This story is part of Grist’s Coming to our Senses series, a weeklong exploration of how Climate change is reshaping the way we see, hear, smell, touch, and taste the world around us.
Jeff Wells was vice president of boreal conservation at Audubon Society when he first heard the call from the common loon in a pond near Mt. Vernon, Maine — about an hour and a half north of Portland — he thought he may have heard a ghoul. “I leaped out of bed and ran into my parents’ bedroom, like, ‘What is that?’” he told Grist, describing a melancholy wail that has made loons famous far beyond the birding community.
Even after years of summer vacations in Maine, at the southernmost reaches of the loon’s habitat, Wells hasn’t tired of their calls. He still calls out to his family to come to the patio and listen to their moody sounds as they echo across the pond. Climate change is also threatening loons like many other birds. Their nests could be at greater danger from rising temperatures in summer and warmer lakes.
As a result, loons’ songs are in danger of fading from many parts of the world.
The water is beckoned by a common loon. Audio by Lang Elliot/Music of Nature. Getty Images Similar consequences are playing out for iconic songbirds — and other vocal animal species — everywhere. A 2018 report by the Audubon Society states that over 300 North American bird species may lose half of their ranges as a result of climate change within the next 60 years. A widely-cited report published in 2019 showed that nearly 3 billion North American birds across every biome have disappeared since 1970 — a “staggering” loss driven not only by climate change but by suburban sprawl, toxic chemicals, and other stressors.
Among the bird species facing ongoing climate pressures are the whippoorwill of the Southern United States, whose “lonesome” call has been immortalized by country music star Hank Williams, as well as the seemingly ubiquitous black-capped chickadee, whose call involves simply repeating its own name: “chickadee-dee-dee!”
A chickadee making its distinctive call. Audio by Lang Elliot/Music of Nature. Getty Images There is growing evidence that a lower number of chirping individuals can cause the remaining individuals to sing quieter and less varied songs. The crashing population of the Australian regent honeyeater, for example, has caused “song culture” to break down, leaving remaining individuals to simply copy other species’ calls. Hawaiian honeycreepers’ songs have also become less complex as their numbers have plummeted.
The plight of insects, although less loved, is just as severe as that of their avian counterparts. Around 40% of all insect species are at risk of extinction in the world. Another third of these species are also at risk. Some species of crickets, for example, have been listed as “critically endangered” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, thanks to the combination of wildfires, industrial agriculture, and a precipitous decline in forest and wetland habitats. Warming weather can also cause metabolic disturbances in some insect species, such as the emergence of certain species earlier than expected, according to entomologists.
A grasshopper emits a buzzing sound. Audio by the National Park Service Getty Images These same environmental factors — plus a nasty, human-spread fungus that experts have called “the most destructive pathogen ever described by science” — have put one-third of amphibians at risk of extinction too, threatening to wipe many of iconic croaks, grunts, barks, and bellows off the face of the planet.
David George Haskell, a biologist and author of the book Sounds Wild and Broken, said he experiences the diminished soundscape as a “very thin, worn cloth,” comparing the richness of an untrammeled soundscape to the texture of thickly woven tapestry. “It’s a ground-up soundscape where thousands of species are finding their way within this whole,” he said. “It’s a lot more anarchic than the very controlled experience of listening to a band or an orchestra.”
More and more, researchers are documenting the fragility of the planet’s Natural soundscape; many say the changes to Earth’s acoustic fabric speak to just how much new, unpredictable climatic conditions are messing with the Earth’s natural balance. One 2019 paper published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution argues that climate-related changes to the nonliving world — higher ocean temperatures, more intense rainfall — may have cascading effects on the soundscape, since qualities of the air, earth, and water affect the propagation of sound.
A spadefoot toad croaks. Audio by the National Park Service Getty Images Compared to dire climate consequences such as extreme weather, famine, and human conflict, the degradation of our planet’s normal soundscape seems fairly minor. But many scientists and environmental advocates say that in that growing silence, we risk losing something unrecoverable — not only the melodies of nature and the symphony they create as a composite, but something that speaks to our awareness of the natural world around us.
Catriona Morrison, a senior research associate at the University of East Anglia in the U.K., said it’s as if musicians in nature’s orchestra were slowly exiting off of stage left. “It might not be noticeable to start with,” she said, “but eventually you end up at a point where you’ve got very few instruments or players left.”
In the 1960s, marine biologist-turned-journalist Rachel Carson published the book Silent Spring. In it, she implored readers to imagine a world made quieter by the “grim specter” of widely used pesticides like DDT, which when ingested by songbirds can cause eggshells to thin and break.
“On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins, catbirds, doves, jays, wrens, and scores of other bird voices,” she wrote, “there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh.”
Now considered an environmental classic, Carson’s book awakened a generation to the hazards of many industrial chemicals. DDT was banned. Congress passed the Clean Water Act (Clean Air Act), and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) over the next 20-years. These policies remain the backbone federal environmental law.
But the threat to the natural world hasn’t been averted — neither for the environment nor for the sounds of the natural world. DDT’s phaseout addressed just one of many threats to Earth’s sounds, and new dangers are emerging in every corner, from the malignant spread of plastics to human-made developments encroaching on animals’ habitats. Climate change in particular threatens to disrupt the planet’s soundscape by pushing a million species to extinction and shifting others to areas where they’ve never lived before.
Mixture of sounds from National Parks, including amphibians, insects, birds and insects. Photo and audio by the National Park Service National Park Service According to Wells, it’s not just those who simply like to listen to a lush field at twilight who will lose out as a result of these alarming trends. The deterioration of the planet’s soundscape is likely to have adverse impacts on human culture and people’s connections with the natural world. “Sometimes our bodies reach out to make those connections without even trying, and sound is one of the ways we do it,” he said.
Also, even those not actively listening to nature’s chorus are still hearing it. Individual sounds can have a special meaning. They can convey a sense of place, such as loon songs — which have been described as giving voice to “the wildness of the north” — or the chirping of cicadas, a staple of prairie life. Other sounds, such as the jingling chorus of spring peeper frogs — which are also threatened by climate change — herald the changing of the seasons, or good or bad luck.
Bernie Krause, one of the world’s leading bioacoustic engineers, has recorded more than 1,100 marine and terrestrial soundscapes over the course of decades-long career. Climate change has not affected any of these sounds, Krause claims. The loss of half of the world’s coral reefs since 1950, for example, has dramatically reduced habitat for grunting, gurgling, and croaking reef fishes. The destruction of one-third of the world’s tropical and temperate forests has quieted them, too. And “without these ambiences to lure us outside, to calm us and restore our flagging spirits,” he told Grist, “human culture becomes dystopic and pathological.”
A humpback wale floats in the water. Audio by NOAA Getty Images Simon Butler is an associate professor of Biology at the University of East Anglia. As a result of natural soundscapes’ “chronic decline,” he said, one of our key pathways for connecting to nature is in danger, not only making people less likely to care for the natural world but depriving them of the physical and mental health benefits that come from exposure to natural sounds.
These benefits have been well documented. These benefits are well-documented. For instance, one meta-analysis published last spring in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that exposures to sounds such as running water and chirping bugs were associated with significant improvements in key health indicators like blood pressure and cognitive abilities. The study’s lead author told Everyday Health that this is because “an environment that is filled with natural sounds feels safe and allows us to let our guard down.”
Unwanted noise, by contrast — like the blaring of a car alarm — makes people feel like they’re in danger, increasing people’s “stress and annoyance.” And for all the sounds the Earth is losing each year, there certainly are many new and more grating ones to take their place.
“Anthrophony” is a term that acoustic experts use to refer to sounds created by humans, such as revving car engines or heavy industry. Others might call this “noise pollution,” a nod to its unwanted nature. It’s ubiquitous in urban centers, driven by a nearly inescapable chorus of noisemakers like jackhammers, air conditioners, lawn mowers, airplanes, and — of course — cars. Experts believe the noise level is increasing.
Elevated anthrophony is most destructive to the ocean. The ocean has been experiencing an exponential rise in noise over the past 50 years due to rapid development of the coast, trawling for seafood, shipping, deep sea oil and gas exploration and other activities. Compounding the problem is the fact that warmer water temperatures — a product of climate change — increase the speed at which sound travels, making for an even noisier ocean. Some underwater noises are loud enough to cause fatal damage to whales’ lungs and digestive systems, while softer ones can foil the search for food and mates.
Glacier Bay, Alaska: A cruise ship passes through the area. Audio by the National Park Service Getty Images “Noise disrupts all sorts of ecological things happening in the ocean that we’re just starting to understand,” said Ben Halpern, a professor of marine ecology at the University of California Santa Barbara.
Racket can also be harmful to people and the most affected are those in the least fortunate communities. Low-income communities and communities with a high percentage of people of color are most affected by the sounds of industry, construction, roads, and other noises. Biologist and author Haskell called on policymakers to address this issue through city planning. “We have an opportunity,” he said, “to prioritize sensory awareness and giving everyone the opportunity to experience the songs of birds and the absence of obnoxious levels of noise.”
Today’s world looks — and sounds — quite different from the world in which Rachel Carson published the first edition of Silent Spring. The majority of Americans live in cities, with an average population density of 300 people per square kilometer. The sounds of nature have to compete with the noises from traffic, construction, industry, and other human activity. To the majority of Americans who now live at such a remove from the bucolic soundscapes described in Rachel Carson’s writings, does the fear of a “silent spring” still hold the same power for people as it once did?
Some worry that the answer is no, that quieter, less varied, and less beautiful sounds could hinder people’s connection to the natural world, preventing people from taking action to protect it.
To preserve the remaining soundscapes, there are many things that can be done. These include reducing shipping speeds in the open ocean and reversing decline of the boreal forest. Gordon Hempton, an acoustic ecologist, is working through his nonprofit — Quiet Parks International — to track noise levels and certify areas that are free from human noise pollution. He told Grist he hopes the certification will save quiet from the “road to extinction” by incentivizing policies to protect it, such as aligning flight paths over already-noisy roadways. But as a simple first step, he and others like Krause argue that people should open their ears to the symphony that — while now diminished — continues to set the backdrop for all of life’s activity.
The post How climate change is muting nature’s symphony first appeared on Raw News.
