
Urbanization and the spread of artificial light - anarbadalov
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-evolutionary-power-of-cities-and-light/
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anarbadalov
This is a startling and beautifully written excerpt from environmental
philosopher Christopher Preston's recent book about how humans are
fundamentally reshaping the natural world. Specifically, it explores the ways
in which our increasingly urban (and light-polluted) world is changing
behaviors and even genomes of species, including our own.

(full disclosure: I work on the MIT Press Reader)

 _For a species that spent close to 200,000 years living in grasslands and
scrubby forests, hunting and foraging, and using skins, wood, and grasses for
shelter, we are increasingly occupying an evolutionarily unfamiliar niche,
where the sensory and physical dimensions of a life lived in daily contact
with the natural world have been replaced by a whole set of alternate
experiences: Cement and traffic, 90-degree corners, bars, sirens, glass, and
streetlights increasingly dominate our senses. As far as our genes are
concerned, we live in an alien world. ... Alongside us, fast-breeding and
opportunistic species are changing their behaviors and their genomes so that
they will fit better in the urban world. City-dwelling swallows are evolving
shorter wings that allow them to avoid the traffic better, and sparrows and
starlings have raised the pitch of their calls to compensate for the
background urban noise. Moths are gaining different color patterns so that
they have more suitable camouflage in their new concrete habitat. Evolutionary
forces are turning city-bound mice into separate subspecies in different city
parks, unable to exchange genes with cousins who live a few blocks away._

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jakeogh
Great resource for light pollution: [https://darksky.org](https://darksky.org)

