Animal Senses #14: Unknown Pollutants
The last chapter in Ed Yong’s book, Immense World , is about the pollution we humans cause and its impact on the creatures around us. My initial though was, god, I hope he isn’t going to end this awesome book on a paternalistic, preachy note about industrial pollution and deforestation… I needn’t have worried, because Yong does not talk of CO2, global warming, deforestation, poaching and the likes. Wait, so there’s other damage we do? Yes, it involves stuff most of us don’t even realize is a form of pollution too. The first one is light pollution. Yes, light can be a form of pollution. “It is jarring for us to think of light as a pollutant, but it becomes one when it creeps into times and places where it doesn’t belong.” After all: “Light at night is a uniquely anthropomorphic phenomenon.” Until we lit up the planet, the “daily and seasonal rhythms of bright and dark” were fixed. Physicists knew this problem for long – it prevented them from seeing the un...