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The decline in insect populations is terrifying and real, but windshields are a bad way to measure it. Consumer vehicles have benefitted from improvements in t
by samatman 4y ago
The decline in insect populations is terrifying and real, but windshields are a bad way to measure it.
Consumer vehicles have benefitted from improvements in the process to make safety glass, and are substantially more aerodynamic than they were.
This leads to much less bug splatter, which is good! But it exaggerates the decline as well.
- RobertRoberts 4y agoUnless you have an old car from the 70s (I did for a long time) and the results were the same. Also, bumpers and grills were covered in moths, butterflies and grasshoppers, etc... when I was a kid. Not anymore, not for a long time.
- ConstantVigil 4y agoYeah, seems that fellow doesn't remember that old vehicles still run...
- RobertRoberts 4y agoAlso, I was hit by bugs around lakes and swamps just riding a bike. Walking some places was unbearable because of bugs my entire childhood. They are almost all gone now, clear as can be.
- mikestew 4y agoConsumer vehicles have benefitted from improvements in the process to make safety glass, and are substantially more aerodynamic than they were. In the 41 years since our VW Vanagon was made, the aerodynamic profile has not changed. And yet, while not measured with accuracy suitable for a lab report, we clean far fewer bugs of thing than years prior. As in, previously one might have to stop at a gas station just to clean the bugs off the windshield. Whereas these days, I'm actually surprised when a bug splats on the windshield. That, and your premise is flawed to begin with: ...data showing that modern cars hit more bugs, perhaps because older models push a bigger layer of air – and insects – over the vehicle. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/12/car-splatometer-tests-reveal-huge-decline-number-insects https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/12/car-spla...