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Post by Anna Miedema on Aug 17, 2023 10:48:21 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), Humans have carelessly taken up the night sky, due to technological advancements. As this artificial light is a great benefit to society it also has been extremely grown to unnecessary numbers. Humans take more than we need and when it comes to light pollution we are not nearly as cautious and careful as we need to be. This pollution is heavily destructive to animal populations and so much more. These effects of light pollution are recognized in the essay as Klinkenborg states "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" Baby sea turtles are dependent on the moon light to find there way to the ocean after they have hatched. Since it is instinct to follow the brightest light some baby sea turtles have been found crawling to the streets as they follow street lights.
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Post by odessapersephone on Aug 17, 2023 13:00:03 GMT -5
In paragraph six of "Our Vanishing Night" by Verlyn Klinkenborg, he writes that "We've lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further form the truth". In this quote, Kinkenborg forshadows the following paragraphs where he mentions the many animals and creatures that fill the night. Humans have created massive disruptions to the circadian rhythms of both ourselves and every other animal we are sharing the earth with. We may know the difference between natural light cycles and manmade light, but animals don't. This results in a vast change in sleep cycles for wildlife and if sleep changes then so do hunger, migration, and mating cycles. Even though humans know the difference, we are still effected. Cities emit so much light pollution that the stars aren't visible and the sky is closer to gray than it is black. Through the use of street lights that are designed to illuminate in all directions, highways filled with headlights, and massive sky scrapers, humankind has filled the the night completely with light. A prime example of this is New York, a city that is known far and wide as the "city that never sleeps". Night there practically doesn't exist, shops are open 24 hours, every inch is illuminated, and because places are open, people work all night. Klinkenborg is referring to the vast impact modern cities have on wildlife, nocturnal and diurnal species alike.
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Post by Ava Ritenour on Aug 18, 2023 23:07:11 GMT -5
When Klinkenborg states "We've lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be farther from the truth", he means that we have created light during the nighttime that is unnatural to us humans, and our environment altogether, and that we, and many other animals occupy the night. We've lit up our night sky by creating manmade light during the night time. In doing so, we have disrupted ours, and our ecosystems, sleep and night time patterns. Klinkenborg brings this to our attention in this essay by talking about different changes and disruptions in animals patterns, such as bird migration and baby turtles crossing to the sea. The light can cause the turtles to become confused where to go, resulting in hundreds of thousands of losses each year. He also mentions the fact that it affects humans at night too, and how "darkness is essential to our biological welfare, to our internal clockwork, as light itself." (par. 12)
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Post by jirehm on Aug 18, 2023 23:10:16 GMT -5
Klinkenborg writes "We've lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country when nothing could be further from the truth,"What is he referring to his artificial light? Instead of it being completely pitch black at night we are left with lights such as street lights, building lights to as far as a night light in your own house. We have so many lights at night big cities like Las Vegas, Chicago, and, New York are referred to as “cities that never sleep”. As I witness spending a whole week in downtown Chicago from my hotel window it was so bright outside in the middle of the night you had t make sure all the blinds were shut for you to even get an inch of darkness in the rooms. This past summer I went on a plane and as your taking off and landing you can see all the lights that are occupied by us at nighttime too.
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Post by meadowmeskil on Aug 19, 2023 15:05:47 GMT -5
In Our Vanishing Night written by Klinkenborg, 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 lit up the night and have done this by creating a lot of man-made light, especially in places such as larger cities, making nighttime and the Earth a "lighter" place by taking away the darkness. The disruption of nighttime has caused problems such as for wildlife and also for humans. This disrupts the cycles and lives of animals that are nocturnal and do things during the nighttime. This affects humans because humans sleep during the nighttime, and if there is too much light it can disrupt the sleep cycle that the brain goes through, causing people to be more awake or get less sleep, which can affect human's health and their life cycle and other things such as daily activities.
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Post by odessapersephone on Aug 19, 2023 20:17:11 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? I like your question, I think that the reason cities haven't started improving the lights that they put in is largely due to the fact that while creating lights with designs to stop light pollution isn't super expensive, replacing lighting (and with it electrical work) in cities is expensive. That really shouldn't be an issue though seeing as the government has plenty of money to spend. Often times an idea that is initially pricey, but will save money in the long run is vetoed by voters because of the large initiation cost. Additionally, it might be that not very many people know about it, the only reason I knew about this issue prior to reading Klinkenborg's article was because I'm interested in star gazing and it didn't take me very long to realize that I couldn't exactly get a clear view of the stars anywhere. Most people don't care about light pollution because they don't realize the direct effects it has on their life. I think to fix the issue it would take a large number of interested voters or a few higher ups in government to lobby for the change. I know your question may have been rhetorical, but I love the opportunity to bring attention to how bad government is at getting stuff done, especially when it comes to the environment.
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Post by Emerson on Aug 20, 2023 10:49:41 GMT -5
In Our Vanishing Night, 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 up the night by using wrongfully engineered man-maned light, not realizing that it damages the environment around us. We have used the lights to help us with our needs without reflecting on how this affects other species negatively with their needs, and not just us positively. The night is being occupied by artificial light, when it is not supposed to be. Because the night is full of light, animals like bats, birds, and nesting sea turtles are all affected. Not only are animals being negatively affected, but we are also. The man-man light at night has affected our internal clockwork, along with altering how we respond to light. However, there Klinkenborg discussed ways that we can change light pollution by altering how light is being emitted and how much light is being released.
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Post by eidenjonaitis on Aug 20, 2023 13:32:28 GMT -5
Klinkenborg describes the human approach to conquering the nighttime world and basking it in light as "if it were an unoccupied country". Humanity has clearly been living under this pretense with how bright the big cities are at night and the great amounts of energy people consume simply to keep their lights turned on. Looking over at the horizon during the night is, as Klinkenborg describes, dystopian-like due to the yellowish haze one can see coming from larger cities. However, Klinkenborg writes that this philosophy isn't close to the truth. The night is occupied by countless nocturnal species that rely on the darkness to survive with their adaptations. Treating the night as if it were something to be improved by artificial light is unfair to the many species that need the dark night to live.
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Post by Jayde Hayworth on Aug 20, 2023 18:30:00 GMT -5
In paragraph six, when Klinkenborg says “We’ve lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be farther from the truth,” he is trying to tell his readers how we have taken over the night. We have done this by making and adding man made light, which is harmful to the nocturnal species who were there and living well off for many years. Due to the excess light that is added, we are disrupting other lifestyles of the ecosystem, not caring about the consequences such as species becoming endangered or having to adapt in ways they shouldn’t. The night is occupied by countless species, in which that's when they live their life, but because we have been adding light more and more throughout the years, we not only are disturbing and changing their way of life, but also ours. Humans are also getting way more light in the night than they need, which is a consequence for both parties.
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Post by cameronshaffer on Aug 21, 2023 22:49:15 GMT -5
In his essay, "Our Vanishing Night," Verlyn Klinkenborg poignantly observes how humans have illuminated the night as if it were an empty canvas, failing to recognize the vibrant nocturnal life that coexists with us on Earth. The intrusion of artificial light into the night disrupts the planet's natural rhythms, impacting not only us but also countless other species that depend on darkness. Klinkenborg aptly points out that we've ushered in this era of nighttime illumination as a consequence of technological progress. While artificial light brings undeniable benefits to society, it carries inadvertent and profound consequences. The night sky, once a source of wonder and inspiration, is fading away for much of the world's population due to light pollution. The night is no longer occupied by the beautiful stars shining down on us but rather just clouds or smog hiding the stars from us. Light pollution has made it near impossible to see the beauty of our nighttime sky in populated areas.
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Post by Zoe Reeves on Aug 22, 2023 16:41:20 GMT -5
In “Our Vanishing Night” by Verlyn Klinkenborg, she writes how leaving on lights at night, such as street lights, light up the night and keeps it occupied, as well as heavily affecting sleeping patterns of not only animals, both nocturnal and diurnal, but humans as well. Street lights are a relatively newer technology, as before Klinkenborg writes how the night was lit with candles, torches, and lanterns- not gaslights with artificial, manmade light. Leaving on lights 24/7 confuses animals, as they use sun and light to determine when they should be awake versus when they should be sleeping. She uses examples of animals such as songbirds being captured, other birds who migrate during the night, and insects who cluster around streetlights who are negatively impacted. I thought another interesting topic she wrote was how migration, reproduction, and feeding is affected- which in turn, I would think affect the evolution of these animals- and maybe even humans who live in places such as New York where lights illuminate the sky everywhere. I think when Klinkenborg writes, “we've lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country”, she is talking about how when creating new technology to better humans, we are blissfully unaware of the organisms around us and how it may affect, or negatively impact them. In most cases, the negative impacts on animals for example appear years, even centuries later. This is only scratching the surface on how much humans have impacted organisms and our earth.
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Post by Isabella Johnson on Aug 23, 2023 11:09:34 GMT -5
In "Our Vanishing Night" Klinkenborg writes about how we have acted like we are the only living things on this planet which is totally untrue. Humans have created all sorts of unnatural things without even thinking of the effects it might have on other living creatures around us. Light pollution doesn't just have negative effects on our plants outer layers but the other animals living on the same layer as us. Nocturnal animals need the darkness because that is when they can see and survive the best but when the street lights are on and looks like day all night long it messes with these animals causing many issues to their lives like not knowing when to come out. Other animals that rely on the sun to wake them up are also confused by these man made lights such as birds. Sometimes you can hear songbirds singing in the middle of the night because of all the lights on even during night. This is really critical to these animals' well-being and humans don't even notice. The human kind is only concerned with what will benefit them and not so concerned about how it may affect the world around us. But Kilnkenborg explains that these artificial lights may end up messing with our own behaviors as well such as not getting the amount of sleep our body need which will effect generations now and the generations to come. These artificial things that may seem helpful to us are in reality hurting more than helping.
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Post by Lily Longtin on Aug 23, 2023 12:55:57 GMT -5
In the essay "Our Vanishing Night" Verlyn Klinkenborg writes that "we've lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth." The meaning that I take from this quote is that we as humans have infected the night with manmade lights that affect the natural ecosystems and nocturnal creatures that need the darkness to live. We changed something that we "needed" while taking away darkness from living creatures who need it. Klinkenborg talks about the living things that have become endangered and hurt from light pollution, he also talks about some solutions that could help solve this problem. Since these solutions are not in benefit to humans, we have not used them. We have changed things in the world to benefit ourselves, light pollution, air pollution, water pollution is all caused by manmade things that humans decided we needed. The darkness of the night was useless to humans, less time to work and be awake, to other living things the dark is essential to their lives.
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Jisela Albarran-Trujillo
Guest
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Post by Jisela Albarran-Trujillo on Aug 24, 2023 20:16:44 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¨. We have done this by lighting up the night with artificial light. Streetlights help us navigate places during the night with better visibility. Lighthouses helping boats and even digital billboards promoting things, all being examples of things we as humans use to light up the night. We have only thought about ourselves and not the rest of the creatures in the world. Nesting sea turtles search dark beaches but their are only a few left. With about 12 hours of daylight and us lighting up the night, we affect how animals survive and live. Klinkenberg also says how we can change this 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¨. Light pollution can be fixed and can lead to positive effects on everyone.
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Post by Leland Wagner on Aug 26, 2023 20:34:37 GMT -5
In paragraph six of "Our Vanishing Night" by Verlyn Klinkenborg, the author uses the quote "we've lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth". The author means to tell us that with all our man-made lights we shine towards the skies, it appears as if we were trying to communicate that we are there. Thought we do shine our lights into the sky we don't really seem to realize the environmental affect it really has on people and animals. What a lot of humans don't realize is that many animals take up the nighttime as they do in the daytime and the light pollution disrupts their nocturnal behaviors and dark camouflage. In the article, Klinkenborg provides evidence regarding how certain animals like sea turtles, birds, and bats all suffer from the exposure of man made lighting. The author also mentions how easy and simple it would be if we just made changes to the way our lighting is set up.
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