How are the birds being affected?
It’s common knowledge that birds have the same cycle every year. A couple of examples are the cardinals and sparrows. Every spring these birds go and make nests to raise their young. But with the recent rise in temperature, this is being disrupted and the bird population is slowly declining as a result.
There was a study published by the journal Science. In the study, there were 150,000 nesting attempts that were recorded. These attempts were from 1998 to 2020. The records show that as the temperature increased in the nesting season; impacting the reproduction of 50 bird species. But the one species of bird that was mainly affected was the songbirds.
Reasons Why
Bird that nest in agricultural areas, that have little to no shade, have a 46 percent chance of a nestling being dropped as the temperatures are high. As time goes on, the concerns only rise. Currently, the world is experiencing a very large decline in bird population. Additionally, since the 1970s in North America, the bird population has dipped by about three billion. Also, some birds are just disappearing slowly, like sparrows, swallows, warblers, and finches. Most kids at this time won’t know what birds these are, which goes to show how big of a problem this is.
Climate change isn’t the only factor that is contributing to this trend. Moreover, two things that are adding to this problem are habitat loss and pesticide pollution. But Climate change is one of the biggest reasons as very high heat prevents the young bird from growing up. Following that, the reason heat is stopping the nestling from reaching maturity is because the baby can’t regulate their body temperature and is dependent on the mother bird to give them food, and the scorching temperature makes food gathering even more difficult.
More problems made by rising temperature
But the bird situation isn’t the only problem that has occurred. Furthermore, as the hot weather increases, high exposure to it can cause heat strokes or dehydration and that’s just the beginning of the risks. Some more risk that occurs are respiratory or cerebrovascular diseases.
Those who will be affected the most
But the main people who will feel the heat are the ones who are located on the northern latitude. These people are less prepared to deal with the scorching heat. As we know, only some of the population will be able to deal with the increase in heat such as people in Dallol, Ethiopia, which is considered the hottest city in the world. But the ones who will be affected the most are the people who are outside the most, such as athletes and construction workers. Furthermore, homeless people will go through the heat the most, and more people are on the streets in Chicago and many other states due to asylum seekers that are coming more inward of the U.S. from Texas. Additionally, the number of heat-related deaths will increase as a result.
And that’s all just one of many more problems that climate change has caused. Another one is air quality. The rise in temperature will cause the air quality to worsen. If the air quality becomes worse, that can lead to more asthma attacks or even more breathing problems. This rise in temperature is not something that the masses should take lightly, but a major growing problem that should be brought to attention.
By Samuel Cruz
Sources:
NBC NEWS: As temperatures rise, songbirds struggle to keep young healthy, researchers find
BBC: Climate change is disrupting the birds and the bees
EPA: Climate Change Impacts
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of llee_wu Flickr Page–Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Carl Graph Flickr Page–Creative Commons License
