PUFFINS ARE DYING OF STARVATION

The Atlantic puffin population is at risk in the United States, and there are signs the seabirds are in distress in other parts of the world.

In the Gulf of Maine, the comical-looking seabirds have been dying of starvation and losing body weight, possibly because of shifting fish populations as ocean temperatures rise, according to scientists.

The survival rates of fledglings on Maine’s two largest puffin colonies plunged last summer, and puffins are in declining health at the largest puffin colony in the Gulf, on a Canadian island about 10 miles off eastern Maine. Dozens of emaciated birds were found washed ashore in Massachusetts and Bermuda this past winter, likely victims of starvation.

One day, I hope to see puffins.  When I was in Scotland three years ago, we did not see the birds, as the timing was wrong, but I find puffins with their colorful bills fascinating, and I'm so sad that their habitat is affected by climate change.  A good many people in this country still believe that warnings about the detrimental effects of climate change caused by burning fossil fuels and chemicals dumped into the water and released into the air are conspiracies cooked up by bleeding-heart liberals, but there can be no doubt that the effects on the food chain in the sea, in streams and rivers, and on land, beginning with the tiniest of organisms and moving upward to affect larger animals and birds, is devastating.  The numbers of butterflies and bees are greatly reduced, mainly due to insecticides and destruction of habitats.  Polar bears are drowning, because of melting ice floes caused by warmer temperatures in Arctic waters, and as humans encroach on the the habitats of elephants, lions, and tigers and continue to hunt them down, their numbers have fallen greatly.  The creatures I mention off the top of my head in addition to the puffins, are only a very few of the many species under threat, the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, and the icebergs are melting at a rapid rate and will cause the sea waters to rise and eventually flood out coastal areas all over the world.

What will it take to convince the doubters that it may already be too late to reverse the detrimental effects?  I don't know, but we'd sure as hell better start trying.