Wildfires

[ShortBrutishNasty]

Kassy, MONSTER THANKS for controlling the annoying as f*** spam b***s***!

--Bob

[Jim Hunt]

The sunset this evening was very red, so when I got home I checked the smoke nowcast.


Sure enough:

[Carbon for the Carbon God]

Finally the fires in Canada are starting to pick up. Taking bets on this year's total acreage burnt. I'm guessing 5M+ hectares. Thoughts?

As of my last check of the CIFFC website this morning, they're listing 5M hectares was reached today. That'll probably be revised in time as it usually is.

I'm curious to see how the neutral/La Nina ENSO situation will affect the fires going into autumn and winter.

[vox_mundi]

Brazilians 'struggling to breathe' as Amazon burns
https://phys.org/news/2024-08-brazilians-struggling-amazon.html

Residents of Porto Velho in the Brazilian Amazon have barely seen sunlight in days as a thick cloud of smoke from forest fires envelops their city.

"We are struggling to breathe," said 30-year-old teacher Tayane Moraes, one of some 460,000 people who live in the city near the border with Bolivia.

On Tuesday, the concentration of cancer-causing microparticles known as PM2.5 reached 56.5 micrograms per cubic meter of air in Porto Velho—11 times more than the limit recommended by the World Health Organization and the worst of Brazil's big cities.

On August 14, the level was a "dangerous" 246.4 micrograms per cubic meter, according to the IQAir monitoring company.

According to data collected by satellites of Brazil's INPE Space Research Institute, Rondonia has just had its worst month of July for forest fires in 19 years with 1,618 confirmed outbreaks.

So far in August, there have been 2,114.

The Amazon as a whole has recorded more than 42,000 forest fires from January 1 to August 19, according to the INPE, the worst number in nearly two decades.

That number was 87 percent higher than in the same period of 2023.

The Amazon suffered a historic drought between June and November last year.

INPE's satellite images show a plume of smoke crossing Brazil from north to south, also passing through neighbors Bolivia and Paraguay.

--------------------------------------------------------

Amazonian drought may have long-lasting effects on carbon cycle
https://phys.org/news/2024-08-amazonian-drought-effects-carbon.html

The 2015–2016 El Niño hit the Amazon basin hard, causing a drought that severely reduced aboveground vegetation and caused the basin to release nearly 1 gigaton of carbon into the atmosphere.

Junjie Liu and colleagues found that whereas it took more than a year for aboveground biomass to recover, the Amazon's recovery from the total carbon loss, including belowground biomass and soil carbon, took even longer. In fact, total carbon stocks across the basin had still not returned to predrought levels by the end of 2018.

The study, appearing in AGU Advances, examined three distinct areas of the Amazon—the northeast, the tropical west-southwest rainforest, and the southeast dry savanna. The researchers used nine years of monthly satellite data on gross primary production, fire emissions, and net biosphere exchange to examine how drought-induced atmospheric and soil dryness affected carbon fluxes.

They reported that the northeastern Amazon, the region hardest hit by the drought, still faced a cumulative loss of 0.6 gigaton of carbon by December 2018 as a result of the 2015–2016 El Niño. The deficit was mainly due to reduced photosynthesis (and accompanying carbon uptake) by water-stressed vegetation.

[kassy]

Cities on high alert as Brazil wildfires kill two

A crisis cabinet has been set up by the São Paulo state government to deal with wildfires which have put 30 Brazilian cities on alert.
Flames have killed two people and smoke has disrupted traffic on a dozen highways, while the capital, São Paulo, is shrouded in a grey haze.
Soaring temperatures and low humidity are stoking dangerous fire conditions in the state, which has endured a prolonged drought.

...

The situation was critical in São Jose do Rio Preto, a city of 480,000 inhabitants, where more than 335 fires have been registered in recent days, prompting school closures, AFP reported.

...

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cze56wn278zo

[kassy]

Climate change raised the odds of unprecedented wildfires in 2023-24

Unprecedented wildfires in Canada and parts of Amazonia last year were at least three times more likely due to climate change and contributed to high levels of CO2 emissions from burning globally, according to the first edition of a new systematic annual review.

The State of Wildfires report takes stock of extreme wildfires of the 2023-2024 fire season (March 2023-February 2024), explains their causes, and assesses whether events could have been predicted. It also evaluates how the risk of similar events will change in future under different climate change scenarios.

The report, which will be published annually, is co-led by the University of East Anglia (UEA, UK), the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), the Met Office (UK) and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF, UK).

Published today in the journal Earth System Science Data, the report finds that carbon emissions from wildfires globally were 16% above average, totalling 8.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. Emissions from fires in the Canadian boreal forests were over nine times the average of the past two decades and contributed almost a quarter of the global emissions.

If it had not been a quiet fire season in the African savannahs, then the 2023-24 fire season would have set a new record for CO2 emissions from fires globally.

more:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/08/240813192347.htm

[kassy]

Brazil's Amazon rainforest fires in August reach 14-year high


SAO PAULO —
The number of fires in Brazil's Amazon rainforest region for the month of August surged to the highest level since 2010, government data showed on Sunday, after a record drought that has been plaguing the biome.

Last year's rains came late and were weaker than usual because a weather pattern, known as El Nino, was supercharged by climate change, leaving the rainforest especially vulnerable to this year's fires.

Satellites detected 38,266 fire hotspots in the Amazon in August, more than double compared to the previous year and the largest number for that month since 2010, data from Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) showed.

The August data reaching a 14-year high comes after last month's fire hotspots in the region surged to a two-decade high.

...

https://www.voanews.com/a/brazil-s-amazon-rainforest-fires-in-august-reach-14-year-high/7767389.html

[grixm]

Right now, the smog from the Amazon wildfires covers an area both as wide as from California to New York, and as tall as from Canada to Mexico.

[vox_mundi]

Wildfires Around Los Angeles Blanket City In Smoke
https://phys.org/news/2024-09-wildfires-los-angeles-blanket-city.html

Out-of-control wildfires surrounding Los Angeles continued to grow Tuesday, forcing families to evacuate and blanketing the sky with choking smoke.

Three separate blazes have erupted around the United States' second-biggest city, fueled by a punishing heat wave and fanned by gusting winds.

There have been no reports of deaths or serious injuries, but tens of thousands of homes and businesses are being threatened by the looming flames.

[gerontocrat]

S. Cal wildfires  ferocious to the extreme

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/153300/weather-making-fire-burns-in-southern-california

Weather-Making Fire Burns in Southern California

Puffy, white convective clouds popped up in the hills around Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego throughout the afternoon of September 9, 2024. Three of them were different than the others, with their convection fueled, in part, by surface heat associated with intense wildland fires.

Known among meteorologists as pyrocumulus or flammagenitus—or sometimes just “fire clouds”—these tall, billowing features typically have a column of smoke at their base and powerful updrafts that channel large amounts of smoke high into the atmosphere. As the convective plume rises, water vapor condenses around small particles to form cloud droplets and eventually visible clouds at the top of the smoke plume.

That’s what was beginning to happen when the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 captured these images (see attached) of a pyrocumulus rising from the Line fire in Southern California. The image includes observations of shortwave-infrared light (red) to highlight the locations of active fires. A faint line of pink fire retardant is also visible on the hills near Redlands.

Later in the day, the pyrocumulus matured into a full-fledged thunderstorm, or pyrocumulonimbus, that generated rain, strong wind gusts, lightning, and even hail, according to KCAL News. On September 7, the National Weather Service’s San Diego office noted that a similar cloud from the Line fire had generated more than 3,700 strikes. Images from other satellites show smoke spiraling upward and spreading outward over the course of the day. Photographs from observers on the ground offered dramatic views of the towering smoky feature as well.

At least 2,000 people, 15 helicopters, 33 dozers, and 232 engines were battling the Line fire on September 10, according to Cal Fire, amid a record-breaking heat wave. As of that afternoon, the fire had charred more than 26,000 acres (105 square kilometers) and had not burned any structures, although more than 65,600 structures were under threat. Residents of several communities have been ordered to evacuate, including Running Springs, Forrest Falls, Mountain Home Village, Angelus Oaks, and Seven Oaks.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological

[kassy]

'Never seen this': Portuguese village battered by wildfire

The wildfires scorching the Aveiro region of northern Portugal are some of the worst locals have seen for a generation and they feel powerless against the walls of flames.

In the village of Busturenga, where the smoke was so thick it was hard in places to see more than a few dozen meters, anxious residents sought on Monday to rescue pets and belongings from homes perilously close to the blaze.

Some attempted to step the encroaching flames but their small buckets of water did little to stem the advance.

"I've never seen anything like it. The fire was all round the village and the water bombers couldn't get to it because of the smoke," 67-year-old Maria Fatima told AFP.

Wildfires burned all night from Monday to Tuesday across the region, destroying scores of homes and thousands of hectares of woodland and crops.

The flames have killed seven since Saturday, when the authorities placed Portugal on alert because of high temperatures and strong winds.

...

As she was speaking, a string of fire engines sped past towards the huge flames sweeping through the plantations of resinous eucalyptus surrounding the village.

Portuguese TV showed footage of locals watching nervously as flames licked up a wooden post towards the electricity cables and a garage full of petrol-filled motorbikes.

...

https://phys.org/news/2024-09-portuguese-village-battered-wildfire.html

Eucalyptus are not the neighbour you want there.

[kassy]

Brazil faces record wildfires and drought — and it may only get worse

Brazil’s extreme drought is continuing to fuel arid conditions that have resulted in record wildfires in the Amazon.

The flames of tens of thousands of fires have torn over millions of acres this summer, making this year the worst for Amazon fires in nearly a decade, according to Rainforest Foundation US. A staggering 7.4 million acres burned within the first half of this year, a 122 percent increase over last year, the nonprofit said.

There have been more than 180,000 fires this year in Brazil, according to the country’s satellite agency. Data from the National Institute for Space Research shows that over 38,000 fire hotspots were recorded in the region in August alone. That’s the highest number in the past 14 years. And, more than 8.6 million acres were torched in the Brazilian Amazon by August 30, according to records from the Environmental Satellite Applications Laboratory.

...

The country is experiencing its worst drought since measurements began. Much of western Brazil is under stress and the Amazon basin rivers are registering at historic lows. Boats have been stranded on sandbanks, with people forced to transport goods on foot.

“The rivers are at the lowest level in decades, if not forever. You know, it’s the worst fire season in the past 19 years, worst drought in 40 years — and perhaps the worst ever,” Halvorson said. “So, it’s just going to get worse before it gets any better.”

...
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/brazil-wildfires-drought-amazon-b2613787.html

[trm1958]

Let me mention
https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Weather-Story-Hotter-World-ebook/dp/B0B96CH5ZP/ref=sr_1_1?crid=O6J0BI4Z3KKK&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.0VTYfyDRzrFddKWbnmtn7dlJdZ5y4z7V7ZFkYXRZOHEyKAhHDJd-lCVF8pDn2StXOCahPx_b2VeHNDtM8NeVi_zlEAF-ydZf_p_sShm1r1wtwJW9dbcIV3EzG0-fEWWUnA2HoxJtkRBL6UGcnrF21TNpvA-StluzJlXfs4lYiy88Z9qk0rkrA2nfKU8Cb1qPbMWmx9NjKL3P6cbsbdaJrvw2OpFPLvQHsTzrDOwEKzI.Pu3F9Lt0VgtuW1jZTQm1UtZDN_byRQJjidJSkYJb2eI&dib_tag=se&keywords=Fire+weather&qid=1726872814&sprefix=fire+weather%2Caps%2C164&sr=8-1
which looks at the increasing danger of unprecedented wildfire from Global Warming, with a particular look at the 2016 Fort McMurray fire.

[Freegrass]

Arctic Warming Is Driving Siberian Wildfires

Increased temperatures and drought are leading to more wildfires. And wildfire smoke aerosols can suppress precipitation, drying out soils and further increasing fire risk.

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/arctic-warming-is-driving-siberian-wildfires

Wildfire activity in central Siberia, Russia, has doubled in the past 2 decades, scorching vast areas of forest and releasing carbon stored in the rich soils and permafrost underneath. The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the world, and scientists already know that the effects of climate change can exacerbate wildfires. But the specific factors driving enhanced Siberian wildfire activity aren’t fully understood, making it difficult to predict future burning accurately.

In new research, Huang et al. demonstrate that the rise in Siberian wildfires is related to drought, drying soils, and decreased rainfall caused by Arctic warming. In addition, they identify a potential feedback loop in which wildfires suppress precipitation in the region, further drying soils and making fires even more likely. Water vapor in the atmosphere typically condenses around aerosol particles to form droplets, which come together as clouds and can fall as rain. But droplets formed around aerosols in wildfire smoke are smaller—often too small to form raindrops.

The authors used data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on the Terra and Aqua satellites to track wildfire activity between 2002 and 2022 and paired them with data on wildfire smoke, regional climate, and permafrost extent. Then they used Community Atmosphere Model version 6 of the Community Earth System Model to simulate aerosol-climate interaction over Siberia.

The authors calculated the Fire Weather Index, a measure of how likely a fire is to both start and spread, for two different simulations: one that incorporated historical data about wildfire emissions and one that removed fire activity. They found that the Fire Weather Index was 10% higher in the former simulation because wildfire aerosols suppressed precipitation. In fire-intensive areas, the index was up to 40% higher.

Simulations of future conditions following low- and medium-emissions pathways suggest that reduced precipitation could cause soil moisture in the region to decrease by 28% and 39%, respectively, by 2100. This drying, the researchers report, could lead to an increase in fire severity of 200% or more by the end of the century. (AGU Advances, https://doi.org/10.1029/2023AV001151, 2024)

—Nathaniel Scharping (@nathanielscharp), Science Writer

[kassy]

'It kills everything' - Amazon’s indigenous people hit by record forest fires in Brazil


“If these fires continue, we indigenous people will die.”

Raimundinha Rodrigues Da Sousa runs the voluntary fire service for the Caititu indigenous community in the Brazilian Amazon.

Their land is supposed to be protected under the Brazilian constitution.

But it has been on fire for more than 15 days.

For her brigade, their fight feels personal.

“Today it is killing the plants, in a while it will be us, because we inhale so much,” she says.

“It is a very aggressive fire that kills everything that comes its way.”

Her father, Ademar, tells us the constant smoke has caused him respiratory problems.

“I can’t sleep due to a lack of air. It wakes me up, I feel like I’m drowning,” he says.

The Amazon has had its worst forest fires in two decades. More than 62,000 square kilometres have been burned this year already – an area bigger than countries like Sri Lanka or Costa Rica.

The world relies on the Amazon to absorb a lot of its carbon. These fires mean it is now emitting record amounts itself.

Most fires here are illegally started by humans, according to scientists, the Federal Police, and the government: loggers and miners looking to exploit land in the Amazon, or farmers turning it into pasture.

It is much rarer for fires to occur naturally in the humid, tropical rainforest.

Many fires encroach on protected reserves or indigenous land, either by accidentally getting out of hand, or set by people as deliberate attempts to grab land.

Raimundinha says that when her brigade arrives at the scene of a fire, they often find bottles of gasoline and matches.

...

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgxv8n7wd0o

[morganism]

(first frost and hard freeze coming for N AM next week, should help slow wildfires. Supposed to get down to Four Corners and Mid Atlantic, but not S plains?)

[John Batteen]

I don't think it will make much difference.  It's still extremely dry.  It doesn't have to be warm to burn, just dry.

[vox_mundi]

Brazil Faces Worst Fires In 14 Years
https://www.dw.com/en/brazil-faces-worst-fires-in-14-years/a-70475926

During the first nine months of 2024, 22.38 million hectares of land in Brazil were ravaged by fires, a new report published on Friday showed.

It is about 2.6% of Brazil's landmass, roughly comparable to the size of Belarus.

The MapBiomas initiative report
was compiled by universities, NGOs, and tech companies by analyzing satellite images and other data.

https://brasil.mapbiomas.org/en/2024/10/11/area-queimada-no-brasil-entre-janeiro-e-setembro-foi-150-maior-que-no-ano-passado/

More than 50% of the burned area was in the Amazon rainforest, also known as the "lungs of the planet."

About 5.5 million hectares burned in September this year alone, a rise of 196% from the same month last year.

The Cerrado water reservoir, which is home to approximately 5% of the planet's flora and fauna, experienced fires affecting 4.3 million hectares of land in September. This was a rise of 158% from last year.

The Pantanal, the world's largest wetland, experienced a 662% increase in fires compared to last September.

[grixm]

During the first nine months of 2024, 22.38 million hectares of land in Brazil were ravaged by fires, a new report published on Friday showed.

It is about 2.6% of Brazil's landmass, roughly comparable to the size of Belarus.

You can add to that another 10 million hectares in the part of the Amazon that lies in neighboring Bolivia. Since it's a much smaller country than Brazil, that's around 10% of the entire country's landmass. And it's still burning. The situation there is extreme. Much of the country has barely seen a blue sky in months.

[morganism]

(Major early snow in Siberia , said to be effecting polar vortex , and hopefully fire season there too.Major drought south of Siberia in east, may affect small harvests there too.)

[Sigmetnow]

Another fire department, this one in California, announces they are upgrading their fire-fighting arsenal by improving their capacity to obtain drone views and maintain communication in times of disasters by incorporating satellite internet.
 
"With recent events in North Carolina, we decided to find alternative ways to communicate in difficult situations."
 
Fire department purchase Starlink to help first responders
https://www.waff.com/video/2024/10/18/fire-department-purchase-starlink-help-first-responders/
 
37 sec.  “It cost the department about $600.”

[Bruce Steele]

Sig, and they will use them to spy on people .
 The Calif. Coastal Commission  truncating Spacelink launches from Vandenburg is an interesting fight.
We fishermen are expected to put aside 25% of our fishing grounds where all wildlife is protected.
Sonic booms do have an effect on nesting seabirds within the already designated areas to protect sea life. So why should anyone have carte blanch to cause damage . Everything needs guardrails and repeated sonic booms need guardrails/ limits too. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

[Sigmetnow]

Sig, and they will use them to spy on people .
 The Calif. Coastal Commission  truncating Spacelink launches from Vandenburg is an interesting fight.
We fishermen are expected to put aside 25% of our fishing grounds where all wildlife is protected.
Sonic booms do have an effect on nesting seabirds within the already designated areas to protect sea life. So why should anyone have carte blanch to cause damage . Everything needs guardrails and repeated sonic booms need guardrails/ limits too. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

Starlink satellites do not “spy,” they relay radio signals.  Do you mean the Fire Department drones? The people trying to reduce the spread of wildfires, and to save lives in our increasingly disaster-prone world by finding survivors more quickly and delivering help to otherwise inaccessible locations?

The California Coastal Commission meeting was completely bonkers, with conspiracy theories and rejection of science — from the commissioners themselves, not just the public!
 
Here’s a thread with lots of video excerpts from the meeting.  See for yourself.
🧵 10/14/24, ➡️  https://x.com/xdnibor/status/1845895739182031183

 

NEWS: The California Coastal Commission has rejected the Air Force's plan to allow @SpaceX to launch up to 50 rockets annually from Vandenberg, citing Elon Musk's political posts on X. Both the Air Force and Space Force supported the plan.
 
< Space Force / Military / Vandenberg in no way has to comply with that. They can launch as much as they want. They would be brought to court, but they are not beholden to that Commission.
<< The CCC strikes again. Those of us who live here just roll our eyes at this point about their continual abuses of power.

Worth noting that sun-sunchronous, polar orbits for national security launches (i.e., to give a heads up when the bad guys launch missiles) currently must launch from Vandenberg.

The two sides seemed to reach a detente heading into Thursday’s meeting after the Air Force, which oversees Space Force, agreed in September to meet the commission’s seven conditions, including reducing the sonic booms and increased wildlife monitoring.
A bipartisan group of state and federal lawmakers had also weighed in before the hearing in favor of the application, arguing that California should take advantage of DOD’s embrace of the commercial space industry.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/10/california-reject-musk-spacex-00183371

 
Since the birth of the space race, the space launch industry has been dumping their rockets into the ocean. 
SpaceX is the only one RECOVERING their rocket boosters, and fairings — and reusing them.  And their rocket that will replace the Falcon is completely reusable, dropping nothing.

Jared Isaacman
…
1. Most payloads launched from Vandenberg support the Department of Defense, like Starshield, protecting our national security and warfighters in the field. We are in a space race for the ultimate high ground.
 
2. Starlink launches from Vandenberg help connect people who are otherwise disconnected—whether through access to information, telemedicine or during natural disasters. It is a service that improves lives and in real cases --saves lives.
 
3. Space is the last great frontier. We know so little about it, yet we could discover new sources of power, new materials, new life or even new homes. It is a quest for answers to the big questions we’ve all pondered. This mission requires a generation of intelligent dreamers and every rocket launch inspires a few more to contribute to the grand endeavor. …

10/12/24, https://x.com/rookisaacman/status/1845173768722792500

How SpaceX got permission to launch:
 
Govt: You need to determine the risk of something falling into the ocean and hitting a shark.
SpaceX:  It’s a big ocean… But give us the data on shark locations, and we will.
Govt: We can’t do that.  It’s classified information.
SpaceX: So how are we supposed to tell you the risk…?
 

Colin Wright
This story of strangulation by over-regulation from @elonmusk about the government requiring @SpaceX to asses whether their rockets could potentially hit SHARKS and WHALES is… hilarious. 🤣

10/20/24, ➡️ https://x.com/swipewright/status/1847858204652327402
2 min

For real:  SpaceX was forced by the government to kidnap seals, put earphones on them and play sonic boom sounds to see if they seemed upset.

[Bruce Steele]

Sig, Maybe you would like to read the written comments submitted. Valid , not hysterical, and there is one from our local SB fisherman’s association.
https://documents.coastal.ca.gov/reports/2024/4/w13a/w13a-4-2024-corresp.pdf

[Sigmetnow]

Sig, Maybe you would like to read the written comments submitted. Valid , not hysterical, and there is one from our local SB fisherman’s association.
https://documents.coastal.ca.gov/reports/2024/4/w13a/w13a-4-2024-corresp.pdf

I’m sure they are just as persuasive as all the comments against Starbase Texas, or launches and landings in Florida.  But the truth is, wildlife in both places has been studied closely, and they are doing fine.
 
Did you know SpaceX teams take many actions to preserve wildlife before and after each launch?  Far from ignoring the situation, they are deeply involved with local environmental groups in Texas.
 
Meanwhile, we now have many new tools in orbit to help document, and take action on, the changes taking place that affect those same wildlife, as well as the rest of the planet and its inhabitants.

—-
EDIT:

FAA Requires SpaceX to Take Over 75 Actions to Mitigate Environmental Impact of Planned Starship/Super Heavy Launches
https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-requires-spacex-take-over-75-actions-mitigate-environmental-impact-planned

ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE SPACEX STARSHIP/SUPER HEAVY LAUNCH VEHICLE PROGRAM AT THE BOCA CHICA LAUNCH SITE IN CAMERON COUNTY, TEXAS
 
https://www.faa.gov/media/27271

[Bruce Steele]

Only someone locked behind their screen could actually believe all the “wildlife” is doing “fine “.
It isn’t and the reason we put part of our fishing grounds or terrestrial habitats into reserves is to help protect them from the future we are sleepwalking into.
 Maybe if you had seen what a colony of breeding birds does when a helicopter flies over it you’d better understand that noise causes nesting birds to rise off their nests. You might not think seagulls that feast on the eggs and baby birds are a problem but again Chat box isn’t your best source of info.

[Bruce Steele]

“They are doing fine”  Here is a little info in the bird colonies that experience every sonic boom I do and they are happening way, way more these days. I don’t have any idea about whether the catch arms will increase land catches and the associated sonic booms that come with them.
 https://sbbotanicgarden.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Hunt-et-al-1980-seabirds-on-CA-CHIS.pdf

There are
places worth  the price to keep them
Sanctuary

[Sigmetnow]

https://sbbotanicgarden.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Hunt-et-al-1980-seabirds-on-CA-CHIS.pdf

 
Your linked document lists many causes of bird population declines, including: “Their demise may have been the result of natural, random fluctuations in a peripheral population…” and “reproductive failure due to ingestion of chlorinated hydrocarbons,” as well as, “changes in predation pressure, particularly the introduction and eventual removal of terrestrial predators.”
 
Sonic booms are mentioned only once, in combination with other factors:

… Increased human activity in the Bight in the form of boat and air traffic has added to the amount of disturbance in the colonies (e.g., foot traffic, shooting, sonic booms).

 
Thus offering no evidence that stopping SpaceX activities at Vandenberg would improve the birds’ habitat to any measurable degree.  Also launching from Vandenberg: ULA, Northrop Grumman, Firefly, Astra, and Rocket Lab.  The base’s placement makes it optimal for launches to certain orbits like polar and sun-synchronous — while also being less disruptive and dangerous to human and wildlife populations up and down the coast, compared to other locations. 

As a nod to the this thread’s topic, I’ll note that as a sprawling aviation center, Vandenberg Space Force Base is an important resource for wildfire response and aerial firefighting. 

But it’s clear that — despite Vandenberg SFB’s vital importance to the region, the country, and the world — even if the base were abandoned, that would not cause nearby wildlife habitat to significantly improve.  At Starbase in Texas, SpaceX takes 75 actions, including many before and after each launch, to protect wildlife.  Without the base, the protection SpaceX currently offers from any random human adverse activity would be gone.

 
As I’ve posted in The Rest > SpaceX thread, People can be pro-environment and pro-SpaceX at the same time. 
 
See the evidence here:
➡️  https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,2582.msg412900.html#msg412900