Saving the Dark. Directed by Sriram Murali
Our Dark Sky areas are dwindling in the US as urban expansion cuts down on wild places where we can still see the natural night sky. A gorgeous view isn’t the only way Light Pollution hurts us.
Up until almost 200 years ago, everyone across the world had an unfettered view of the stars in the night sky. With the introduction of electric lighting, the night has been pushed further and further back. Now it has reached the point where many people living in big cities have never seen the Milky Way spilled across the sky.
Early navigators used the stars to find their way all over the world. Trusting the North Star to find their way. Now, Polaris has been swallowed up by the encroaching light. Many couldn’t point it out amongst the few pinpricks of light that struggle in our Light polluted world.
Research
Observatories are constantly battling with the encroaching light pollution ruining their view of the stars, galaxies and celestial bodies. One of the more dramatic of these research projects is monitoring the asteroids flying through the solar system. Which could spell doom for Earth. Light Pollution makes tracking these relatively small, faint objects much more difficult. And nothing is more terrifying than a giant, dinosaur ending asteroid that we can’t see coming.
Safety
For a long time, there has been an association between brighter areas and safety. However, most robberies and burglaries happen either during the day or in already well lit areas. This means flooding the city with light just gives more opportunities for these crimes to happen. As criminals, just as with regular people, need light to see.
Not only this, but excessively bright lights can mess up witness testimony, being too bright to see properly. It was determined that softer, more subdued lights are not only just as effective as bright lights, but they can even be more safe. When these lights are controlled with motion detectors, security and police can tell if there is someone in place they shouldn’t be and investigate.
Sleep
The harsh high powered lights used in many city street lights produce a disproportionate amount of higher wavelength light in the blue and violet regions of the visible spectrum. These wavelengths, which are typically only seen during the day in bright sunlight, throw off the body’s natural circadian rhythms. This pushes back the time when it releases melatonin and thus pushes back when you go to sleep. This has many cascading effects, not the least of which is not getting enough sleep at night.
Lower intensity, warmer lights reduce the amount of blue light people are subjected to, thereby decreasing the effects on sleep.
Animals
Perhaps the most important effect light pollution has on the planet is how it affects wildlife. Nearly every animal on Earth, except for deep sea creatures, are impacted by light pollution. Insects are attracted to the lights, displacing them from their natural habitats. Birds follow the insects and disrupting their natural foraging habits.
The light interferes with many animal’s mating success, from fireflies to frogs to wallabies. It upends their natural rhythms, throwing off their timing and lowering their chances at successful reproduction. Owls are less successful in hunts in well lit areas, being a stealthy nighttime predator.
Artificial Lights wreak havoc on birds. Migratory birds use the stars and Moon to navigate by. When they encounter bright lights shooting into the air, it confuses them, causing them to become trapped. This burns their precious migration energy faster than they should and putting them severely off schedule. This decreases their reserves of energy. Causing them to stop mid journey to hunt and forage for food. This puts them in direct conflict with the buildings of major cities that employ these wasteful lights. Nearly 1 billion birds die each year due to collisions with windows and buildings. They get confused by the reflections and crash into them.
Along the coasts, sea turtle mothers are dissuaded from nesting in brightly lit areas in order to avoid the eggs and hatchlings being found. When those baby turtles are born, the bright lights inland confuses their orientation. This causes them to crawl away from the safety of the ocean. The baby turtles are instinctively drawn to the brighter horizon, which was typically the ocean but has been usurped by the bright lights of the coastal cities.
What Can be Done?
Taking on any type of pollution is a daunting task. Luckily Light Pollution is the easiest to deal with, as many of its effects are immediate and don’t need to be cleared up over years or decades.
One of the easiest ways to help reduce light pollution is to simply turn off your lights at night when they aren’t being used. This is a simple way to ensure you’re not contributing to the problem, and it can save energy bit by bit.
However, like many types of pollution, the individual is rarely the sole cause. Large cities are constantly blasting wasteful light high in the sky where it doesn’t help anyone and is actively detrimental as shown above. And that’s where you can put time and effort in order to reduce light pollution in your area. Writing to your city officials asking them to instate light reducing ordinances, as well as adopting low light practices is an effective way to combat light pollution. A few cities have already made the switch, and have seen immediate benefits.
Saves Money
Some of the ways you can convince your officials is by letting them know that reducing the amount of wasted light can save them money on electricity each year. Tucson, AZ saw nearly $1 million in savings after adopting these practices. You can also let your officials know there is no link between brighter areas being safer. Instead, having motion sensors put on the lights can drastically improve the safety of the area by turning on when somebody who perhaps shouldn’t be there moves past them. It draws attention to ne’er-do-wells, as well as saving on electricity costs. Lastly, adopting colder, 3000 Kelvin LED bulbs that are shielded to shine their light directly downwards still provides sufficient light for those out and about at night while not drowning the area in piercing blue light.
And perhaps your city officials may be swayed by the effects light pollution has on animals or people, so don’t forget to mention those too.
The information found in here was found from “Saving the Dark | Documentary | Light Pollution,” a documentary made in association with the Dark Sky Association. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fHxNn-FEnc&ab_channel=SriramMurali
For more information on the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve, visit our home page: Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve.
Article written by Killian Richardson, 2024 AstroTAC member.