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I suspect, totally off the cuff, that this is more related to destruction of insect habitat, overuse of pesticides, cats, night time lighting, and a whole sloug
by christophilus 5y ago
I suspect, totally off the cuff, that this is more related to destruction of insect habitat, overuse of pesticides, cats, night time lighting, and a whole slough of other anti-insect man-made problems. Global warming plays a part, no doubt, but my guess would be that it’s not the primary problem. Almost all of the yards around me are insect deserts, and these yards are common across the US urban and suburban regions.
For many decades now, we’ve effectively been waging war on a key part of bird diets.
Edit: also, as mentioned elsewhere, we’ve reforested, but have subsequently lost critical meadowland. And our new forests tend to be more monocrop than the woodlands of old.
- codazoda 5y agoSo, I prefer a dark house at night. There are even studies that indicate crime is actually lower in the dark(1). What other studies are there that indicate turning off the lights and reducing light pollution is a good idea? 1: The Chicago Alley Lighting Project (1998-2000)
- animal_spirits 5y agoIf you are interested in light pollution there is a fantastic documentary I would recommend called "Saving the Dark" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fHxNn-FEnc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fHxNn-FEnc Light pollution seems to be the easiest type of pollution to fix
- forgotmyoldname 5y ago> And our new forests tend to be more monocrop than the woodlands of old. This is a huge problem. When "reforesting", all too often the effort is just planting rows of evenly spaced out pine trees. Pine needles are decidedly less edible than soft leaves, and the piles of needles on the ground don't exactly provide a good environment for smaller plants to grow and certainly aren't a good home for insects. People are essentially planting green deserts.