Birds, Wildlife, and the Hidden Cost of U.S. Population Growth

Between 1970 and 2020, North America lost 2.9 billion birds. The continent’s bird population dropped from roughly ten billion to seven billion a decline of nearly 30 percent in five decades. According to the research referenced by Colcom Foundation, that loss is closely tied to the expansion of human land use driven by population growth.

The pattern is not limited to birds. Wild vertebrate animal populations broadly have declined by approximately half during the same period that the global human population doubled. The biomass of wild land animals today accounts for just one percent of all terrestrial vertebrate weight. Humans account for 32 percent, and livestock for the remaining 67 percent. That ratio stands in sharp contrast to ten thousand years ago, when wild animals made up 99 percent and humans just one percent.

Habitat Loss by the Numbers

Land use data underpins these wildlife trends. By 2020, the United States had paved or built over an area equivalent to Montana, West Virginia, and South Carolina combined. Agricultural activities consumed 52 percent of the U.S. land base. Only 13 percent of American land was protected in any meaningful way.

The Endangered Species Act currently lists approximately 1,300 species as threatened or endangered. In 2021, 23 species were proposed for removal from that list not because they had recovered, but because they had gone extinct. North American wildlife populations broadly declined 20 percent between 1970 and 2020.

The Population Connection

Colcom Foundation connects these wildlife and habitat trends directly to the trajectory of U.S. population growth. The country grew from 205 million people in 1970 to 332 million by 2021, a 62 percent increase. Each addition to that total brings demand for housing, food production, transportation infrastructure, and energy all of which consume land that was once available to wildlife. Colcom Foundation supports several special programs, including the Conservation Catalyst Fund, which grants conservation organizations working to protect threatened species and habitats. By offering financial support and resources, this foundation allows these groups to make significant strides in conservation efforts.

The foundation’s position is that conservation efforts, however well funded, face a structurally difficult task when the human footprint on the landscape continues to expand. Addressing wildlife loss requires taking population size seriously as an environmental variable, not just per capita consumption. Visit this page for more information.

 

More about Colcom Foundation on https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/colcom-foundation,311479839/