Posted on 09/22/2022 3:36:23 PM PDT by Right Wing Vegan
Every spring and fall, billions of birds migrate through the US, mostly under the cover of darkness. This mass movement of birds must contend with a dramatically increasing but still largely unrecognized threat: light pollution. Light pollution harms birds, but you can help!
Light attracts and disorients migrating birds, confusing and exhausting them as well as making them vulnerable to collisions with buildings, not to mention other urban threats like cats and toxins. An estimated 365 – 988 million birds die in collisions with buildings annually, including a number of species of high conservation concern. The BirdCast team joins a growing international Lights Out efforts already underway, including in over 30 cities in North America, in proposing and implementing one solution that is as simple as flipping a switch. In conjunction with primary measures to make buildings and homes, especially their windows, more bird friendly (check out this comprehensive resource for preventing window collisions) during daylight hours, lights out campaigns offer a critically important opportunity to reduce and to eliminate an enormous contributing source of nocturnal and diurnal hazards.
Why are birds important?
Birds provide:
ecosystem services, act as benchmarks for environmental health, increase livability, and connect people of all ages and abilities to the natural world.
The solution:
Turn off or dim non-essential lighting during critical migration periods! Turning off lights dramatically reduces hazards from attraction to and disorientation by light, allowing birds to safely proceed with their migratory journeys. And further, Lights Out does more than save birds, it saves energy and money! The Environmental Protection Agency highlights energy as the largest operating expense for commercial buildings. Reducing energy use by shutting off lights for migration season makes environmental sense and fiscal sense.
Lights Out is a win-win for birds and cities, and the people who love both. By working together toward a dark sky every spring and fall, we will keep birds safely on course and out of harm’s way. Each light matters, and your commitment makes all the difference.
This fall, take the pledge to let us know you’re going Lights Out during critical migration periods to protect wildlife in your area!
Take action using these guidelines:
Light-Guidelines
Turn off non-essential lights from 11 PM until 6 AM during critical migration periods. Turn off or dim lobby and atrium lights. Turn off or dim interior home lighting, or draw blinds to prevent light escaping. Turn off decorative landscape lighting. Turn off lights before leaving the home or office. Be sure outside lights are aimed down and well shielded. Install motion sensors on outside lights to minimize use. Prevent daylight collisions with bird friendly products for windows
I’ve lived in Orange, Hollywood, Glendale, Pomona, Costa Mesa, and several other places in the Greater Los Angeles area.
Neither do I. By "ultimately more regulations and control," I meant what this incipient campaign could develop into in the future once its premises have been sufficiently ingrained in people's minds.
Btw, I was referring to this country, not Istanbul, Tokyo, etc. Hence my comment, the more lights they install, the higher the crime. Look at all our major cities. They're lit up like giant sports stadiums, yet crime is at all time highs and increasing.
Well then North Korea must not have any crime at all.
988 million birds die in collisions
Yeah well guess what chickens don’t die of old age.
Eheh true those fools sit there slurping campbell’s chicken noodle while scheming to regulate city lighting to save the grackles Lolzz
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