The Heavy Problem of Light Pollution

By Ember Snook

            Looking up at night at the moon, it's easy to marvel when you can see a star or two twinkling by the wayside. Even when it turns out to be just another airplane slipping silently through the clouds, it's easy to shrug and forget that once, one could see a sea of starlight. Light pollution has become a constant reality in our world, and it's one we all too often set aside as both impossible to regulate and 'harmless.' Spoiler: pollution is never harmless.

            Scientists have, as with most other pollutant problems, taken a look at the problem of light pollution. One Korean study encapsulates that nicely for us, pointing out that artificial light is harmful " due to a disrupted circadian rhythm—an internal clock that regulates most of the physiological systems in mammals" (2). While our night-light addiction is proven to be harmful for many animals (most obviously including moths, but to all manner of nocturnal creatures like owls), it's hard to get people concerned when there is no danger to them. Yet, the study points out that we should be concerned because this disruption of the natural circadian rhythm "it has been linked to simple discomforts such as fatigue, reduced work productivity and so forth. It has also been linked to much more grave conditions including diabetes and many different forms of cancer" (2). Specifically, they present the fact that scientific study "links breast cancer to artificial lighting exposure" (2). This is a startling revelation when one takes a look at the night sky - as any of us living in or near a big city can attest, there's no shortage of well-lit skies, streets, buildings even at the deadest hours of night.

            Light gets everywhere. Dealing with light pollution is a murky, difficult issue - streetlights are there to keep people safe, after all. For both drivers and pedestrians, that bright light is meant to illuminate the surroundings and to save lives. Billboards and businesses can't afford to turn off their lighting at night - if you hide an advertisement, after all, you're losing all of the eyes that might see it from 8pm to 5am, while any business knows that if they have no lights on in your store after hours they're just begging to be robbed. Turning off the lights, even at one's own home, is a dubious prospect. Without the nightlight in the bathroom, someone might run face-first into the doorjamb - and when everyone else has their lights on, too, it's easy to think "just one more won't hurt. How much more polluted can it get?"

            We need to stop that way of thinking - whether it comes to lights, or plastic, we're causing measurable harm to our environment (not to mention blotting out the stars in the process). After all, one light does hurt - one of the most startling things I unearthed is this map of the growing problem of light pollution over the last 60 years in the United States, presented by the National Parks Service website:

Source: National Parks Service, https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nightskies/growth.htm

            This map is particularly striking because you can see the infectious spread of bright lights across the field of black. The dark night 11 years ago was slowly bleeding its way into the last unlit corners of the United States. But unlike other forms of pollution, light pollution is one that's easy for us to manage, and even reverse entirely overnight.

            Even starting just at home, the best solution is simply to minimize your impact. Turn off any lights you're not using any more. Turn off appliances that create light that you do not need on. For lights that you do need, especially security lights or night lights, make sure they're attached to motion sensors that will turn them off when they are no longer needed. Encourage others to do the same - and make it a point to ask your company to dim the lights that they don't need. Every light that is off is one less source of light pollution. Light pollution is easy, physically, to stop - but the problem is that no one is eager to confront the monster in court. If we can culturally change our approach to how we light up our world, we can both improve our health and reclaim that starlit skies that our parents seem to reminisce on endlessly!

Sources:

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nightskies/growth.htm

Hong Soo Lim et al. "The Reality of Light Pollution: A Field Survey for the Determination of

        Lighting Environmental Management Zones in South Korea." Sustainability, vol. 10 iss.

        2, Feb. 2018.