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Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects

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Re: Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects

#71
post #59

What's the benefit for humans and why can't it be done any other way? I'm not a big fan of encountering insects. Very weird to see someone would actually want to protect them in cities. > Light traps for insects are to be banned outdoors So you won't be able to kill mosquitoes outside?

One issue with these is that they kill many more moths and other insects than they kill mosquitoes

Re: Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Used to be 100's or 1000's of them during the peak in summer where I lived. Now it's a handful. This is out in a rural area, so urban lighting doesn't explain the decline. If I had to wager money, I'd say it was a blight introduced by another insect. Around the same year I saw an invasion of Asian lady bugs, the firefly memories stop. There were literally millions and millions of those Asian lady bugs released or hat…

Plenty of fireflies in my yard. As prevalent as ever [1]. This is just an anecdote, but I give that anecdote as another person who lives in a somewhat rural location. Speaking of the lady bug explosion, this year they are incredibly rare [2]. Not sure why, but they went from being a massive nuisance to being a very rare sight (of any variety). Humans are absolutely having a calamitous effect on insect life in a varie…

Where are you, that I might voyage to your mystical land and once again gaze upon the gentle twinkle of firefly lights?

Re: Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects

#73
post #34

I actually was sitting outside a few nights ago and realized that there was no more fireflies, and I couldn't remember the last time I had seen one. I used to go out all the time during summer as a kid to catch them, they would light up whole fields. That was just like 15 years ago. Pretty sobering realization

My backyard in Louisiana has quite a few of them at night. I see probably 20 - 50 a night back there.

Lucky. I'm tempted to drive out to rural Ohio with my nephew to try to find some.

Re: Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects

#75

Do you remember the time when you had to clean your windshield after driving into holidays?

I just finished a two-week road trip from Berlin to the Black Forest and back (with other stops in both directions). The windshield was gunked up by the end—more than I expected, but nothing like what I remember from my childhood.

Re: Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects

#76
post #52

Ironically this would create a better surveillance net. With a high light in the background you obtain black silhouettes. With low or none light in the background UV cameras are perfectly able to take photos in pitch black, and a low level of light gave you faces of the suspects instead. So perhaps, maybe, "speculation in action", this is not only useful or exclusively about insects

No, this is actually about insects.

Re: Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects

#78
post #34

I actually was sitting outside a few nights ago and realized that there was no more fireflies, and I couldn't remember the last time I had seen one. I used to go out all the time during summer as a kid to catch them, they would light up whole fields. That was just like 15 years ago. Pretty sobering realization

My backyard in Louisiana has quite a few of them at night. I see probably 20 - 50 a night back there.

Same in Ottawa, Ontario—only a few times a year, but when they're out, there are loads of them.

Re: Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects

#79
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, cold LED light is part of the problem. Better focusing only mitigates the problem they are posing.

Can you explain what you mean about the risks of cold LED light? I'm unfamiliar with this problem

The basic light emitted by LEDs is generally quite cold (high color temperature). We can manufacture LEDs just in a few basic colors, where the blue ones are the most efficient. We haven't managed yet to produce something at scale like the light typically emitted by incandescent light bulbs. RGB light doesn't help here, since this is still emitting high temperature components, which are only mixed with lower energized ones. One way around this is using LEDs indirectly by energizing other light emitting materials, like phosphor, much like it is done in LED filaments, which, of course, comes at a cost. Simple filters don't help, since LEDs emit light only in a rather narrow spectrum (which is also, why they are more efficient compared to other light sources).

The problem with cold light is that it is apparently attracting insects much more than broad spectrum incandescent light sources, even more than any potential breeding partners, which in turn affects mating.

Re: Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects

#80

This is good; we've badly underestimated the cost of excess light pollution. Also good is using more LED street lamps that focus the light where we need it, rather than all over the place. Light pollution is bad, and street lights are very power hungry, with the old sodium lights consuming up to 0.25kWh per hour.

I think the impact of light and sound pollution is vastly underestimated. Sound and light pollution not only causes hidden environmental issues but also does damage to human health.

Suffering sound and light pollution is a hidden additional burden placed on lower economic status people.

Poor people experience health inequities due to increased exposure to light and sound, but more pressingly air pollution. [0]

The status of enjoying quiet is even clear in the middle class. You can even see the emerging divide on transit in who has noise cancelling headphones and who does not.

[0] https://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsal...

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