I can close my eyes and still hear them, John.

The meadowlarks, nightingales, and mourning doves… the song birds. Back then, when I was a girl in the early 1940s, you could hear their melodies clearly, wafting over the beige California hills, before there were freeways and houses covering the hills.

Back then, when things weren't so great at home, I'd escape outside… the live oaks, sycamores, and bird songs brought solace, a sense that I belonged.

Today, the symphony is quiet.

For years I’d mourned its gradual disappearance, but it was the summer of 2018 — during the California wildfires — that the full force of what humans were doing to the natural world hit me.

It was well over 105 degrees Fahrenheit in L.A. The skies were orange-brown, apocalyptic. I remember reading that birds were dropping dead out of the sky over New Mexico and Arizona. They couldn't make their normal migratory journey over the coast because of the wildfires, so they flew over the deserts instead. And they died of dehydration and exhaustion. Around that time, I read that there were almost 3 billion fewer birds in North America than there had been in 1970. My heart started to break.

I thought about those birds from my childhood. I thought about all the voices that had once filled the air with such abundance, now reduced to silence.

And the science backs up what I’ve been sensing. A sweeping 2024 study identified at least 14,000 animal and plant species directly threatened by rising temperatures, intensifying storms, droughts, and other climate-related stresses.

Some, like the Spix’s macaw, are already gone, their bodies no longer able to withstand the heat, air pollution, loss of habitat and insects.

The climate crisis isn’t some distant threat. It’s here, right now, reshaping the living world around us, a world that must be healthy if we humans are to survive.

That's exactly why I started JanePAC. While people like Donald Trump make it easier for fossil fuel companies to poison our air, our water, and the places and species we cherish, we are supporting climate champions who will fight like hell to protect what's left and restore what we can.

We can still elect leaders who understand that saving the birds means saving ourselves. Leaders who will listen to the scientists calling for real-time monitoring of wildlife die-offs, smarter risk assessments, and policies that connect biodiversity conservation with bold climate action.

The silence where songs used to be doesn't have to be permanent. We can bring back the music, but only if each of us rolls up our sleeves, demands better, and refuses to give up on the world we love.

So, roll up your sleeves with me,

Jane Fonda

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