Hacker News Reader

Comment by sdenton4 | Hacker News Reader

If you make incredibly loud noises above water, humans will complain, and you'll end up reducing the noise, due to some combination of workplace safety regulations, litigious neighbors, and self-regulation.

People don't experience underwater noise directly, though, and so it is allowed to be arbitrarily loud and has gone almost completely unchecked, and is undoubtedly harmful got marine ecosystems. It is thought to be a major factor in whale beachings, for example.

View on HN

Humans in cities have also got used to the noise. Go from a quiet forest or rural area in the middle of nowhere to a city or residential area where you have cars, trains, lawn mowers, leaf blowers, air planes, loud barking dogs, etc. It's shockingly noisy. It's surprising that people don't want to do more about the noise pollution but it seems many just got used to it.

on a tangent, I was living about 15min SW of DFW airport when 9/11 happened. When the FAA grounded all air traffic i remember going outside and thinking how strange it was not hearing planes in the sky. I had become acclimated to all the air traffic and when there was none it was pretty eery.

Another tangent, I went on a trip to LA. The drive to airport was noisy, airport was noisy, airplane was noisy, city was noisy, air conditioner in room was noisy. This went on for the whole week. I didn't really notice.

But when I got dropped off at my car after the flight home, to get in my car it was late at night in a small town. And I noticed it. The silence. I stood there, beside my car keys in hand for a good 5 minutes, just taking it in.

I had no idea how noisy it had been for the past week until then.

Rural areas can be noisy, too, depending on the ecosystem: birds, frogs, crickets, and cicadas can all kick up quite a ruckus. One can get used to just about anything.

True, those sounds are somehow less grating, though. I hate two stroke motors with a passion.

I've yet to hear an animal so loud that the walls of my house shake. My neighbors car can do it no problem.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com