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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday August 13 2017, @04:47AM   Printer-friendly
from the shining-light-on-pollination dept.

The Atlantic writes:

Insects help to keep the world green, by spreading the pollen of 88 percent of flowering plants. Those species account for 30 percent of crop production, with a total value of $361 billion—so a world full of buzzing insect wings is also one of full human stomachs. But pollinators are in trouble. Despite the recent good news that honeybee populations have bounced back slightly in the last year, the general trend is still a downward one in Europe and North America. A third of bee and butterfly species are in decline, beset by parasitic mites, destructive diseases, toxic pesticides, and changing climate. And recently, scientists have started considering another culprit—light pollution.

[...] "This is a very important study, which clearly demonstrates that artificial light at night is a threat to pollination," says Franz Hölker from the University of Hamburg.

Journal Reference: Eva Knop, Leana Zoller, Remo Ryser, Christopher Gerpe, Maurin Hörler & Colin Fontaine, Artificial light at night as a new threat to pollination, Nature 548, 206–209 (10 August 2017), doi:10.1038/nature23288


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  • (Score: 2) by lx on Sunday August 13 2017, @05:34AM (1 child)

    by lx (1915) on Sunday August 13 2017, @05:34AM (#553125)

    Not everything is doomed. Life of Earth will survive everything we throw at it.
    Keep messing up the world.
    Life will do fine without us.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 14 2017, @01:35AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 14 2017, @01:35AM (#553415)

    Some species will survive. Others have not. E.g.

    From 1900-2010, freshwater fish species in North America went extinct at a rate 877 times faster than the rate found in the fossil record, while estimates indicate the rate may double between now and 2050.

    (source [cbbulletin.com])

    A significant loss of diversity isn't what I'd describe as "fine."