Light pollution prolongs avian activity(gizmodo.com)
gizmodo.com
Light pollution prolongs avian activity
https://gizmodo.com/birds-across-the-world-are-singing-all-day-for-a-disturbing-reason-2000646257
32 comments
Super efficient LEDs have made this problem totally out of control. Incredibly bright while also being very cheap to run.
Paranoid/careless jackasses are lining their houses with 100,000 lumen cool white prison lights they bought on amazon for $30.
Parking lots are getting filled with ridiculously bright street lights because "Brighter = better? Right?". Just enough light to see? No! We need to recreate the sun for this vacant lot all night every night!
Paranoid/careless jackasses are lining their houses with 100,000 lumen cool white prison lights they bought on amazon for $30.
Parking lots are getting filled with ridiculously bright street lights because "Brighter = better? Right?". Just enough light to see? No! We need to recreate the sun for this vacant lot all night every night!
It's worse than that. The high-flicker, narrow-band LEDs used for most LED streetlights today create insanely bad color discrepancy and distortion due to motion.
It's a crime against nature and a crime against humanity that cities have allowed such a scourge to proliferate, when we have the science and technology for much better LED street lights.
It gets even worse because in order to make up for these discrepancies and distortion, manufacturers just.... turn them up brighter, fundamentally ignoring the problem and only making it worse.
It's bad enough that this affects drivers and pedestrians, but think of all of the animals who don't get a say, and who are even more sensitive to the flicker and lack of color information.
It's a crime against nature and a crime against humanity that cities have allowed such a scourge to proliferate, when we have the science and technology for much better LED street lights.
It gets even worse because in order to make up for these discrepancies and distortion, manufacturers just.... turn them up brighter, fundamentally ignoring the problem and only making it worse.
It's bad enough that this affects drivers and pedestrians, but think of all of the animals who don't get a say, and who are even more sensitive to the flicker and lack of color information.
The original study published in Science [1] has a better title:
Light pollution prolongs avian activity
> They found that birds were generally vocal for nearly an hour longer in the presence of light pollution. Furthermore, birds that are more exposed, or entrained, to light were more affected, such as those with large eyes and open nests.
The Gizmodo article takes a bit to get to the reference point, being light pollution (I originally mistakenly thought it was a relative to time).
[1] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adv9472
Light pollution prolongs avian activity
> They found that birds were generally vocal for nearly an hour longer in the presence of light pollution. Furthermore, birds that are more exposed, or entrained, to light were more affected, such as those with large eyes and open nests.
The Gizmodo article takes a bit to get to the reference point, being light pollution (I originally mistakenly thought it was a relative to time).
[1] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adv9472
Ok we can use that title above. Thanks!
(Submitted title was "Birds are singing an average of 50 minutes longer per day", which was already better than the baity title of the article - thanks gmays)
(Submitted title was "Birds are singing an average of 50 minutes longer per day", which was already better than the baity title of the article - thanks gmays)
What is the impact of an increase of energy spend each day by this birds? They need more food, so they will eat more insects and grain.
I doubt that it is a negligible amount. It could easy affect the amount of birds that an ecosystem can host, and way more things down the line.
All these rapid changes can mess up the equilibrium in our ecosystems. Light pollution also affects insect behavior. If light pollution makes birds consume more insects and it also reduces the number of insects it is an accumulative problem.
- Light pollution is a driver of insect declines: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00063...
I doubt that it is a negligible amount. It could easy affect the amount of birds that an ecosystem can host, and way more things down the line.
All these rapid changes can mess up the equilibrium in our ecosystems. Light pollution also affects insect behavior. If light pollution makes birds consume more insects and it also reduces the number of insects it is an accumulative problem.
- Light pollution is a driver of insect declines: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00063...
I don't even need to go as far as the birds and the bees. The modern pervasive light pollution affects my behavior. My city's streets feel like a movie set these nights in a really uncanny unreal way.
LED lighting is too good, too cheap, makes it too easy to have way too much goddamn light in every corner of every street over every hour of every day. It feels like it's so machines can see better, not so I can see better.
LED lighting is too good, too cheap, makes it too easy to have way too much goddamn light in every corner of every street over every hour of every day. It feels like it's so machines can see better, not so I can see better.
makes it too easy to have way too much goddamn light in every corner of every street
That's essentially correct, but modern tech also makes it relatively easy (and in the end cheaper compared to non-LED) to
- make lights with a properly focused well directed beam instead of flooding the whole place; we have a new one close to our house and it sheds light only on the street itself to the point you can almost see a nice straight line where the light beam stops and beyond that line it's markedly darker than it used to be even though the light beam itself has a higher intensity
- make lights which emit in wavelengths which are less environmentally harmful for flora/fauna
- make each lantern remote controllable (on/off/dimming); main street lights here dim after 11pm and are truned off in all secondary streets
(there's a website dedcated to listing the best models for all of this but I cannot find it anymore)
The thing which is lacking here mostly is awareness and governments willing to implement this properly. We live in a rather small rural village which did implement all of this - too bad there's no research project assesing before and after but since it counters most of the negatives I assume it should turn out positive for the environment. Birds are definitely positively affected by it: execpt for owls I don't hear any singing in the middle of the night anymore. And in any case it feels pretty 'normal' to come home at night while it's properly dark.
That's essentially correct, but modern tech also makes it relatively easy (and in the end cheaper compared to non-LED) to
- make lights with a properly focused well directed beam instead of flooding the whole place; we have a new one close to our house and it sheds light only on the street itself to the point you can almost see a nice straight line where the light beam stops and beyond that line it's markedly darker than it used to be even though the light beam itself has a higher intensity
- make lights which emit in wavelengths which are less environmentally harmful for flora/fauna
- make each lantern remote controllable (on/off/dimming); main street lights here dim after 11pm and are truned off in all secondary streets
(there's a website dedcated to listing the best models for all of this but I cannot find it anymore)
The thing which is lacking here mostly is awareness and governments willing to implement this properly. We live in a rather small rural village which did implement all of this - too bad there's no research project assesing before and after but since it counters most of the negatives I assume it should turn out positive for the environment. Birds are definitely positively affected by it: execpt for owls I don't hear any singing in the middle of the night anymore. And in any case it feels pretty 'normal' to come home at night while it's properly dark.
> That's essentially correct, but modern tech also makes it relatively easy (and in the end cheaper compared to non-LED)
I don't think modern tech is really needed for (some of?) the things you list:
* we've know about lenses and focusing for centuries (the highly directional Fresnel lens was invented ~1815).
* incandescent lights have been around for a century and they were <3500K since the beginning; sodium street lights (<3000K) have been around for decades too
It is not so much modern tech that's the thing as modern (better) understanding: we've actually done research into the topic, and that research is more widely known; see for example this report by the city of Toronto on effective lighting (that mentions Dark Sky certification by name):
* https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/8ff6-city-...
I don't think modern tech is really needed for (some of?) the things you list:
* we've know about lenses and focusing for centuries (the highly directional Fresnel lens was invented ~1815).
* incandescent lights have been around for a century and they were <3500K since the beginning; sodium street lights (<3000K) have been around for decades too
It is not so much modern tech that's the thing as modern (better) understanding: we've actually done research into the topic, and that research is more widely known; see for example this report by the city of Toronto on effective lighting (that mentions Dark Sky certification by name):
* https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/8ff6-city-...
> there's a website dedcated to listing the best models for all of this but I cannot find it anymore
Could be the DarkSky approved products: https://darksky.org/what-we-do/darksky-approved/
Could be the DarkSky approved products: https://darksky.org/what-we-do/darksky-approved/
Thanks, yes that was the one.
Here’s the thing: all of those things you mentioned (dimming, occupancy sensing, focused beams, light shields to prevent light pollution on other properties) are options that can be added on during manufacturing, but an engineer needs to specify that those options are required or else someone will win the bid with a more basic light pole head without all those options.
The customer (municipality or state) often will compare the nice lights with all of the options you listed against a more basic light during the planning phase and opt to spend less money on the more basic lighting.
The customer (municipality or state) often will compare the nice lights with all of the options you listed against a more basic light during the planning phase and opt to spend less money on the more basic lighting.
Indeed I implied this when saying 'willing to implement', but one thing to note: the customer should be smart enough to consider total cost of oownership. I.e. there's the price of the light but also the price of having to replace it and having it on etc. The extra price of functionality allowing to decrease the amount of on time might pay itself back. I vaguely recall in my municipality this was one of the reasons they went for the slightly more expensive initial cost of full control ability anyway - not completely sure though.
> the customer should be smart enough
Oh how I wish that were true in all cases :)
Integral occupancy sensors are usually an easy sell, like you said the energy savings usually cover the added cost of the sensor and relay, given that most LED pole heads draw anywhere from 50w to 150w. It also simplifies installation and maintenance since you don’t need to switch a whole line of poles with a single occ sensor and contactor.
The more esoteric options are usually a harder sell, stuff like glare shields and non-standard optics/distribution. I see options like this selected when a commercial property borders residential property, but it’s atypical.
Photometric studies can be done to figure out what options should be selected, but the customer, engineer, and contractor are all overworked and don’t always design things the way they could (or should) be designed. I will say that wealthier areas tend to have the budgets and time to go the extra mile on stuff like this.
FWIW, one of the things I do at my day job is sell LED pole heads (and a full range of electrical services) to municipalities (and others).
Here’s an example pole head cutsheet that shows the options that can be selected for reference: https://pdmassets.azureedge.net/library/LL/documents/specshe...
Oh how I wish that were true in all cases :)
Integral occupancy sensors are usually an easy sell, like you said the energy savings usually cover the added cost of the sensor and relay, given that most LED pole heads draw anywhere from 50w to 150w. It also simplifies installation and maintenance since you don’t need to switch a whole line of poles with a single occ sensor and contactor.
The more esoteric options are usually a harder sell, stuff like glare shields and non-standard optics/distribution. I see options like this selected when a commercial property borders residential property, but it’s atypical.
Photometric studies can be done to figure out what options should be selected, but the customer, engineer, and contractor are all overworked and don’t always design things the way they could (or should) be designed. I will say that wealthier areas tend to have the budgets and time to go the extra mile on stuff like this.
FWIW, one of the things I do at my day job is sell LED pole heads (and a full range of electrical services) to municipalities (and others).
Here’s an example pole head cutsheet that shows the options that can be selected for reference: https://pdmassets.azureedge.net/library/LL/documents/specshe...
FWIW, one of the things I do at my day job is sell LED pole heads (and a full range of electrical services) to municipalities (and others).
Hehe, sorry for explaining the obvious to you then :D
Hehe, sorry for explaining the obvious to you then :D
No worries, I enjoy talking about electrical stuff :) I’m always happy to share the knowledge I have too, not many electrical PMs post on Hacker News!
> it sheds light only on the street itself to the point you can almost see a nice straight line where the light beam stops and beyond that line it's markedly darker than it used to be even though the light beam itself has a higher intensity
This is one of the biggest contributors to the uncanny movie-set feeling for me. I don't like it :/
This is one of the biggest contributors to the uncanny movie-set feeling for me. I don't like it :/
Best case we will get a lost generation before these changes are made.
Not me! I'm taking melatonin and automating my home lights to resemble natural lightning levels in order to mitigate.
Does it prolong activity, or enable prolonged activity? I’ve seen flocks of waterfowl fly along lit roads at night, taking sharp turns at intersections, seemingly navigating by the light patterns.
Great. More avian productivity! They were sleeping too much anyway.
Light pollution is also inside our homes. Well before the sun rises and well after the sun sets, we have the power to flick a switch and have an instant Sun!
I have to think that if the birds are chirping 50 minutes longer then what are humans doing? 50 minutes longer or even 100 minutes longer?
And how does that affect our sleep which affects our mood which affects our communication and affects our world?
I have to think that if the birds are chirping 50 minutes longer then what are humans doing? 50 minutes longer or even 100 minutes longer?
And how does that affect our sleep which affects our mood which affects our communication and affects our world?
Humans have been staying up late next to a bright light (fire) for longer than we've been Homo sapiens. Considering humans have unique physiological adaptations to smoke (heavy tear and mucus production) I think it's plausible that our circadian rhythms also adapted and aren't quite as sensitive to red/yellow light as other primates. Blue light, however...
It must have been around 15 years ago I first noticed birds singing in the dead of night near street lights. Light pollution is up there with noise pollution as my least favourite things about living in a society. Both seem to be mostly due to cars as it happens. It's kind of absurd that we talk about energy saving etc. but light up entire damn streets all through the night for no reason.
Maybe this is contributing to the insect decline. More time when both birds and bugs are out.
It also prolongs human activity.
Light pollution affects behavior of most animals we bother to study, it's only one topic of many in the book but Ed Yong's 2022 book An Immense World covers this for insects in particular. Some of it can be mitigated mostly by simply changing the color of the light or frequency of flashing.
Try to have a calm night near floodlights. They make the birds sing 24/7.
Great, we're giving the birds insomnia too.
[deleted]
I thought it was a good thing, it charged their batteries longer /s
[1] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adv9472
[2] https://birdnet.cornell.edu/
[3] https://github.com/Nachtzuster/BirdNET-Pi and https://github.com/tphakala/birdnet-go
[4] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...