Energy-saving Street Lights Might Be Bad News for Bugs – Conservation

By Garry Rogers @Garry_Rogers

Wildlife managers and conservationists are often faced with dilemmas in which they are forced to choose the less bad of two bad choices. For example, some might argue that limited trophy hunting is preferable to habitat loss, if it encourages landowners to maintain ecosystems in their natural state (or something close to it). Here’s another dilemma: is it better to swap older street lights for LED lamps, even if the new energy-saving bulbs are detrimental for declining wildlife? These are not easy decisions to make, but in order to make them it helps to know exactly what the stakes are.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: conservationmagazine.org

No one stops to think about the possible nature impacts of new technology.  And even when managers know about impacts and establish mitigation procedures, they rarely perform follow-up measurements to test mitigation success.