Light Pollution

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, is “misused or misdirected light”, resulting from inappropriate or excessive light use. This can cause many problems such as Sky Glow, which is when excessive use of light causes a glow over urban areas. The glow causes problems for people and animals in the surrounding environment. The glow throws off people’s circadian rhythms or sleep cycles and in turn can cause sleep problems such as insomnia and has been even linked to speeding up tumor growth, as noted in Ron Chepesiuk’s Website http://www.ehponline.org/members/2009/117-1/focus.html , and its not only humans who suffer the consequences, animals in the surrounding environments are also affected by it. The sky glow can mess up the cycles of nocturnal animals and currently threatens species such as the Florida sea turtle who use the light to guide them to shore and their young to the water. Light pollution is not only a health hazard but also consumes a large amount of fossil fuels to produce the energy for the lights adding to the global warming factor.

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.