Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Mother Jones

    SOUND EFFECTS

    Just how bad is city noise for your health?
    by Florence Williams Jan 01, 2017 5 minutes

    IF YOU’RE A tree frog or an ovenbird in mating season and you happen to live in the 83 percent of the continental United States that lies within 3,500 feet of a road, bummer for you. Not only are you more likely to collide with an SUV, but you’re going to have a harder time finding a mate. Research suggests that human-generated noises also mess with nesting behavior, predator-prey dynamics, and sleep patterns. In other words, wildlife gets stressed out by noise.

    So do we, it turns out—and the world is getting louder. Scientists define “noise” as unwanted sound, and the level of background din from human activities has been doubling roughly every three decades, beating population growth. Road traffic in the United States has tripled over the last 30 years. By 2032, the number of passenger flights is expected to be nearly double the 2011 figure—at peak

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from Mother Jones

    Mother Jones6 min readAmerican Government
    Party Crashers
    EVEN BEFORE THE last shots of the Revolutionary War were fired, John Adams wrote a friend to warn, “There is nothing I dread so much as a division of the Republic into two great parties.” Alas, political scientists will tell you the winner-takes-all
    Mother Jones2 min read
    What Gives?
    Tesla, SpaceX, etc. Musk, whose richest-man status relies on public subsidies and contracts, once told a follower that half of his wealth would be used to “help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars” in case “we destroy ourselves”—which is more li
    Mother Jones12 min readAmerican Government
    Fighting Chance
    ON THE AFTERNOON of January 6, 2021, as election deniers armed with Tasers and tomahawks overran the US Capitol, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) handed his colleague and close friend Eric Swalwell a pen. “Here,” he said to the California Democrat. “Stic

    Related Books & Audiobooks