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Starless Sky

D'Eramo, Marco
http://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/starless-sky

Publisher:  New Left Review
Date Written:  22/12/2022
Year Published:  2022  
Resource Type:  Article

As humanity conquered the dark with electricity, a new rhythm regulating daily life emerged. Making the night disappear has affected us in many ways, including the disregulation of our hormones, including Melatonin which regulates sleep, lowers cholesterol, boosts the immune system, and more.

Abstract: 
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Extract:

This much concerns us humans. But the effect on other living beings is far more dramatic – after all we’re diurnal animals. As Eklöf writes, ‘no less than a third of all vertebrates and almost two-thirds of all invertebrates are nocturnal, so it’s after we humans fall asleep that most natural activity occurs in the form of mating, hunting, decomposing and pollinating’. The prey of nocturnal predators has far less chance of escape. Today elephants, who are also diurnal, are said to be becoming nocturnal in order to evade poachers. Toads and frogs croak at night as a mating call; without darkness their reproductive rate plunges. The eggs of marine turtles hatch on beaches at night; the hatchlings finding the water by identifying the bright horizon above it. Artificial light thus draws them away from it: just in Florida, every year this kills millions of newly-hatched turtles. Millions of birds die every year from colliding with illuminated buildings and towers; nocturnal migratory birds orient themselves with the moon and the stars, but are disoriented by artificial light and lose their way.

The worst effects are felt by insects. According to a 2017 study, total insect biomass has dropped by 75% in the last 25 years. Motorists have been aware of this for some time, through the so-called windscreen effect. The number of insects that get squashed on the front of cars is far smaller than in previous decades. There are many causes for this decline, but artificial lighting is certainly one, because the majority of insects are nocturnal. We don’t realize it, but illuminated cities are a major migratory destination for insects from the countryside. Light also disturbs their reproductive rituals. Moths are exterminated by their attraction to light, and more plants are pollinated by moths than bees (which are also declining). The problem of pollination is so serious that, as Eklöf recounts, a few years ago photos of an orchard in Sichuan showed workers with ladders pollinating flowers by hand. Working quickly, one might be able to pollinate three trees a day; a small beehive can do a hundred times that number.

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