Bird Losses Anchor Colcom Foundation’s Case on Population Growth
North America had roughly 10 billion birds in 1970. By 2020, about 7.1 billion remained. Colcom Foundation, a Pittsburgh-based environmental funder, cites that loss of 2.9 billion birds as one of the clearest signs of how human population growth affects wildlife.
Two Trends Over Five Decades
The bird decline occurred over the same 50 years in which the U.S. human population increased by 127 million people. The Foundation also notes a broader pattern: during the period when the human population doubled, wild vertebrate populations were roughly cut in half.
Global data point in the same direction. The WWF Living Planet Report 2022 documented a 69 percent drop in vertebrate populations worldwide since 1970. Colcom Foundation references that report among the conservation science resources it shares with the public.
Research on Density and Threatened Species
The Foundation leans on peer-reviewed studies to connect these trends. McKee and colleagues, writing in 2004, examined 114 nations and found that human population density together with species richness accounted for 88 percent of the variability in threatened bird and mammal species. Another study the Foundation cites, published in Biological Conservation in 2022 by Cafaro and coauthors, concluded that population growth is a fundamental driver of biodiversity loss and that population decrease facilitates ecological restoration.
Colcom Foundation interprets this body of work through the I = P x A x T equation, in which environmental impact reflects population, per capita consumption, and technology. The Foundation’s position is that reducing consumption and improving technology matter, but those efforts can be outpaced when population keeps rising.
Habitat is one link between people and wildlife numbers. The Foundation identifies urban sprawl, agricultural expansion, and infrastructure development as the main ways land is converted in the United States, removing space that birds and other species need.
Founded in 1996 by the late Cordelia S. May, Colcom Foundation funds public education, research, and nonprofit organizations that examine population and environmental relationships. Its regional giving supports conservation and cultural assets in southwestern Pennsylvania. For bird lovers and conservationists alike, the Foundation’s argument is that protecting wildlife requires looking at population trends along with land and consumption patterns. Visit this page for more information.
More about Colcom Foundation on https://www.colcomfdn.org/