Posted by Jamie in Endangered Animals, Green Products & Services | 0 Comments
Quest for alternative energy endangering birds
A new government report reveals that the bird population will decrease at an alarming rate as Obama’s administration promotes homegrown energy sources – ethanol, wind and mountaintop coal mining.
The report states a four-decade decline in many of the country’s bird populations and supports its many causes, from the spread of exotic species to global warming to the encroachment of humanity in previously untouched areas.
The report concludes that the quest for energy development contributed negative effects to the birds of North America.
Scientists have found out that more than half of the monitored bird species have decreased in numbers. The researchers have also discovered that farmers who convert grasslands into cornfields pose a huge threat on birds like the Lesser Prairie Chicken.
Lesser Prairie Chickens (Tympanuchus Pallidicinctus), originally found in tall grass prairies, choose to thrive in undisturbed prairie. Their diet consists primarily of seeds and fruit but on summers, they also eat insects and green plants. They can tolerate agricultural land mixed with prairie. However, the more cultivated an area is, the less they are seen in that particular locale. These birds were once widespread all across oak savannas and prairies with tall grass.
In the Arctic, where endangered birds number to almost two-thirds of the total bird population, melting ice resulting from climate change could make way for more areas to gas and oil production. Studies prove that trash near drilling rigs draws attention to gulls that feed on other species.
In Appalachia, mountaintop coal mining destroys areas of forest. This contributes in the reduction of bird population such as the Cerulean warbler that breeds and lives in treetops.
Former President George W. Bush originally requested the U.S. State of Birds report released by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last October 2007. (The latter wants to establish renewable energy zones is a staunch supporter of offshore wind energy production.) It utilizes information from the three long-running bird censuses to establish trends over time. The report reveals that in Hawaii, birds are at a higher risk of becoming extinct than any region in the U.S. For the past 40 years, the number of birds living in deserts, prairies and the sea has declined 30-40%.
According to Salazar the report should “be a call to action, but it is action in our reach.”
While its findings are akin to previous studies, it is the first by the government and the agency responsible for managing energy production on lands and protection of wildlife.
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