Lyon quoted in Press Herald article on threatened bird species in Maine
Bradfield Lyon, associate research professor with the University of Maine Climate Change Institute and School of Earth and Climate Sciences, spoke with the Portland Press Herald for the article, “Maine could lose loons and other bird species by end of century, Audubon reports.” Scientists with the National Audubon Society used data gathered by biologists and birders across North America to create various models showing the effects climate change could have on birds in the next 80 years. In the report’s best-case scenario, which relies on efforts to mitigate climate change, just over a third of 187 bird species in Maine would become threatened. In the worst case, in which nothing is done, that number would double, according to the article. Lyon said it’s conceivable that by 2100 the average global temperature will increase 3 degrees Celsius, or 5.4 Fahrenheit — the figure on which the Audubon report’s worst-case scenario is based. The best-case scenario assumes an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius, which Audubon scientists say could happen as early as 2050 if carbon emissions are not reduced, the Press Herald reported. “Based on the trajectory at the moment in terms of emissions, that’s very reasonable to think,” Lyon said. “We expect the global average to be somewhere between a 1.5- and a 4.5-degree increase by the end of the century.”