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Night Being 'Lost' To Artificial Light (bbc.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: A study of pictures of Earth by night has revealed that artificial light is growing brighter and more extensive every year. Between 2012 and 2016, the planet's artificially lit outdoor area grew by more than 2 percent per year. Scientists say a "loss of night" in many countries is having negative consequences for "flora, fauna, and human well-being." A team published the findings in the journal Science Advances. It showed that changes in brightness over time varied greatly by country. Some of the world's "brightest nations," such as the US and Spain, remained the same. Most nations in South America, Africa and Asia grew brighter. Only a few countries showed a decrease in brightness, such as Yemen and Syria -- both experiencing warfare. The nocturnal satellite images -- of glowing coastlines and spider-like city networks -- look quite beautiful but artificial lighting has unintended consequences for human health and the environment.
At least have them shut off after midnight.
No sir I dont like it.
The street lights on the road behind my house were damaged by hurricane Irma and still have not been fixed, and I'm loving it. The darkness outside at night is beautiful and serene; I hate the ugly yellow-orange glow of sodium lighting.
I wish people would appreciate darkness at night. And even then, "security" lighting can be done so that an area is softly lit without blasting bright light in all directions.
I think humans have a very natural fear of the dark. This might explain why outdoor lighting is increasing. We fear becoming victims as our primary sense is sight. Our ancestors fear becoming prey at night.
If you want to add exterior lighting to your home, there is pretty much just "flood" style lights on the market. These lights shine at a very wide angle, meaning most of it is wasted. Even if you want to buy better light fixtures, they are very hard to find.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
I work with an organization that operates at a wilderness site, some 50+ miles from the nearest population center. We ourselves are very careful with our outdoor lighting, providing just enough illumination to be safe, and no more than that. As such, our skies are absolutely incredible.
One of the things I love to do is if I run into someone new on a clear night is to basically go "So.... have you looked up?" in so many cases, they haven't yet, and are simply blown away. It's really quite sad how many people have never seen the Milky Way with their own eyes. The amusing thing, though, is that there are so many stars that it is actually rather difficult to pick out the normal constellations.
The thing that really pisses me off, though, is the people who insist on walking everywhere with a headlamp or a flashlight. Just let your eyes dark adjust; after a minute or two, even starlight is enough to safely make your way around on well maintained roads/paths.
...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
Nah. It is entirely due to electric lighting.
I calculated once how much light was put out in London during the gas light era. It turns out the total number of lumens emitted to light the largest and most brightly lit city in the world at the time (four million people) is equal to the amount of light used to illuminate one football field for a night game.
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
One of my earliest memories is laying in the back window area of a '68 Pontiac staring up at the Milky Way while traveling. Of course, allowing this today would likely get parents arrested for felony child endangerment. :-)
I live on the east coast. Even during the power outage following Hurricane Irma, there were still enough lights around that the Milky Way was only faintly visible.
The last time I truly saw the Milky Way in all of its glory was during a camping trip in the Badlands. I highly recommend it.
I wonder at the effects of all of this light. I don't think that I am ever in the dark long enough for the chemicals to gather in my eyes to activate my night vision. I can always see some color.
And what of the societal effects? Could our reduced interests in space be at least partly due to generations of children growing up who have never truly seen the stars in the way earlier ones did?
If we can't ban it, perhaps we could at least switch to amber light that allows night vision to activate.
It is a loss worthy of mourning.
Some 20 years ago I bought a house that had pretty dark skies. So I spent some coin on a 3" refractor, it worked really well so I got a 10" cassegrain. Got about 2 years of great viewing. The kids enjoyed it, I enjoyed it, the neighbors enjoyed it. Then a high school a mile away built lights for the football field, and I lost half my dark sky. That sucked ass, especially as I was paying taxes to pay the electric bill to light up my back yard when that was the last thing I wanted.
About a year later someone built what I called The Taj Mahal down the hill, maybe 1/4 away from me. The front face fronted both the street it was built on, and my house. They lit that fucker up like Oscar night in Hollywood. Every fucking night. I could damn near read in my back yard by the light from that goddamned building.
So, scopes went into storage, about once a year we'd head out to the Anza Borrego desert (La Casa del Zorro used to rock, but haven't been there since they closed and opened under new management).
Someone explain to me why a high school stadium needs to light up my back yard 1 mile away, and why a company needs to light up a closed building after hours like it was the fucking temple of all gods.
I live near Seattle - about 20 miles out. On clear nights you can see the stars relatively well. I must have gotten used to what I see because I didn't think the light pollution was all that bad.
Then I went to see the eclipse earlier this year. I specifically chose a spot that was "in the middle of nowhere" (which as it turns out, about 10,000 other people had the same idea, but no matter). I set up camp and settled in for the evening.
My GOD the stars were brilliant! I laid awake most of the night mesmerized and amazed at what I was seeing.
Yeah - people don't know what they are missing.