Study Shows North American Bird Population in Rapid Decline
BOLDUAN: All right, we've been able to reestablish with CNN's Clarissa Ward, who is in northern Syria not far from the Turkish border. Clarissa, you've seen firsthand what this Turkish military operation is doing. What have you seen and hearing there?</s>CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kate, we spent the day in a Syrian town right on the Turkish border and basically it's been getting hammered by Turkish artillery through much of the day. I should say they've been largely targeting what appear to be Kurdish fighting positions on the edge of town. We've been hearing a steady stream of artillery. There was a small group of protestors who gathered, who said they were going to walk right up to the Turkish border, showing they can't be cowed. However, Kurdish fighting forces came out and say, please not do that, leave immediately, it's not safe. Kurdish fighters also burning lots of tires. I don't know if you can see the images. Thick black smoke. They're trying to create some kind of a smokescreen. But simply put, Kate, this is not a fair fight. This is not an evenly matched fight. The Turkish military has seriously sophisticated weaponry. Kurdish forces here largely relying on guerrilla tactics. The question everyone is asking is, how long does this go on for, when and where does it end, and where, if possible, can civilians get to safety -- Kate?</s>BOLDUAN: It's a huge question. Nobody has that answer right now. It's all unfolding as we speak. Clarissa, thank you so much. Thank you so much for being there. As always, be safe. I want to turn to another crisis we're following. The global climate crisis impacting everything from the air to the sea. The latest startling example, more than half of all birds in North America, hundreds of species, could be facing extinction if things keep heading the way they're going. This is shouldn't just be setting off alarm bells just for bird lovers either. CNN senior climate correspondent, Bill Weir, has been digging into this. Watch this.</s>BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the Baltimore oriole to the golden eagle, from the songbirds in your backyard to America's rarest heron fishing in Tampa Bay, our fine- feathered friends are in deep trouble.</s>MARK RACHAL, SANCTUARY MANAGER, FLORIDA COASTAL ISLANDS SANCTUARIES, AUDUBON FLORIDA: At this site, there used to be 50 to 60 nesting piers. This was only about 15 years ago. And now, we're down to about five to eight piers.</s>WEIR: After a recent study found that the U.S. and Canada lost nearly three billion birds just since the 70s, Audubon scientists took the latest climate models and looked into the future of over 600 species.</s>WEIR (on camera): So this is not a development comes into a grassland and ruins the nesting grounds. This is that places on earth get too warm for these species, so they have to either move or go extinct.</s>BROOKE BATEMAN, SENIOR SCIENTIST CLIMATE, NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY: Exactly. So, it's a combination of changes in temperature, precipitation, and vegetation.</s>WEIR (voice-over): Brooke Bateman was the lead scientist and found that if humanity keeps warming the planet at the current rate, almost two-thirds of the North American birds they study could be driven to extinction. And as they try to survive, many species, like the common loon, will fly north and never come back.</s>BATEMAN: This is a bird that I just -- I went home, in my second grade, and I wrote a report about it. And to this day, it's been a special bird for me. Last year, I brought my 5-year-old daughter and we went and we sat on the lake and she got to hear the loon for the first time. And it's like magic -- you see it on her face. And its range is going to completely shift out of the U.S. in the future, with climate change. So you'll no longer be able to go to that same place and hear that bird call anymore.</s>WEIR: But more alarming than a loss of pretty songs and colors is what birds like the common robin are telling us about the speed of climate change.</s>BATEMAN: People usually think of robins as the sign of spring -- oh, the robins are back -- but robins are actually overwintering in a lot of places more frequently than they used to and not leaving at all.</s>WEIR (on camera): So it's a different kind of harbinger now.</s>BATEMAN: Yes.</s>WEIR: And if the robin is hanging out in December --</s>BATEMAN: Yes.</s>WEIR: -- something's wrong.</s>BATEMAN: Something's wrong. And that's the thing. Birds are indicators, birds tell us. They're the ones that are telling us what's going on in the environment.</s>WEIR: Yes.</s>BATEMAN: And so, we say, at Audubon, that birds tell us it's time to act.</s>WEIR (voice-over): And if humanity can act fast enough and somehow hit the carbon-cutting targets of the Paris accord, she says 75 percent of the most vulnerable species could survive.</s>WEIR (on camera): You have kids, do you?</s>RACHAL: I do, I have three young girls.</s>WEIR: Do you think these species will still be around when they're your age?</s>RACHAL: I do, I do.</s>WEIR: You do?</s>RACHAL: I think -- I think the habitat may be a little bit different but I'm hopeful.</s>WEIR (voice-over): Mark has been working at Tampa Bay for over a dozen years and has seen firsthand how even a casual love of birds can inspire positive action. Even the managers of that coal-fired power plant are Audubon supporters, he tells me. But while it was the canary that warned coal miners of invisible doom back in the day, these days it seems that birds of all shapes and sizes are being forced to do the same.</s>BOLDUAN: It's really amazing. Bill Weir here with me now. I'm struck, and it's almost naive to say, Bill, but to be reminded once again how interconnected everything is.</s>WEIR: Yes. And indigenous people around the world are still connected to the land in ways where they know these living, chirping barometers of air and water testers. If they start moving out en masse, you're probably going to have to follow. Every form of life is going to be affected by that. If you go to our story on CNN.com, it will link you to Audubon. They have a tool. You put in your zip code and it will tell you what birds in your backyard are at risk. It's amazing. A lot of the state birds will have to move out of the states that they're known for.</s>BOLDUAN: Unbelievable. Thank you shining a light on it, Bill. Thank you so much. And your story telling. I just love it.</s>WEIR: Thanks.</s>BOLDUAN: Thank you. Coming up for us, hours from now, Democratic candidates will be taking the stage at the CNN town hall on equality in America. Next, what to expect tonight and what the candidates are saying about how they would protect LGBTQ Americans.