Warming could mean bye-bye for some birds
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the world gets warmer, the Baltimore oriole will no longer be found in Maryland. The Mississippi kite will move north, east and pretty much out of its namesake state. And the California gull will mostly be a summer stranger to the Golden State.
Those are among the conclusions in a new National Audubon Society report that looks at the potential effects of global warming on birds by the year 2080.
“This will spell trouble for most birds,” said Gary Langham, the society’s chief scientist and vice president.
Over the next six decades or so, the critical ranges of more than half the 588 North American bird species will either shrink significantly or move into uncharted territory for the animal, according to Langham’s analysis.
While other studies have made similar pronouncements, this report gives the most comprehensive projections of what is likely to happen to America’s birds.
The report says that in a few decades, 126 bird species will end up with a much smaller area to live in, which the society says will make them endangered. An additional 188 species will lose more than half their natural range but relocate to new areas. Those moves will be threatening to the birds’ survival, too, because they will be confronted with different food and soil, bird experts said.
Other birds, including backyard regulars like the American robin and the blue jay, will fly in even more places, the report says. And some of the biggest potential winners aren’t exactly birds that people like — species such as the turkey vulture, the American crow and the mourning dove, which will expand their ranges tremendously.
“If you want to know what the climate change future sounds like, it sounds a lot like a mourning dove,” Langham said. Some people find annoying the singing of the mourning dove, which will more than double its range.
Langham used bird survey data in summer and winter from 2000 to 2009 and correlated it to climate conditions to come up with simulations of how bird ranges will change. He then tested the simulations against past data from 1980 to 1999, and they worked. Then he used United Nations carbon pollution scenarios from 2007 to project bird ranges in 2020, 2040 and 2080.
Serious respiratory
illness affects children
CHICAGO (AP) — Hundreds of children in more than 10 states have been sickened by a severe respiratory illness that public health officials say may be caused by an uncommon virus similar to the germ that causes the common cold.
Nearly 500 children have been treated at one hospital alone — Children’s Mercy in Kansas City, Missouri — and some required intensive care, according to authorities.
The suspected germ, enterovirus 68, is an uncommon strain of a very common family of viruses that typically hit from summertime through autumn.
The virus can cause mild coldlike symptoms including runny noses, coughing and wheezing but Mark Pallansch, director of the viral diseases division at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said this summer’s cases are unusually severe and include serious breathing problems.
“It’s not highly unusual but we’re trying to understand what happened this year in terms of these noticeable and much larger clusters of severe respiratory disease,” Pallansch said Monday.
The virus typically causes illness lasting about a week and most children recover with no lasting problems.
Cases have been confirmed in Missouri and Illinois. CDC said it is testing to see if the virus caused respiratory illnesses reported in children in Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma and Utah. The states’ tally changes as specimens are confirmed or test negative. A spokeswoman for Iowa’s public health department said CDC tests confirmed the virus in samples from patients in central Iowa and a Colorado hospital said it has confirmed cases.
Stocks fall as oil price slump hits energy sector
NEW YORK (AP) — A retreat in oil and energy stocks pulled the rest of the U.S. stock market mostly lower Monday.
Campbell Soup declined after the company said its 2015 profits would miss analysts’ expectations. Yahoo, which owns a stake in Alibaba, jumped in anticipation of the giant Chinese technology company going public.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 25.94 points, or 0.2 percent, to 17,111.42. The Standard &Poor’s 500 index lost 6.17 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,001.54 and the Nasdaq composite added 9.39 points, or 0.2 percent, to 4,592.29.
Energy stocks were by far the biggest drag on the market. The energy component of the S&P 500 fell 1.6 percent, compared to the modest 0.3 percent decline in the main index.
Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, dropped $1.49, or 1.5 percent, to $97.77. It was the biggest loser among the Dow’s 30 members.
The decline in energy stocks was linked to a recent sell-off in the price of oil. Benchmark U.S. crude oil for October delivery fell 63 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $92.66 a barrel, the lowest price since January.
