Save the Sparklebutts!
Light pollution harms lightning bugs—but you can help
Have you ever lived in an area with a thriving lightning bug population?
This is the time of year when I used to chase lightning bugs (or fireflies) across the lawn and gaze up at the Milky Way from my backyard in Wichita, KS. My Dad’s friend Sam, an amateur astronomer, would sometimes come over with a telescope and point out celestial objects to us: nebulas and constellations and perhaps comets. (Regrettably, the specifics have long since evaporated from my memory.)
I’d catch lightning bugs, peer into my cupped hands to watch them glow, and release them. They always seemed strangely unperturbed. It felt like pure magic.
Image by: Kevin J. Beaty
This is something children in Wichita no longer experience. First, the local lightning bug population is thinner than it once was; sightings in many neighborhoods where they were once prevalent are now rare. And if you look up, you will see perhaps 20 percent as many stars as were visible on those summer evenings in the late 80s and the 90s.
These may seem like two separate phenomena, but the cause is the same: light pollution. And while Wichita has done an abysmal job with street lighting design and lighting regulations generally, it’s not unique. The exponential increase in light pollution across North America has far outpaced population growth (and economic growth).
Why?
Because the former isn’t a product of the latter.
Most light pollution is not an inevitable or unavoidable byproduct of economic growth, development, or even suburban sprawl. Light pollution is the result of bad lighting design and overlighting.
Lightning bugs, like many other species, struggle to mate and thrive in light-polluted settings. Thus, the Sparklebutts, some of the friendliest neighbors I ever had, have been replaced by cheap, poorly designed, harsh lights made in China.
I never had to buy blackout shades because of lightning bugs. They were good neighbors.
The plight of lightning bugs is only one instance of the harm light pollution causes to wildlife and nocturnal habitats.
But it doesn’t have to continue this way. Municipalities and parks across Colorado are forestalling and even reversing light pollution. Awareness of its urgency, causes, and solutions is growing.
With 18 Certified Dark Sky Places and roughly an equal number in the certification pipeline, DarkSky Colorado is killing it. If you’re in a position to do so, please consider making a one-time or recurring contribution today.
