As I walk around the streets of San Francisco with my friends on a crisp breezy evening, I look around at the sky only to realize that the sky seems to appear a dull shade of orange and purple and quite bland due to the lack of stars spotting the sky. For most people who live in the city, this would seem like any other night, but because of light pollution, city dwellers don’t know how many starts are actually out there. Light pollution may not seem like a big thing, but if you look at the consequences light pollution has on the surrounding environment, then you’ll see why it is becoming an increasingly problematic issue.
What exactly is “light pollution”? Light pollution, according to Starry Night Lights Blog
What can be done to help? Just like buying energy saving lights to cut back on the use fossil fuels for electricity, there are night sky friendly lighting, meaning lighting that is directed downward and not up and out, available for purchase at most hardware stores. Another way to help become a friend of the night sky, is to cut back on the amount of lighting you use everyday and only use outdoor lighting when activity is present in the area. Imagine the change that could be made if everyone took the steps to reduce the unnecessary lighting.
8 comments:
Wow. I never knew that the sky looked polluted. It is amazing that we don't know many things like these that are not obvious and that we don't pay attention to.
Interesting post, Krystina. It reminds me of the times I've been camping or visiting rural places and been able to see SO many stars. The disruption of animal sleep cycles (including human animals) is one big negative effect. In big cities, lights in high-rises also throw off the navigation of migrating birds; thousands are killed when they smash into windows. The good news is that this is a relatively easy problem to address with different kinds of outdoor lights. The political will is another question, but even that seems easier to find than you might expect. Work on this issue is moving forward in many, many places around the world. For more information on what's happening where, you can check out http://www.darksky.org/.
Out of curiosity, I was just poking around the internet and found this National Geographic article explaining more about light pollution: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/11/light-pollution/klinkenborg-text.
If you're curious, read on!
I always think about this, because I love looking at the stars, which is now very hard to do. I didn't know that the light pollution actually affected our sleep cycles, that is really interesting. I would love to see this problem get resolved!
I'm glad you wrote about this, Krystina. Star-gazing is one of those simple pleasures that we used to take for granted. One thing I miss about living in a small town is the beautiful night sky full of stars! I can't help but think of Virgil, and how he encouraged his readers to pay attention to the sun, moon, and stars, and to let the celestial cycles guide them in their planting/harvesting. Kind of hard to do that if you can't even see the stars...
I had no idea that light pollution had such an affect on humans as well as animals. I always thought that the only problem that light pollution caused was that we aren't able to see as many stars. It was interesting to learn about the ways in which we can reduce light pollution.
I've spent some serious time in the Rockies and in West Texas, and you're definitely correct in saying that city-dwellers don't know what they're missing when it comes to the night sky. I myself had forgot how much I enjoyed the night sky after a couple months in the city, but was promptly reminded when I went to Colorado over fall break. Sitting outside my grandpa's house listening to the elk bugle and starring at the stars, I remembered how much I loved the night sky. I realize I'm rambling and adding nothing to the blog conversation, but I really like the stars. To be honest, I was never really to concerned with this environmental issue because it doesn't seem like all that much of a tragedy and people waste exponentially more fossil fuels on countless other frivolous activities we can't seem to curtail. But for some reason, it really got to me that these turtles and their young are dying simply because humans light bright lights. There are so many environmental tragedies going on right now that its hard to be optimistic most of the time. But as you said there could be considerable progress if everybody did the right thing, that just seems a little idealistic unless the right thing is a dollar.
I have heard of light pollution before. I know at my home town I can never see the stars, and the "stars" that I do see are really satellites or planes flying by. I never knew about the harsh consequences for light pollution though. I always thought of it as something that I would've never needed to care about unless I wanted to see the stars. Great post Krystina!
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