and Congress has rejected federal legislation to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
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Reefs at Risk: Global Threats Require Global Action'
(Opening Keynote Address)
As delivered on Feb. 23 by Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D
.........Floating blissfully in this blue Mecca, I wished that its beauty and bounty were more broadly recognized. Those reefs are essential to the health, food security and economic well-being of Indonesians. Approximately 60% of Indonesians depend on seafood for their sole or primary source of protein. Fisheries there are also critical for trade and economic opportunity, including a burgeoning tourist industry.
Unfortunately, the beautiful, diverse coral reef ecosystems I saw in Indonesia are threatened, as are reefs globally. As noted in the new WRI report, approximately 75% of world’s coral reefs are currently threatened by a combination of local and global pressures.
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Medical Groups Warn Of Climate Change's Potential Impact on Health
Health Day News
Experts from leading U.S. medical groups gathered Thursday to warn of impending dangers to human health if greenhouse gas emissions continue unchecked, speeding climate change.
They believe the federal government, specifically the Environmental Protection Agency, does have the power to curtail such emissions, however.
"The science is unequivocal that global warming is occurring and human activity is the cause of it," Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association said during a press conference Thursday. "We believe the EPA has the potential to significantly reduce the public health burden of climate change and we are committed to protecting the agency's authority over the full breath of its work."
APHA and other groups worry that if Congress restricts the EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, health problems will rise.
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Climate change raises flood risk, researchers say
By Richard Black
Greenhouse gas emissions are making extreme rainfall events more common, scientists say - and in the UK, have increased the risk of flooding.
Two research groups present their findings in the journal Nature.
Using real-world data and computer models, one team says it has proven the link between greenhouse emissions and the observed increase in extreme rains in the Northern Hemisphere.
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Big Oil lobby announces it will start donating directly to candidates
By Pat Garofalo
he American Petroleum Institute (API), Big Oil's chief lobbying organization, will start directly backing political candidates in the second quarter of this year. API, whose membership includes oil giants like Exxon-Mobil and Chevron, already spends tens of millions of dollars every year on lobbying, advertisements, and Astroturf campaigns to support the the oil industry agenda. As the Center for American Progress's Dan Weiss wrote, API "wants to drill in fragile, sensitive places, keep government tax breaks, expand offshore drilling without reforms, and block global warming pollution reduction requirements."
"This is adding one more tool to our toolkit," Martin Durbin, API's executive vice president for government affairs, told Bloomberg News. "At the end of the day, our mission is trying to influence the policy debate." As Bloomberg pointed out, oil-supported political action committees like the Independent Petroleum Association of America overwhelmingly donate to Republican candidates.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, API spent $6.7 million on lobbying alone last year, after clearing $7 million in 2009. In 2010, API was the seventh most prolific spender in the oil and gas industry, following ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Exxon-Mobil, Shell, Koch Industries, and BP.
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