By Ben Jealous
Ben Jealous
Where I grew up in California, on quiet mornings, you could hear the birds before anything else – finches, warblers, sparrows. They made the dawn feel like something alive.
Those songs filled the sky with beauty and made the world feel whole.
Now, those voices are going silent.
A new study published last week in Science brought stunning news. Three out of every four of the 500 North American bird species in the study are in decline. Seventy-five percent. It is a collapse happening in real time, in our backyards, in our forests, in our skies.
This is not a mystery. It is not a natural cycle. The reasons are clear – and they are all human-made.
We are destroying bird habitats across this continent. Wetlands, forests, grasslands – paved over or poisoned. We are using pesticides that kill off the insects birds depend on for food. We are building in places that block nesting and migration. And, of course, we are heating the planet in ways that are driving entire species to the edge.
This study is not just a report. It is a warning. And we should treat it as such.
Birds are essential workers in our natural systems. They pollinate plants. They eat pests. They spread seeds that help entire forests grow. When birds vanish, entire ecosystems unravel. The decline of birds is not a small crisis. It is a signal of something much bigger.
We are not just losing birds. We are losing balance. We are watching the Earth’s systems go out of rhythm. That is the extinction crisis.
Many people still do not realize we are living through a mass extinction – what scientists are calling the sixth in Earth’s history. But unlike the one that killed off the dinosaurs, this one is driven by us. Species are disappearing at a rate thousands of times faster than normal. We are making this planet unlivable for the creatures we share it with – and eventually, if we are not careful, for ourselves.
And yet, there is still hope.
We have done hard things before. We have solved problems that once seemed impossible. In the middle part of the last century, America’s greatest birds of prey were pushed to the edge of extinction. The bald eagle. The peregrine falcon. The osprey. All were being poisoned by DDT, a pesticide that was weakening their eggshells until whole generations were lost.
But in 1962, a scientist named Rachel Carson wrote a book called Silent Spring. She told the truth. She connected the dots. And people listened. The movement she sparked led to the banning of DDT.
It led to the creation of the EPA. And it helped bring our great raptors back from the brink.
Today, in places like Chicago, peregrine falcons are nesting on skyscrapers. In Maryland, where I live, bald eagles fly over the Chesapeake Bay again. That happened because people fought for it. That is the power of action guided by truth.
We also saw what the world could do when faced with the hole in the ozone layer – another man-made crisis. In the 1980s, scientists sounded the alarm. The world came together to ban the chemicals causing the damage. Now, the ozone layer is healing. We are seeing progress because we acted boldly and together.
We can do the same for birds – and for nature itself.
It starts with honesty. We must name what is happening: a man-made collapse of ecosystems. We must reject the lies coming from those who want to bury the science, downplay the damage, or pretend that nothing is wrong. We know the truth. And the birds – or the silence where they used to be – are telling it too.
Then we must act. We need to protect the land birds depend on – from forests to shorelines to native grasslands. We need to reduce pesticide use and restore pollinator-friendly habitats. We need to pass strong laws that defend biodiversity. And most of all, we need to stop burning the fossil fuels that are driving the climate crisis and accelerating species loss all around the world.
Birds are not the only canaries in this coal mine. When I was a boy in Pacific Grove, CA – known as Butterfly Town, USA – they came by the tens of thousands. These charismatic critters, each one lighter than a feather, were heavy enough in their great numbers to bend the tree limbs on which they would land. The same butterfly sanctuary that was home to that marvel this year counted fewer than 250 monarchs. From the monarchs to the meadowlarks, we are watching life itself vanish in plain sight.
Simply to go outside – to walk through a field, sit under a tree, hike through a park, or step into the ocean – reveals the deep truth that we are not separate from nature. We are part of it. What happens to the birds, happens to us.
And what history shows – from banning DDT to saving the ozone layer – is that we still have the power to change course when we choose to face the truth.
Let this study be our alarm. Instead of having to face the terrible question of how much time we have left, let us focus on what we do now: that the time to act is right now.
Ben Jealous is the Executive Director of the Sierra Club and a Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania.