© may 2019
cotton, linen & silk, some hand-dyed with indigo; sea silk
24" x 25"
Migration is something that we humans don't really need to do any longer, but many species of birds must do so to survive the seasons, mate & rear young. While some birds' migration is relatively short, perhaps just a change in elevation, others, such as the North American Arctic tern fly 24,000 miles annually, which is equal to the Earth's circumference. During these terns' average lifespan of 25 years, they may fly 620,000 miles (more than three times the distance from the Earth to the moon). There are three stages in a migration pattern which heavily depend on climatic conditions: their breeding grounds, their non-breeding range, & their migratory routes. Climate change can disrupt any or all three of these stages. Birds that arrive at any of the locations of these stages only to find that the season has been delayed or accelerated may find nothing to eat & be forced to fly further without sustenance, be unable unable to feed their young or be unable to sustain themselves during the non-breeding stage. Migration already carries many risks & climate change serves to exacerbate these--increased starvation & predation when they have to use more energy to fly further in search of food--which will ultimately lead to population declines, especially for long-distance migrants such as the terns. These effects of climate change on migratory birds are already being seen by scientists who have been studying it. We don't need to put a canary in a coal mine to see that climate change is real, is happening & is dangerous, we only need to look to our skies.
cotton, linen & silk, some hand-dyed with indigo; sea silk
24" x 25"
Migration is something that we humans don't really need to do any longer, but many species of birds must do so to survive the seasons, mate & rear young. While some birds' migration is relatively short, perhaps just a change in elevation, others, such as the North American Arctic tern fly 24,000 miles annually, which is equal to the Earth's circumference. During these terns' average lifespan of 25 years, they may fly 620,000 miles (more than three times the distance from the Earth to the moon). There are three stages in a migration pattern which heavily depend on climatic conditions: their breeding grounds, their non-breeding range, & their migratory routes. Climate change can disrupt any or all three of these stages. Birds that arrive at any of the locations of these stages only to find that the season has been delayed or accelerated may find nothing to eat & be forced to fly further without sustenance, be unable unable to feed their young or be unable to sustain themselves during the non-breeding stage. Migration already carries many risks & climate change serves to exacerbate these--increased starvation & predation when they have to use more energy to fly further in search of food--which will ultimately lead to population declines, especially for long-distance migrants such as the terns. These effects of climate change on migratory birds are already being seen by scientists who have been studying it. We don't need to put a canary in a coal mine to see that climate change is real, is happening & is dangerous, we only need to look to our skies.
This work by lyn hart is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.