For the 11th consecutive year, cities worldwide are turning their lights off today to mark Earth Hour in a global call to action on climate change, but the moment of darkness should also serve as a reminder, activists said, of another problem that gets far less attention — light pollution.
More than 80 percent of humanity lives under skies saturated with artificial light, scientists have calculated.
In the US and western Europe, that figure goes up to 99 percent of the population, most of whom cannot discern the Milky Way in the night sky.
Artificial lighting has been shown to disturb the reproductive cycles of some animals and the migration of birds that navigate using the stars, and to disorient night-flying insects.
For humans, circadian rhythms that regulate hormones and other bodily functions can also be thrown out of whack by too much light at night.
Even the most ardent critics of light pollution are not saying cities should go dark, or that lighting is not an essential element of urban life, but society needs to address a growing list of concerns, they said.
“In general, it’s getting worse,” International Dark-Sky Association president Diana Umpierre said of light pollution in her home state of Florida, and things are moving in the wrong direction.
“We are predicted to have 15 million more residents in the next 50 years” with all the extra lighting that entails, she said.
By contrast, in Chad, the Central African Republic and Madagascar — not coincidentally among the poorest nations in the world — three-quarters of people have a clear view of the heavens.
Arguably, no one suffers more from light pollution than astronomers, whose telescopes are blinded by the glare of urban glow.
In 1958 Flagstaff, Arizona — more than 2,100m above sea level — became the first sizeable city to curb night lighting, mainly to shield a major observatory.
One of the biggest challenges in fighting light pollution is convincing people that “brightness” is not synonymous with “safety,” Umpierre said.
“Sometimes it’s just the opposite,” she said, citing studies showing that people drive more carefully — and more slowly — on roads with less or no lighting at night.
Over the past 15 years, biologists, doctors, non-governmental organizations and even UNESCO have joined the fight against light pollution by detailing negative impacts to health and well-being.
In 2012, the American Medical Association (AMA) concluded that exposure to “excessive” night light “can disrupt sleep and exacerbate sleep disorders” and it called for more research into possible links to cancer, obesity, diabetes and depression.
Last year, the AMA raised another red flag, this time about LEDs.
Local governments in wealthy nations are racing to replace existing streetlights with LEDs, which consume less energy and last longer. In the US, 10 percent of public lighting has already switched over to LED.
That is good news for the fight against global warming, cutting down on fossil-fuel burning for electricity, but it might be bad news for health, the AMA said.
“Some LED lights are harmful when used as street lighting,” AMA board member Maya Babu said.
Not only do bluish, high-intensity lights create a view-obscuring glare, they have “five times greater impact on circadian sleep rhythms than conventional street lamps,” the AMA said.
The new technology also obscures our view of the night sky even more than traditional city lighting.
Bit by bit, citizens are starting to push back.
A petition circulating in Madrid is calling for a scientific study into the safety and health impacts of LED lighting. In Quebec and Montreal, along with Phoenix, Arizona, public pressure has already pushed city officials to install “yellow” LEDs, which are thought to be less disturbing.
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