Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects • Hacker News Board

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

#281

Post by tornquist » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 7:08 PM UTC

take_a_breath wrote: post #115

wenc wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in Chicago (in a neighborhood close to downtown) and in previous years I'd hardly ever seen any fireflies. This year, they're everywhere -- in parks and even in trees on neighborhood streets. I understand fireflies are sensitive to light pollution. I can't imagine Chicago's any different from other major cities. COVID has people staying home a lot more but that has nothing to do with street lighting. I wonder wha…

I'm seeing the same thing in my Chicago neighborhood. We just had our alley lights changed to the new LEDs, maybe that has an impact?

They're changing the lights all over the city. You can see the stars again. I can see way more stars now than 5 years ago.

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

#282

Post by StavrosK » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 7:09 PM UTC

faitswulff wrote: post #162

GordonS wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Clover also doesn’t get as tall as grass, which obviates the need for mowing the lawn. And the rabbits quite like it.

A friend of mine worked at an agronomist's, and at one point a customer walked in looking to buy a bag of clover for his garden. My friend gave him the wrong bag by mistake, and the customer came back a few months later to tell the agronomist that he now had to park his car over the new spinach plants EVERYWHERE.

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

#283

Post by dcgudeman » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 7:12 PM UTC

Posts like this are really disappointing to me. I come to hacker news to read about technology and startups. If I wanted to read about general news topics (bees, insects, glyphosate, general monsanto hate, etc...) I would frequent google news, CNN, or reddit.

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

#284

Post by yelloworangefog » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 7:14 PM UTC

dcgudeman wrote: post #283

Posts like this are really disappointing to me. I come to hacker news to read about technology and startups. If I wanted to read about general news topics (bees, insects, glyphosate, general monsanto hate, etc...) I would frequent google news, CNN, or reddit.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

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

#285

Post by artursapek » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 7:17 PM UTC

GordonS wrote: post #135

zackmorris wrote: post #109

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.

Your wife was indoctrinated and you should work on changing her views. There's plenty of evidence to support your case.

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

#286

Post by pkaye » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 7:18 PM UTC

minerjoe wrote: post #264

pkaye wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what is the recommended replacement for glyphosate?

For who? The home owner or big-ag? There is no replacement that doesn't entail more work, hense the massive resistance to change. Entitlement. Who cares about the bees if I have to change my behavior. For the home owner, you can use alternatives like vinegar, or even better, manual removal of dandilions, etc. Entire towns have gone spray-free, but that requires a team of dedicated people out there in the parks removi…

So what are big-ag in Canada and Europe doing?

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

#287

Post by lostapathy » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 7:19 PM UTC

kortilla wrote: post #266

dependenttypes wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The impressive thing is how HOAs are even legal.

Why are they impressive in that regard? You’re not forced to purchase a home that has legal obligations.

I’m about the same sense that I’m not forced to buy electricity from the local power utility

Large parts of the country have very little housing stock, especially newer housing, that isn’t HOA-encumbered.

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

#288

Post by TedDoesntTalk » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 7:25 PM UTC

GordonS wrote: post #255

mixmastamyk wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would someone insist on it? Seems like an odd thing to be focused on.

Appearances? Just because everyone else does it? Some people are just stuck in certain ways? I've never got a straight answer on this ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What is even worse are the people in deserts and desert-like areas who insist on Kentucky bluegrass and other non-native plants. The water waste is repulsive.

My neighbors recently installed AstroTurf in their backyard because of this.

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

#289

Post by contingencies » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 7:28 PM UTC

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #161

zackmorris wrote: post #109

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…

My understanding is that these are not legal in most first world countries anymore -- I know they are banned in Canada and parts of Europe at least. It sounds like Germany is already on their way to banning glyphosate[0] 0: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/04/germany-...

EU renewed it but may ban it in 2022. https://www.dw.com/en/eu-lawmakers-vote-to-ban-glyphosate-we...

US just renewed it. https://foodandwaterwatch.org/news/why-it-should-anger-all-u...

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

#290

Post by spaceisballer » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 7:29 PM UTC

GordonS wrote: post #255

mixmastamyk wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would someone insist on it? Seems like an odd thing to be focused on.

Appearances? Just because everyone else does it? Some people are just stuck in certain ways? I've never got a straight answer on this ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My experiences are one part appearances and the other part moving to a new area. Where my wife and I grew up neither of our families did any regular fertilizer or anything just occasional weeding and lawns would be thick and green. Now we live in another part of the country and the soil is terrible. So it’s hard to have a lawn take hold, without constant irrigation. We live on a well so I’m not interested also that’s a pretty big waste of water. I don’t mind the clover we have but the crabgrass is out of control.