Paul Bogard says that light does increase safety, but only up to a point. Too much light at night can actually make cities more dangerous. With overlit gas stations and bright LED streetlights shining skyward, a clear night sky is harder and harder to find. And our eyes, which developed the ability to see in low-light settings, rarely have the occasion to use that skill anymore.
It interrupts our sleep patterns, confuses our circadian rhythms, and inhibits our ability to produce melatonin. Doctors are not saying that the light in your cellphone will give you cancer, but increasingly they recognize the importance of darkness to our overall wellbeing. Wildlife also depends on darkness. Sea turtles, for example, need a dark sky to navigate. When hatchlings climb out of their nest on the beach, they need to crawl their way to the sea. Concerned about the impacts of light pollution, a growing movement is working to reduce excess lighting in our cities and protect dark skies.
So we have this really rich dataset of darkness all over the entire country. One metric for darkness is the Bortle Scale, which rates the sky from 1 to 9. The acceleration has to do with population growth, an increase in nighttime labor, and the widespread belief that more light makes cities safer.
Light does increase safety, but only up to a point. Too much light at night can actually make cities more dangerous. With overlit gas stations and bright LED streetlights shining skyward, a clear night sky is harder and harder to find. And our eyes, which developed the ability to see in low-light settings, rarely have the occasion to use that skill anymore.
Forty percent of Americans and Western Europeans never or rarely experience night vision. It interrupts our sleep patterns, confuses our circadian rhythms, and inhibits our ability to produce melatonin.
Melatonin is only produced in the dark, and what scientists are finding is that a lack of melatonin in our bloodstream is linked to an increased risk for breast and prostate cancer. Doctors are not saying that the light in your cellphone will give you cancer, but increasingly they recognize the importance of darkness to our overall wellbeing. Wildlife also depends on darkness. Sea turtles, for example, need a dark sky to navigate. When hatchlings climb out of their nest on the beach, they need to crawl their way to the sea.
Concerned about the impacts of light pollution, a growing movement is working to reduce excess lighting in our cities and protect dark skies. Grah Lighting d. This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.
Just because we can see with lights at night doesn't mean other creatures can. But even though we can see with artificial light at night, doesn't mean that it's healthy for us. The American Medical Association states "all creatures need darkness to survive. Those glands secrete a naturally occurring hormone called melatonin. The great thing about melatonin is it has great antioxidant qualities that rid our brain and body of free radicals that cause damage to our brain and body.
The Journal of Epidemiology Research shows that exposure to artificial light at night has been linked to an increase in Alzheimer's, breast cancer, obesity, and depression.
Let's take a look now at what our future holds. The map I showed you of South Dakota is a one from , when in all reality, tonight's dark skies is much more closely, really, like the map of In only eight years, it's estimated that just eight dark sky places will remain in the United States.
So if we can't call Batman, what are we supposed to do? OK, I have another idea, hold on with me, this is a little bit better. Let's join the Dark Side. Maybe Kylo Ren and Darth Vader had it right all along. But all joking aside, there really is something about the color spectrum. This is a color Kelvin chart, rating color by its temperature.
The International Dark Sky Association rates colors below 3, Kelvins as dark sky friendly because it doesn't impair night vision. What else can we do? Address our fixtures, because dark skies doesn't have to mean dark ground. We can point lights down, where the light is intended. The International Dark Sky Association estimates that all of the outdoor lighting wastes 30 percent of light that goes outward and upward where it is not needed or intended, wasting money and creating more carbon emissions.
In addition, this is a sample of a front porch light that could be converted into a full cutoff fixture, reducing glare, sky glow, and light trespass. Streetlights that point light outward and upward could be retrofitted to point the light downward.
Paris, the City of Light, took solving light pollution to a whole new level. They enacted a lights-out curfew of 1 AM or one hour past the last employee's departure time. I challenge you to find your reason for LightsOut. I wish you all a very dark night. You have JavaScript disabled. Menu Main menu. Watch TED Talks. Diane Knutson.
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