Silence may be golden but it is practically gone: a government-backed study has determined that noise pollution has hit levels that obliterate natural sound — even in national parks and wilderness.
The noise pollution from cars, trucks, airplanes, helicopters, smart phones and myriad other man-made sources drowns out nature’s background in nearly two thirds of U.S. protected areas, Colorado State University and National Park Service researchers concluded.
The researchers analyzed 1.5 million hours of sound recordings made by NPS staffers over the past decade at 492 sites around the country, including 23 in Colorado such as the Great Sand Dunes National Park. They found that noise levels are twice as high as natural sound at 63 percent of those sites.
At 21 percent of the sites, man-made noise has risen to levels at least 10 times louder than background sound.
Noise pollution in once-natural areas has gotten so bad that, in some cases, it is disrupting wildlife and scaring away animals, including endangered species, CSU post-doctoral scientist Rachel Buxton said in a phone interview from India. The findings mean noise pollution has reduced the area where natural
sounds can be heard by 50 to 90 percent. In other words, a bird song
that once could be heard 100 feet away now can only be heard from 10 to
50 feet away...more
Now in addition to land, water and air, we are guilty of "noise pollution". Where will studies like this lead us? For instance, if you or your community generates noise that harms an endangered species, are you in violation of the ESA?
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
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1 comment:
careful - if you're driving down the highway and hit a bug on your windshield - the bug will be looking out at the world through his *** thand you'll be paying out through yours - to the ESA
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