LIGHT POLLUTION AND PICS

Light pollution, as defined by the National Park Service (NPS), is any illumination of the night sky caused obtrusive artificial light. The problem began with the light bulb, an invention developed out of necessity about 125 years ago. It has become a burgeoning environmental challenge. Most light pollution is a result of urbanization and poorly designed fixtures. The NPS says much of the lighting that causes light pollution is unnecessary, including streetlights, stadium lights and billboards. Many researchers feel the same. “We’ve lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country…,” Verlyn Klinkenborg writes in “Our Vanishing Night,” an article about light pollution recently featured in National Geographic.

The effects of light pollution are far reaching. According to “The First World Atlas of the Artificial Night Sky Brightness,” a paper published by the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, two-thirds of U.S inhabitants can no longer see the starry swath of the Milky Way. Roughly one-half of the people living the European Union cannot see it either. Light pollution isn’t limited to stars; it affects feeding, migration and reproduction too. The prolonged days upset natural sleeping, waking and feeding patterns. Klinkenborg describes how longer days prompted a swan population in England to put on winter weight quicker than normal. The birds would migrate sooner than usual, which would hinder nesting.