The Messengers What Birds Tell Us about Threats from Climate Change and Solutions for Nature and People

About this book

Over time and across cultures, birds have sent us signals about the health of our environment. The canary in the coal mine offered that most precious resource, time – a small window in which humans could escape toxic gases. Miners no longer use songbirds as early warning systems, but birds are our closest connection to wildlife on the planet and they still tell us about the health of the places people and birds share. Never before has their message – climate change is here and a threat to the survival of birds and people – been as clear or as urgent.

This first ever global synthesis by the 119-nation BirdLife International Partnership draws on research from multiple disciplines and every continent. The findings are consistent across both: climate change attacks the natural systems that birds and people rely upon. This synthesis emphasizes solutions to both buy us more time and to build natural resilience for generations of people to come.

This report highlights the cost efficiency, importance and practical benefits of nature-based solutions that can be implemented now, everywhere. While birds and other wildlife tell us compelling stories about the impacts of climate change, only people can act as nature's negotiators. We can contribute to a set of solutions that humankind will need to employ if we are to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

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