I’ve been seeing a lot of dead seabirds on Pismo Beach lately. Most of them were common murres—those handsome black birds with white throats and stout, black beaks. There were also some dead cormorants, and even a whimbrel, with its long downcurved bill. As I walked up the beach carrying my surfboard, I counted seven dead birds in a distance of just a hundred feet or so.
It turns out that most of these birds starved to death. The reason, according to International Bird Rescue, is warmer ocean surface temperature. We’ve been experiencing a record-breaking blob of warm ocean water stretching from the Bering Sea to Mexico, from Korea to California. That’s driving baitfish into cooler, deeper water, where our friends the murres and other seabirds can’t reach them. The warmer water also gave us a record warm and dry March on land. These elevated temperatures are the result of global heating from the 2.5 trillion tons of CO2 that we have emitted into our atmosphere.Â
Moreover, we haven’t even started our El Niño yet, which isn’t expected until late summer. What will happen when we add a strong El Niño event to our already anomalously warm ocean? We could see high temperatures, humidity, and storms such as we haven’t seen since tropical storm Hilary came ashore in 2023.Â
It turns out that most of these birds starved to death. The reason, according to International Bird Rescue, is warmer ocean surface temperature.
The birds are, if you will excuse a morbid expression, our canaries in the coal mine, harbingers of our perilous future. Are a hot atmosphere, elevated ocean temperatures, and dead animals the legacy that we are leaving for our children? If we do nothing, then yes. The good news is that we can prevent this. Let’s ditch gas. We can power our cars with electricity and warm our homes with electric heat pumps (both of which, by the way, are cheaper in the long run).
We’ll embrace renewable sources of energy like solar and wind. That includes offshore wind, which the Audubon Society has declared is far safer for seabirds than the dangers of CO2-induced global heating. We can tap into 6 million kilowatts of wind energy blowing off our coast, enough to power millions of homes. Over the course of a year, that would add up to 53 billion kilowatt-hours of renewable electricity, resulting in nearly 50 billion tons of CO2 that won’t be emitted into our atmosphere.Â
Let’s utilize the tools we already have at our disposal—electrification and renewable energy. We can help save a huge number of seabirds and other wildlife and provide a better future for our children and our children’s children. ∆
George Hansen writes to New Times from Arroyo Grande. Send a response for publication by emailing it to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in May 21-28, 2026.