night magic
lee ann hennion
Algonquin Book, $30
I feel like I was out all night. In my head, I picture walking through the mountains and prairies of Appalachia after dark. We encountered spotted salamanders, fireflies, fireflies, glowworms, and various types of moths and bats. My guide is Leigh-Anne Hennion, whose latest book seeks to restore the night to its rightful place as a wonderland of nature and regeneration. night magic.
Hennion pursues nighttime journeys as a balm, seeking respite from the near-constant illumination of artificial light. She wondered what life was like in the dark. “Darkness is often represented as a void of destruction rather than a natural force that nurtures life, including our own,” Hennion writes. “This is the story of how I sought to re-center darkness by spending time with the diverse and awe-inspiring life forms that it nurtures.”
An author who writes about the natural world, travel, and other topics, Hennion takes readers to Tennessee, Ohio, Alabama, and her home state of North Carolina. Together with her friends, her son, scientists, and other strangers interested in the night, she searches for plants, animals, and fungi that thrive in the dark, sometimes in her own backyard.
The book moves through spring, summer, and fall, focusing on several different life forms during each season. For example, in spring you can see the spotted salamander, which lives most of its life in darkness. These black or dark brown amphibians with cheerful yellow-orange spots spend most of their time underground. Salamanders appear briefly during spring nights and breed in temporary puddles that are periodically dried by rain.
Hennion’s nighttime walk continues with the appearance of glowworms, the larvae of luminescent flies that glow blue. Colorful moths, major pollinators experiencing alarming population declines. And foxfire is the general term for bioluminescent fungi that glow on the forest floor. Amidst these encounters, Hennion laments the ever-increasing theft of natural darkness by artificial light in her mountain neighborhood and around the world (SN: 1/19/23). “At this point in history, one-third of humans on Earth can no longer see the Milky Way from where they live,” she writes.
Hennion invites readers to open their eyes to the darkness around them. This may require patience, as your eyes may take several hours to adjust to the dim light. And she unravels the fear that people, including herself, have of the dark and its associated animals.
For example, when Henion had the opportunity to help with a bat population survey in Alabama, he was upset when he encountered a bat that jumped at him. One student bat researcher who attended the event reassured Hennion that the bats weren’t ambushing her. top gun” The bat was just eating dinner. The insects around Hennion’s head were attracted to the carbon dioxide he exhaled.
Like bats, moths may be unfairly maligned because of their association with night, Hennion writes. It is believed that the moth orients itself with the help of a certain angle of the moon and is confused by artificial light shining from all directions (SN: 24/1/30). “When we’re disoriented by artificial light, it feels like the moths are attacking us,” one moth enthusiast told Hennion, “but we don’t care where they fly.” I don’t know what to do.
Hennion mentions new research on the effects of artificial light on human health, but I wanted more details. For example, she writes in the introduction that light pollution “has been shown to cause increased incidence” of certain health conditions. However, the studies she cites in her bibliography describe a link between artificial light and various health problems. Association does not imply causation. Excessive exposure to light after dark seems to be a health risk, but I wondered just how big the risks are and where the science currently stands.
That criticism does not detract from the book’s passionate and meaningful argument for preserving nature’s darkness and the ecosystems that depend on it for the sake of living things, plants, and ourselves. Hennion concludes with what feels like a blessing and a call to action. wealth. ”
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