Have a Safe Flight!

The Harm of Artificial Lights on Migrating Birds

              SciTechDaily, 7 Dec. 2023, scitechdaily.com/1000-birds-perish-in-chicago-collision-catastrophe-light-pollutions-deadly-impact-on-migrating-birds/. 

By: Susan Lin

Department of English

ENGL 21003: Writing for the Sciences (CCNY)

Dr. Lesile Carpenter 

Abstract

Every year, an estimated 1 billion birds in the United States are affected by artificial lights (Burt 2). These artificial lights, created by people, are causing migrating birds to collide with buildings and infrastructures as the use of artificial light has been increasing worldwide. Oftentimes, the artificial lights during the night are pointed upwards, towards the sky, which creates an excessive amount of light. Almost all the birds in North America migrate during the spring and fall seasons, and of those that do migrate, 70% of them travel at night. Birds can be attracted to these lights as far as 5 kilometers away as they mistake it for the moon or stars. Because of this, birds collide into the lit objects causing them to suffer from fatal injuries or even end up in the wrong place. There are programs such as the Lights Out Program by the National Audubon Society that try to help decrease the use of artificial light at night. 

Thesis

The Clean Energy and Environmental Protection Plan should provide funding to the National Audubon Society because they have a lights-out program to try to decrease artificial lights’ effect on migrating birds throughout North America. In order to prevent birds from colliding with buildings and infrastructures, the Clean Energy and Environmental Protection Plan should help promote the Lights Out Program to help provide more sustainable options for artificial lights, ways to help birds have a safe migration, and so that they have the resources to spread awareness in our own communities.

Effect of Artificial Lights in New York

Many species of birds rely on constellations to help them migrate from one place to another so having artificial light may be distracting for these birds as they are not able to differentiate lights from constellations. Especially in New York, we have such high skyscrapers and buildings that also disrupt the paths of the birds. Although the lights distract the birds, more of the bird fatalities are from the amount of energy birds waste flying around in confusion leading them to exhaustion and making them vulnerable to other animals. (Audubon 2)

In 2022, the New York State agencies announced “two initiatives designed to protect and foster increased appreciation for birds – a new ‘Lights Out’ initiative to help protect migrating birds as they navigate night skies.” (Wernick 1) Although New York has created plans to help migrating birds, we do not see a significant impact throughout our day-to-day lives. This may be due to the lack of awareness and funding in the community. When looking on the Nation Audubon Society’s website, it does not mention any funding from any big companies. However, there are links for people who bypass to donate money. It is unlikely that people will be donating money if they do not see the value of the project. This is where the Clean Energy and Environmental Protection Plan comes in, with their help, the National Audubon Society can buy ads and more campaigns to spread awareness of the issue and inform people how important this topic is. Most people are aware of issues like climate change, but less of the impact of artificial lights on birds. By giving programs like these more funding, they can host events in communities and even visit schools to talk about their purpose and goals for the program.

Why Does it Matter?

Some may argue that this problem is not relevant as we are not affected by the birds. However, they are wrong. Every year, as these birds collide with objects and suffer fatal injuries, some of these birds get closer and closer to extinction. Species like the Allen’s Hummingbirds, Wood Thrush, and Golden-winged Warbler are endangered species and we should be doing our best to protect them before it is too late. Once these birds go extinct, we will never be able to bring them back for future generations to enjoy. (DiLonardo 3) The picture on the left is an Allen Hummingbird found by rescue dogs after colliding with a building. Additionally, migrating birds help with the ecosystem as they bring things with them as they travel, such as pollen helping new species grow and is important to biodiversity. 

Solutions

There are simple solutions to help decrease the death of birds each year. Some of these solutions are shutting down just half of the lights, limiting lights to only necessary times, using blinds or curtains, pointing lights downwards, or even using a different color tone of light. (Behera 4) By simply just turning off your lights when it isn’t needed, you are already decreasing the amount of bird collisions by 11 times. However, with the funding provided by the Clean Energy and Environmental Protection Plan, programs can help build more automated and censored lights as people tend to forget to turn off the lights. These automated lights would be able to adjust the tone of the lights and turn them off when it does not sense any movement in a room. In the long term, it would benefit the environment too as you’ll be saving more energy which can help with climate change.

Review

In summary, the amount of bird collisions has skyrocketed leading to over a billion bird deaths in the United States. This puts bird species in danger of extinction. If the Clean Energy and Environmental Protection Plan helps provide more funding to programs like Lights Out, they can help build more sustainable light options and spread awareness of this issue which in the long run would be multiple benefits such as helping climate change. If you want future generations to see birds like the Allen’s Hummingbird, please look into the ways you can decrease your effect of lights on birds and act now.

References

Burt, Carolyn S., and Kyle Horton. “How Light Pollution Can Imperil Migrating Birds by Luring Them into Cities.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 17 Dec. 2023, www.pbs.org/newshour/science/how-light-pollution-can-imperil-migrating-birds-by-luring-them-into-cities#:~:text=But%20it%20makes%20most%20migratory,year%20from%20collisions%20with%20buildings.

DiLonardo, Mary Jo. “How Turning off Half a Building’s Lights Saves Birds.” Treehugger, Treehugger, 8 June 2021, www.treehugger.com/turning-off-half-building-lights-saves-birds-5188215.

“How Important Are Migratory Birds in an Era of Climate Change.” Down To Earth, www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/wildlife-biodiversity/how-important-are-migratory-birds-in-an-era-of-climate-change-75588#:~:text=Importance%20of%20migratory%20birds&text=Migratory%20birds%20help%20in%20dispersal,and%20act%20as%20organic%20fertilizers. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

National Audubon Society. “Lights out Program.” Lights Out Program, 11 Jan. 2024, www.audubon.org/our-work/cities-and-towns/lights-out.

U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service. “Threats to Birds: Collisions – Nighttime Lighting: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.” FWS.Gov, 6 Dec. 2022, www.fws.gov/story/threats-birds-collisions-nighttime-lighting.

University, Colorado State. “1,000 Birds Perish in Chicago Collision Catastrophe: Light Pollution’s Deadly Impact on Migrating Birds.” SciTechDaily, 7 Dec. 2023, scitechdaily.com/1000-birds-perish-in-chicago-collision-catastrophe-light-pollutions-deadly-impact-on-migrating-birds/.

Wernick, Jeff. “‘Lights Out’ Initiative Launched in New York to Protect Migrating Birds.” Department of Environmental Conservation, dec.ny.gov/news/press-releases/2022/5/lights-out-initiative-launched-in-new-york-to-protect-migrating-birds. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.