How many bioluminescent insects would be needed to produce the same level of light pollution as London?
Abstract
This paper determines how many light emitting Pyrophorus noctilucus would be required to produce the same level of light, and so the same amount of light pollution, as London. It was determined that if one P. noctilucos emitted 0.00153 lumens, it would take 2.940x1011 of them to produce the 449x106 lumen emitted by London. This number of bugs equates to an area of approximately 1.911x108 m2 which is 8 times smaller than the size of London.
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