A report from the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services estimates that about one million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction. A 2019 study from Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology estimated that we’ve lost about 3 billion wild birds in North America, leaving 29% fewer than in 1970. It isn’t because birds have stopped singing, but because there are fewer of them. In recent years, though, fewer chirps, tweets, and birdsong have been heard. Many of us associate the sound of a singing bird with the beauty of nature. Scientists use NASA data to track ecosystem changes and to develop tools for conserving life on land, in our ocean, and in freshwater ecosystems. “This is an extremely impactful study, spanning the globe and all vertebrate groups and insects,” Godley told CNN.Climate change plays an increasing role in the global decline of biodiversity-the variety of life on Earth. Using population data across a wide range of animal groups, including those where data is lacking, is a less robust measure than the IUCN’s Red List criteria “which look at the trends of species over much longer time frames,” he told CNN.īut Brendan Godley, a professor of conservation science at the University of Exeter who was not involved in the study, said the research offers novel insights into population trends. “While we agree with the sentiments and concerns about the declines in species that this paper expresses (as it is fundamentally an analysis of IUCN Red List data), we think that the results over-inflate the situation,” said Craig Hilton-Taylor, head of the IUCN Red List. One reason for that is that “animals in the tropics are more sensitive to rapid changes in their environmental temperatures,” Pincheira-Donoso said. Geographically, declines tend to be concentrated in the tropics, the report found. It was better news for fish and reptiles, with more species appearing to have stable, rather than declining, populations. Mammals, birds and insects are all seeing species declines, but amphibians have been particularly badly affected overall, the report found, and are facing a multitude of threats, including disease and climate change.
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