Listen to the birds: Climate change is real

Robert Nott’s article about the recent National Audubon Society report on bird species in peril is yet another reminder — if we needed one — that climate change is not only real, it is really happening, and on our watch (“Birds on the brink,” Oct. 17).

Coming on the heels of the September Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology report (science.sciencemag.org/ content/365/6459/1228) that documents a nearly 30 percent decline in the overall numbers of birds in North America, Audubon’s October report serves to emphasize that climate change is not some hypothetical scenario of the distant future. It is here and now.

People who feed the birds already have noticed and commented on the fact that they seem to see fewer birds at the feeders in Santa Fe. These recent scholarly reports lend credence to those impressions and suggest that the worst is yet to come.

While the Cornell report also blames habitat loss, shifting food webs and cats as causes of the overall decline, climate change is the big thing, and it is something we can do something about. Supporting the development of renewable energy; reducing our use of energy or thinking that our next car might be a plug-in or hybrid; planting native species of plants; reducing, reusing and recycling; even having fewer children; all these actions can help reduce the threat to the climate we depend on. And keeping cats indoors or confined outdoors can help the birds directly by removing the major human cause of bird mortality in North America.

We love birds because they bring nature close to us. Now birds are telling us something, and that something is that we must change. We have for too long blithely gone about our lives without much thought that there might be limits to our use of resources — even to the air we breath. It will take a major shift in our thinking and our lifestyles, but if we start now, we can do it.

In the early 1970s, we recognized the pollution threat to our air and water and reformed our laws to clean up our act. The air in most cities is no longer a threat to health, and many of our rivers and streams are safe for swimming. That was a major project, and we largely succeeded. But those were local problems, amenable to local solutions.

Climate change is global and will require the collective efforts of people all over the world. Nevertheless we have to start where we are and with the decisions that we make every day. The United States can be a leader in fighting climate change, but it all starts with you and me. Let your voices be heard and make sure you are heard at the ballot box.

I have a pin from the early 1970s, It shows the blue orb of Earth as seen from the Moon. The slogan, “Love it or leave it,” is as true today as it was 50 years ago.