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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Light pollution is getting worse across much of the globe, with the exception of countries like Yemen and Syria:
A study of pictures of Earth by night has revealed that artificial light is growing brighter and more extensive every year. Between 2012 and 2016, the planet's artificially lit outdoor area grew by more than 2% per year. Scientists say a "loss of night" in many countries is having negative consequences for "flora, fauna, and human well-being".
A team published the findings in the journal Science Advances. Their study used data from a Nasa satellite radiometer - a device designed specifically to measure the brightness of night-time light. It showed that changes in brightness over time varied greatly by country. Some of the world's "brightest nations", such as the US and Spain, remained the same. Most nations in South America, Africa and Asia grew brighter. [...]
- In 2016, the American Medical Association officially recognised the "detrimental effects of poorly designed, high-intensity LED lighting", saying it encouraged communities to "minimise and control blue-rich environmental lighting by using the lowest emission of blue light possible to reduce glare. The sleep-inducing hormone melatonin is particularly sensitive to blue light.
- A recent study published in the journal Nature [DOI: 10.1038/nature23288] [DX] revealed that artificial light was a threat to crop pollination - reducing the pollinating activity of nocturnal insects.
- Research in the UK revealed that trees in more brightly lit areas burst their buds up to a week earlier [open, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2016.0813] [DX] than those in areas without artificial lighting.
- A study published earlier this year found that urban light installations "dramatically altered" the behaviour of nocturnally migrating birds.
Lead researcher Christopher Kyba from the German Research Centre for Geoscience in Potsdam said that the introduction of artificial light was "one of the most dramatic physical changes human beings have made to our environment".
Also at Sky & Telescope, NPR, and EurekAlert.
Artificially lit surface of Earth at night increasing in radiance and extent (open, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1701528) (DX)
Previously: Bring on the Night, say National Park Visitors in New Study
Light Pollution Prevents 80% of North Americans From Seeing the Milky Way
Study Shows That Artificial Lights Deter Nocturnal Pollinators
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @05:09AM (4 children)
Too bad there's no process by which complex phenomena (such as living organisms) can evolve to exist successfully in the environment at hand. I guess everything is doomed.
In other news, billions of years ago: Most of life on Earth is struggling to deal with this widespread pollutant known as oxygen.
BTW, this is such a crap website. Every time I try to post something, I'm told my IP has been blocked, so I post through Tor, which mostly works; however, I'm frequently told that I have an "invalid form key", which makes no sense unless this website is designed by idiots whose only solution is to hack some naive PoS together... oh, wait... that's an exact description of this website!)
(Score: 2) by lx on Sunday August 13 2017, @05:34AM (1 child)
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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 14 2017, @01:35AM
Some species will survive. Others have not. E.g.
(source [cbbulletin.com])
A significant loss of diversity isn't what I'd describe as "fine."
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @05:37AM
I can post without tor, but I also get the invalid form key crap periodically. Oh well, I'm sure they'll work on it.
I mean, I'm sure they monitor errors for things that need fixing.
I mean, it's obvious that one should, otherwise why bother with errors?
(Score: 2, Informative) by kaszz on Sunday August 13 2017, @06:24AM
Invalid form key usually happens when you have taken to long between clicking "Reply" and clicking "Submit".
I can suspect that a TOR exit node may change IP between requests such that the form key becomes invalid. One possible mitigation is to prepare the text first and then quickly click Reply, paste text and then click Submit within a few seconds.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday August 13 2017, @06:33AM (1 child)
Here's an possibility to save energy and pollinators. Install movement detectors that control a string of lights along a street such that when there's no one around the light is shut of. Whenever someone is detected the light stays on for 30 minutes to let people have time to get their business done and to reduce the number of on-off events. The light controller can learn on a weekly basis such that if someone was present at the same time the previous week, then the light is turned on regardless of any current trigger but the motion detection at the present time is of course recorded to learn for the next week and so on.
The long on period is to reduce the chance someone is left in the dark and save the light sources from the on-off wear.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday August 13 2017, @07:50AM
Make the detector sensitive and re-triggerable. That way a shorter on interval is good enough and no need to remember anything. With LED lights, the on/off stress is near nothing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @06:50AM (1 child)
We've had artificial light at night since before man discovered fire.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 14 2017, @03:09AM
"Before"?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Techwolf on Sunday August 13 2017, @07:42AM (1 child)
One can hope that this will pan out to requiring residential light to be turned off while street lights and billboard have to emit near zero toward the sky. The new LED street lights I've seen so far do a very good job of keeping the light on the pavement instead of the sky. I live outside the city limits. The neighbors are nice and none of them do not run any dusk to dawn lights. It makes skywatching better. Plus any criminal would have to use a flashlight and that would attract attanchtion big time.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday August 13 2017, @07:53AM
I wonder about how so many people think they need nightlights everywhere. I mean, sure when I was 4 years old, but eventually I turned 5 and discovered that the dark isn't all that scary.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @09:37AM
I jack off in the darkness.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @11:30AM
Could we eat the cake and have it too? I.e. have lights on at night that would not disturb night life.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 13 2017, @08:08PM (1 child)
In accordance with best practices, I did not read the article, but ... does the color of the artificial light matter? Sodium vapor lights are yellow, mercury vapor lights are blue ... are insects equally affected?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 14 2017, @03:29AM
Sodium is yellow
Mercury is blue
Insects are affected
And so are you [europa.eu].