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Post by Ms. English on May 30, 2023 7:47:21 GMT -5
Post your answers to the discussion question here. Make sure to read the responses of those posted before you and respond directly to them when appropriate before posting your own.
"We've lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth," Klinkenborg writes (par. 6). How have we done this? By what is the night occupied?
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Post by jordanpritchett on Jul 4, 2023 18:42:04 GMT -5
In paragraph 6 of Our Vanishing Night, Klinkenborg says that “we’ve lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth”; however, this is a meaningful statement because through humans installing and then normalizing mass amounts of man-made light, nocturnal species have been forced to bear the consequences of having a no longer dark night. This has caused many issues in the wild, many of which are certain species becoming endangered. This would include sea turtles that are in the process of nesting, as they are in search of dark beaches. However, they have been tending to “find fewer and fewer of them to nest on”(Klinkenborg, par.9). Moving along, Klinkenborg continues and refers to one of the solutions of combatting light pollution, by pointing out that some “simple changes in lighting design and installation yield immediate changes in the amount of light spilled into the atmosphere and, often, immediate energy savings”(Klinkenborg, par.10). So, since there is a solution that would not only solve the problem but also cause much money to be saved, then why aren’t humans fixing the issue?
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Post by hannahboothby on Jul 7, 2023 9:25:38 GMT -5
Klinkenborg says, "We've lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth." This means that we’ve taken over the night with man-made light without thinking about the consequences of doing that. We thought that night was useless and that the usage of man-made light wouldn’t have negative effects. However, there are many drawbacks to using man-made light at night. Our bodies run on a sleep cycle based on natural light, being awake during the day and sleeping at night. Man-made light offsets this cycle, which isn’t necessarily healthy. Similarly, man-made light also offsets the natural habits of animals, such as causing sea turtles to crawl towards cities instead of the ocean and forcing nocturnal animals to find new homes away from man-made light. These natural cycles and habits are what occupy the night. The night has always been just as important to the natural world as daytime, it has never been unoccupied just because it seems to be useless to humans.
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Post by Arianna McCord on Jul 7, 2023 18:06:11 GMT -5
In paragraph 6, "We've lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth," is stated. I feel this quote means that we had installed our man-made light sources without thinking about anything else but us. We installed it knowing that it would help us in the way we wanted it but didn't think about any outside occurrences that don't surround us. With this decision, it interrupted wild life and other organisms. Life other than us need the darkness more then we might even think. Even humans need the darkness more than we realize. Just honestly disturbing necessities that will be more important later due to the lack of it.
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Post by elizabethb on Jul 18, 2023 9:39:25 GMT -5
Klinkenborg writes in paragraph 6, "We've lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth," We have done this by using artificial light during night time when it is suppose to be dark out. The earth has its rhythm and when we add light when it should be dark we are messing up the rhythm. Which then disrupts other creatures rhythm that live on earth. His quote is also stating that humans carelessly light up the night as if they are the only thing it is affecting. But really, the country is very occupied with all kinds of creatures. Which of many are nocturnal and need the darkness, but the careless with bright lights of humans mess up their rhythm. Not only are the birds migration and breeding patterns being changed and interrupted but so are humans. We run on the circadian rhythm, which we mess up by shortening the night. Klinkenborg says the lights at night "short-circuits" the human body's sensitive response to light. He then explains how different levels of light in a woman's neighborhood during the night time can increase/decrease her risk of breast cancer.
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Post by audratate on Jul 19, 2023 17:48:01 GMT -5
In America, the night has been lit up through various advancements in lighting technology and urban development. The lighting of the night sky has had many impacts on both society and the environment. America has been lit up by streetlights, which have been created to improve visibility and safety, allowing people to travel in the night. Building signs and illuminated buildings have been created to catch the eye with the neon lights and advertise. Anther way the light has been lit up is from air traffic. The airplanes and helicopters that fly at night create light in which it looks like there is a shooting star. This progress in lighting has also had a major effect on pollution, energy consumption has increased and society has been effected by the lights at dark. Sleep schedules can be messed up especially in the major cities, where the city can be seen from space.
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Post by aubrianna on Jul 21, 2023 11:32:51 GMT -5
In the essay Our Vanishing Night Klinkenborg says, “we’ve lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth”. We have made this man-made light by destroying things that should have never been touched, we have taken over the night without a second thought and caused nocturnal species to have to pay the consequences of our actions. Our man-made materials have made an effect on animals and can cause issues in the wild. Klinkenborg goes on to state some of the animals this has an effect on, such as “in some Swiss valleys the European lesser horseshoe bat began to vanish after streetlights were installed”. And much more, Klinkenborg also says how easily we can make changes by “simple changes in light designs and installations yield immediate changes in the amount of light spilled in the atmosphere and, often, immediate energy savings”.
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Post by Andrew on Jul 24, 2023 12:40:01 GMT -5
In Our Vanishing Night, Klinkenborg writes "We've lit up the night sky as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth." This references man's ability to unknowingly destroy the natural world around us. We've occupied the night with artificial light that we have created. Removing the natural order of the darkness we have left nocturnal animals confused and disoriented. Klinkenborg describes what has come as a result of the tempered darkness: animals with mixed up breeding and migration patterns and spaces in nature no longer safe for certain species because of the unnatural illumination. He describes how light pollution is perhaps the easiest fix of all pollution we face. Simple changes in lighting design could help to manage the amount of light that leaks into the atmosphere. This would result in immediate energy savings, as well as the return of the natural biological behaviors of animals all over the world.
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sofia
New Member
Posts: 10
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Post by sofia on Jul 26, 2023 14:39:42 GMT -5
Klinkenborg states, “We've lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth” (par.6), because humans have slowly taken over the night sky with light. Light during the night is still a relatively modern concept that has emerged with technological advancements and now is available in almost every part of the world. With all of the benefits it gives to society, it also creates unintentional but serious consequences: the loss of the night sky and change in animal populations. Earth is not only home to humans but also millions of other species, and some of which are impacted greatly by the use of artificial light. For example, Klinkenborg states that there has been evidence that animal populations like sea turtles, birds, and bats all suffer because of man-made light, which causes destructive and sometimes fatal changes to their way of life.
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Post by Eloise on Jul 26, 2023 18:55:48 GMT -5
In paragraph 6, Klinkenborg writes “We've lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth." We have lit the night up as the result of bad light engineering and installation. Artificial light is emitted throughout the world from cities, shining out and up into the sky where it shouldn't be. It has washed out the darkness and replaced it with light. The night is occupied, however, by all of the nocturnal creatures and ourselves, all of which face the consequences of the light. Birds collide with brightly lit buildings and insects die, cluttered around light posts. Many animals have become easier targets for predators as the darkness does nothing to disguise them now. Birds sing at the wrong hours and turtles die because they are attracted to the wrong light. Even humans are affected by the light as women are more likely to have breast cancer if their neighborhood is brightly lit. The overall effect of the lit-up night sky is great and continues to increase.
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Post by Ellie Reeves on Jul 27, 2023 14:35:51 GMT -5
In "Our Vanishing Night", author Verlyn Klinkenborg states that "we've lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth,". We have done this by emitting mass amounts of man-made light from cities without stopping to consider the possible downsides on not only humans but other organisms as well. The night is occupied by thousands of animals using the darkness as a form of cover from predators or as a biological clock upon which their behavior is based upon. Changing the amount of light these animals have during the night has consequences in the form of unnatural behavior, differing migration and mating practices, and even leading to some animals becoming extinct. This increase in artificial light impacts humans as well. Our circadian rhythms are based upon the presence of light and the possible biological impacts have yet to be fully studied or understood. The light pollution problem can be fixed by changing the designs and amounts emitted during the night which could lead to immediate positive effects on humans and other organisms.
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Post by emmagray on Jul 31, 2023 19:11:30 GMT -5
In the essay "Our Vanishing Night" the author Verlyn Klinkenborg states "we've lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth". In other words, this means that we have taken the night with our man-made light, not realizing what it may do to the environment, the animals, people, and even all the way to space. One topic they talk about in this essay is the migration and living way of animals through this struggle of light pollution. "Nesting sea turtles, which show a natural predisposition for dark beaches, find fewer and fewer of them to nest on. Their hatchlings, which gravitate toward the brighter, more reflective _sea horizon, find themselves confused by artificial lighting behind the beach". This is just one example of how this light pollution effects life itself, but what makes this an even bigger problem is how the night is already occupied. All of the organisms who use the dark to their advantage and/or use it as their way of living, have to deal with behavioral changes, different practices, and even more.
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Post by Hailey Lowry on Aug 13, 2023 10:12:16 GMT -5
In paragraph 6 of “Our Vanishing Night” Verlyn Klinkenborg states “We’ve lit up the night as if we were an unoccupied country when nothing could be further from the truth”. This means that we as humans have taken over the night with man-made light without thinking about the consequences that come with that. These consequences affect us as well as other animals. Man-made light affects our natural sleep schedule, which is to sleep during the night and be up during the day. It also has led to more health issues like breast cancer. Man-made light also affects animals' migration schedule. Birds migrate at night and since everything is lit up at night, these birds are colliding with buildings. Man-made light also has affected other nocturnal animals causing them to be easier targets by predators, which changes the animal population. Light pollution is only going to cause more issues in the future, so hopefully, people start to take more precautions.
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Post by georgia on Aug 14, 2023 13:32:09 GMT -5
In paragraph six of “Our Vanishing Night”, Klinkenborg writes, “We’ve lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be farther from the truth.” We have done this through the creation of artificial light, which is widely misused or used excessively during the night, causing natural darkness to become limited. This has adverse effects on the natural world and the living species who occupy the night including ourselves. Throughout the essay, Klinkenborg discusses the negative effects light pollution can have on these creatures. For example he writes about studies that have shown that light biologically attracts creatures, and how this phenomenon has resulted in population decreases in birds who migrate at night and crash into lit buildings and insects who congregating around street lights making it easier for predators to prey on them. He also writes about how the unnatural shorting of nights has effected the migration and breeding of certain species of birds. By excessively using man-made light during the night humans have negatively impacted many species who rely on natural darkness.
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Post by violetkn on Aug 16, 2023 9:46:40 GMT -5
In “Our Vanishing Night” Klinkenborg writes that we have “lit up the night like an unoccupied county” and then says that this is anything but the truth. The night is occupied by man made light sources, such as cars, streetlights, and billboards. This not only causes us to lose our natural darkness but impacts life on our Earth, as losing natural darkness affects many nocturnal animals as well as humans quality of sleep. The idea of lighting up the night like an unoccupied country comes from the mass amount of light infrastructure humans have built to avoid having true darkness. Since these things benefit us on a certain level, we do not think of the long term consequences they cause both to us and other life forms. Examples of this are street lights, which help us drive at night, however they make it impossible for there to be full natural darkness.
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