Human Culture and Birds: A Case Study of Climate Change
Birds have been evolving for 160 million years, proliferating from a single ancestor to the 11,131 species that fill every corner of our planet today. Long-term drivers of this evolution have included pressure from predators, competitors and the environment. Compared to birds, Homo sapiens are evolutionarily young, but over the course of just the past 265 years, since the profligate use of fossil fuels sparked our Industrial Revolution, humans have changed the environment around us in profound ways. This talk will explore the ways that human culture, including our consumption of fossil fuels and land-use practices, have had grave consequences for birds. We will also discuss how, in this rapidly-changing landscape, each one of us can play a role in conserving our natural resources.
