When my dad was a lad the UK was a land of plenty. He tells stories of the hedgerows being awash with birds. Urban sprawl and intensive farming has greatly impacted the wildlife scene. Climate change has not helped, whatever the causes there can be little doubt that "something" is happening.
For your perusal I'll offer Butterfly decline, Bees and flowers decline in step and of course the following cuts both ways Island Dilemma over wind farms.
Things have changed. The Linnet, Yellowhammer and Corn Bunting may still have sizeable populations but common they are not. Hawfinches now take real effort to find and worthy of a detour to see one.
I remember seeing nesting House Martin's as a kid but they are not as prevalent as they were.
I don't have any answers but at least I'm acknowleding there is a problem. All is not doom and gloom, whilst in Norfolk I noticed some farmers were leaving borders around fields full of wild flowers.
We have to start asking questions about how our food and clothes are produced. Its all very well going into a supermarket for a t-shirt for a £1, but if that's been produced as the results of mass pollution in Africa, to produce a cheap cotton crop, we'll pay the "price" of less Swallows, Martins, Warblers and Flycatchers each year. It's not only the initial cost that we end up paying.
I think we have lost something. We are the "me me me me I want it now I deserve it generation". Holds hand up!
Nature can cope with the natural ebb and flow of climate change but Man's interference is a different matter.
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