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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

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

any suggestions for a poison ivy patch? I'm doing the rounds of vinegar and placing tarps/boxes over the area, trying to avoid the nuclear option.

Can you not dig it up?

That's kind of a very very long repeated / endless process for poison ivy in my experience. Especially if it is in a less than easy access location.

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

#132
post #116
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drop according to whom? The people whose jobs depend on the alleged drop? Yesterday I had 10 flies and 5 mosquitoes simultaneously in my room. What do the bats eat? They are everywhere. There are more bats, foxes, rats and insects in big cities than ever before.

> Drop according to whom? The people whose jobs depend on the alleged drop? Speaking as an ecologist here, colleagues of mine were authors on one of the recent studies on insect decline in Germany ( https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1684-3 ). Believe me, we'd rather study other things than how fast nature is disappearing. Also, foxes and rats have nothing to do with insect levels.

Foxes and rats have very much to do with the fact that the government is telling us that species are disappearing and need protection while there was literally a fox trying to enter my house via an open door pretty much in the city.

This has never happened 20 years ago, so someone is lying.

It is a massive credibility problem created by ideologues who will deny the foxes until there are 5 in every apartment.

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

#133

The best thing we can do on a personal level is to stop using broadleaf weedkillers like Scott's Weed and Feed and other herbicides like glyphosate (Roundup). I've been doing handyman work at my boss's house during COVID-19 and he has clover growing in his yard. He has a fair number of bees, certainly more than on my end of town which is all chemlawns. It's arguably ok to use a little weed killer by hand on dandelion…

>... other broadleaf herbicides like glyphosate (Roundup).

Glyphosate kills everything. If you use it as a broadleaf herbicide you are going to have a very bad week...

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

#134
post #58

I wonder how many centuries it might take for the US to start to care about insects or the environment like some European countries do with the recent regress in policies overall that isn't about ONLY increasing overall GDP in the US. And I say this even not considering Trump, which is a big menace. But democrat candidates in the US also don't care about the environment, not showing much promise. So do the Americans…

Have you been to US? I visited some states and I'm now living in Massachusetts for a little more than three years. I've never seen so much green in my life like see here in the US. It's beautiful. The article doesn't mention security measurements that will be taken in order to keep security levels where it is.

Exactly, Pennsylvania 100 years ago was completely stripped of trees, today has 17 millions acres of forests (almost 60% of the land is covered with forests!)

https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/a-century-ago-pennsy...

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

#135

The best thing we can do on a personal level is to stop using broadleaf weedkillers like Scott's Weed and Feed and other herbicides like glyphosate (Roundup). I've been doing handyman work at my boss's house during COVID-19 and he has clover growing in his yard. He has a fair number of bees, certainly more than on my end of town which is all chemlawns. It's arguably ok to use a little weed killer by hand on dandelion…

I never going the obsession with pristine lawns without clover, daisies, moss and such. I actually think it looks quite nice with some variation.

My wife is militant about this, insisting that our lawn is sprayed with horrible chemicals at least once a year to kill off the clover, daisies and moss.

Seems such a pointless thing to do, and very obviously not good for wildlife.

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

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if I'd like to be able to see some stars from my bed? Furthermore, not every light, sign makes sense at the place it is. They are mostly stamped out at regular intervals "because we say so".

> What if I'd like to be able to see some stars from my bed? "My comfort should trump everyone's safety"? Still no.

And the cars you spoke of are stealthed, running dark, or what?

/me shakes head and thinks "Here is your sign! Hold it!"

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

#137

The best thing we can do on a personal level is to stop using broadleaf weedkillers like Scott's Weed and Feed and other herbicides like glyphosate (Roundup). I've been doing handyman work at my boss's house during COVID-19 and he has clover growing in his yard. He has a fair number of bees, certainly more than on my end of town which is all chemlawns. It's arguably ok to use a little weed killer by hand on dandelion…

Was reserving lawns for humans and all of the countryside for bees not already a pretty sweet deal? How are we being out-negotiated by insects?

They hold (most) all the cards when it comes to food source sustainability. I'd even dare say our current negotiation position is over leveraged.

Edit: they hold many other cards too - Food source sustainability was just the first to mind.

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

#138

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

i live in brooklyn, the nearby parks have plenty of fireflies around dusk

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

#139

The best thing we can do on a personal level is to stop using broadleaf weedkillers like Scott's Weed and Feed and other herbicides like glyphosate (Roundup). I've been doing handyman work at my boss's house during COVID-19 and he has clover growing in his yard. He has a fair number of bees, certainly more than on my end of town which is all chemlawns. It's arguably ok to use a little weed killer by hand on dandelion…

Was reserving lawns for humans and all of the countryside for bees not already a pretty sweet deal? How are we being out-negotiated by insects?

That’s not really how it works.

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

#140
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If findings are true that insects are more attracted to cold light than traditional incandescent light sources, then it's small wonder you still find significant numbers of insects where all the cold light is emitted, even if they are killed on contact with those light sources or trapped by them (which is a significant problem with mating). Same should be true for any species which follows insects as a source of food…

I'm a heretic who uses incandescent light bulbs (but no car). No shortage of insects in my room. All in the middle of a city. How do those insects mate in the city if light prevents them from doing so? I wonder why we are still alive. According to the Club of Rome we should have been extinct by now. But these things are a nice diversion from the real problems and a good income stream for the pundits.

Studies show that LEDs capture about 50% more insects than sodium-vapor lights do. Do the math for a few generational cycles…

Edit: BTW, dimming down the lights isn't going to increase anyone's stream of income. The "pundits" will actually suffer some loss from this.

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