Since the discovery of fire, we have been able to reclaim the night, pushing the available hours of activity farther into the evening. And lighting up the darkness that concealed dangerous predators. Now, we have access to incredible industrial lights, and nearly everyone’s home has electric lighting to help them see through the night and burn away the darkness. However, this has come with a terrible price and side effect: Light Pollution.
What is Light Pollution?
Light pollution is the excessive use of electric lights at night that makes the night sky and the stars difficult to see. While this may initially seem like an issue for just amateur astronomers, who don’t want to hike into the mountains for beautiful pictures of the night sky. Light pollution has long reaching effects on wildlife.
How Does Light Pollution Affect Us?
As stated previously, light pollution makes the night sky extremely difficult to see. Especially since many of the stars and celestial formation are incredibly dim already. The bright light drowns out these objects, making them completely invisible. This leads many amateur and even professional astronomers to seek secluded areas far away from cities and towns, in order to take observational data from the night sky.
In addition to these problems and restrictions, the excessive light leads to problems sleeping and sleep deprivation. Which has its own issues that aren’t the purview of this writer.
However, one of the nastier aspects of light pollution is its effects on animals. Many animals rely on the sun to navigate during migrations. They do not understand the difference between the powerful lights humans use and the sun itself. To them, both are the bright lights that they use to find their way. In addition, it can attract certain animals, concentrating them where they shouldn’t be. It can repel others, disrupting ecosystems and predator-prey relationships.
It can also disrupt reproduction cycles, such as causing the cycle to happen prematurely or much later than it should, which results in failed reproduction and declining populations.
How Can You Help?
The major way you can help is by turning out your lights at night. If that’s not possible, then shielding lights so that they shine downwards rather than emitting light where it’s not useful is the next best thing. This can be done with lampshades, whether homemade with plastic, metal, wood, cloth, etc, or one bought from the store. Next, using the light only when necessary, and only as bright as needed is the next step up. Sometimes, it can’t be avoided that light is needed at night. Ensuring that it isn’t used when not needed can save on money and electricity as well as reducing the effects of light pollution.
Granted these are all ways an individual can reduce their impact on the environment. However, many businesses, particularly in large cities often have a much larger influence on these issues. Thus, contacting your policy makers and urging them to institute major lighting changes is one way to be involved with this problem.
More Information
Luckily for those amateur astronomers out there, Idaho has one of the first “Dark Sky Reserves” in the United States. A Dark Sky Reserve is a region of land where the surrounding towns and cities agreed to keep light pollution to a minimum. This has created one of the darkest skies in the country, allowing for a gorgeous view of the night sky. The Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve is located between Stanley, Ketchum and Sun Valley near the Rocky Mountains. Our organization, AstroTAC, works closely with this Reserve, educating our community about Light Pollution and the Reserve itself.
Article written by Killian Richardson, AstroTAC member.