Plummeting insect numbers threaten collapse of nature

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(03-08-2019 04:20 AM)Dan Wrote:  One look at the Earth at night shows how bad it has become:

To this topic I can contribute anectdotical evidence as well. I joined the local amateur astronomer group when I moved to "our" town (Tübingen) in southeastern Germany 19 years ago. I am part of the team which gives public talks at the local observatory and shows and explains the night sky to the public. Although I know my way around the constellations reasonably well and my eyesight is good enough to be allowed to fly transport category aeroplanes I (and my other teammates) have increasing difficulties to identify celestial objects. During the last years, even in many cloudless and seemingly dark nights only a handful of bright stars remain visible to the unaided eye, which makes it very difficult to find dim objects with the telescope.
As much as I welcome LED lighting for it's low power consumption, it is my impression that this is also the main culprit for the recent increase in light pollution. Lighting has become so cheap (in terms of the electricity bill and the longevity of the LED "bulbs") that few people care about turning off unused lights. This unfortunately also includes street lighting and lighting of public spots like supermarket public lots and similar.

And regarding the original topic I found this paper which I don't think has been referenced yet: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar...0718313636

"Paul Ehrlich" does not seem to be among the authors and even if, I wonder why that should be wrong if proper scientific methods were used. I must confess that initially I thought this was about another Paul Ehrlich (after which a street is named in most towns in this country...) because the American one is not very well known here. But reading the Wikipedia Article about him does not convince me that he is completeley wrong. Even if some of his predictions have not come true (yet) there is little doubt (to me) that they soon will.

Regards
Max