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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

#381

Post by nwienert »

foepys wrote: post #315
elwell wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The research also found that modern cars, with a more aerodynamic body shape, killed more insects than boxier vintage cars up to 70 years old. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windshield_phenomenon#United_K...

I haven't read the complete study but it appears that they only measured the impacts on the license plate? If so, this doesn't seem like good methodology because the license plate is only a very small part of the vehicle and position can vary wildly between brands and models. The license plate can be the most forward facing part but also be in a little cutout of the front fender.

It’s a great example of Scientisim and not Science. Of course the result confirms the popular narrative, so it will be cited without question. But the dead-obvious observation would be that by definition aerodynamic things tend to impact less, it’s literally what they’re designed to do.

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

#382

Post by macinjosh »

Scottopherson wrote: post #354
macinjosh wrote: post #300

What is more important? Your nan walking home from the corner store after dark under a street light or a beetle? Germany: beetles!

If we decimate the insect population there won't be any nans or corner stores. If a street light is the only thing keeping your nan safe then maybe your area has bigger safety issues to address. Regardless, for any issue there is usually middle ground to be found and snark comments like yours do nothing to help find or support it.

How dare you use your privilege of living in a safe community to attack my experiences? I think you have some real work to do on yourself.

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

#383

Post by etangent »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #6
blakesterz wrote: post #3

I always just assumed that there are few insects now because there are so many more insecticides in use, this is the first time I've heard of lights. There's not much explaination in this article, but here's one with some more: Nighttime Light Pollution May Be Cause of Insect Population Decline https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Nighttime_Light_Pollution... "An analysis of the effects of artificial light at night on…

It's a combination of factors. Insecticides, pollution, loss of habitat, light pollution(especially from daylight LEDs), global warming(throwing off reproduction timing), ubiquitous roadways and vehicles, flat surfaces(beetles get stuck on their back).

Whenever I see someone claim a given problem is due to a combination of factors, I get a bit suspicious. First, this seems like a way to say "I don't really know the actual cause." Second, in the real world in situations like these, there is almost always one overwhelming factor that accounts for >60% of total influence. I really do wonder what that is because I like insects!

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

#384

Post by mensetmanusman »

In the U.S. town and city budgets have a pretty steady lighting investment component.

Because LED’s got so inexpensive, instead of saving money, the savings was used to increase the town luminosity.

Now, because we moved away from sodium lights, the amount of daytime-like blue light being emitted during the night has skyrocketed.

Wups

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

#385

Post by mensetmanusman »

Insects are dead because we manufacturer billions of liters of insect-killing liquid to spray fields to feed billions of humans.

Starvation levels have dramatically declined over the last century.

Now, we need to fix the problem we induced in our goal to feed the world.

The only known solution is vertical farming.

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

#386

Post by mensetmanusman »

reportingsjr wrote: post #370
hn_check wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Humans are absolutely having a calamitous effect on insect life in a variety of dimensions This is incredibly obvious to be in my neighborhood. My landlord (very regretfully) has a company spray insecticide in our yard. There are no bugs, not a single bug sound. The area I live in has many nature conscious people so about 1/10th of the yards are gardens, wildflowers, etc rather than grass. Just walking by them you…

We moved into a home last year with a ‘nice’ boomer lawn maintained with all the chemicals (there were almost 10 types of insect killer sprays in the basement, each for a different genus).

When digging for some conduit, my toddlers kept wanting to find worms in the dirt and waited in excitement as I dug about a yard of dirt.

No bugs, no worms.

whoa!

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

#389

Post by fiblye »

hinkley wrote: post #253
epanchin wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Driving through Europe one finds the front of the car covered in squashed insects. Drive through the UK and there are none. Depressing.

I didn't take the insect apocalypse seriously until I realized how much less time I'm spending washing bugs off my car. It was sort of my Silent Spring moment.

Yeah, I remember my parents needing to clean their windshield every time we went on the highway. It'd get absolutely caked in yellow and brown spatters after merely an hour or two.

As for me, I've never cleaned my windshield in my life. The rain washes off the little bits of dust. There's nothing else to clean.

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

#390

Post by natmaka »

joecool1029 wrote: post #368
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We live rural southern Ontario and fireflies are usually just a single weekend or so at the end of June or beginning of July. But this year they went on for almost two months. They only just stopped about a week ago. I'm not sure why it was a good season for them. Like you say, traffic, lighting, pesticide sprays on farms, all really the same despite COVID. Reduced air traffic I don't think would have an affect? Even…

> We live rural southern Ontario and fireflies are usually just a single weekend or so at the end of June or beginning of July. But this year they went on for almost two months. They only just stopped about a week ago. I wonder if this is cyclical behavior. We had a year like that last year down in NJ. This year it was back to maybe only a week. I live in the west part of the state surrounded by parkland. Rainfall wa…

“firefly boom”! In Michigan in 2018: https://www.michiganradio.org/post/firefly-boom-lighting-mic...
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