For hundreds of thousands of years, seeing stars at night was a natural part of human life. It was a way to connect with nature and to marvel at the vastness of the universe.
But today, light pollution makes it difficult for many people to see the stars at all.
There is a famous story about Los Angeles from 1994, due to the earthquake all the city energy grid went completely offline. Residents who were awoken by the noises stumbled outside and looked up. They saw something they had never seen before – the arm of the Milky Way.
But instead of being amazed by the sight, many people were scared. They called the Griffith Observatory and 911, asking what was happening. They thought it was aliens or a huge cloud.
This is the sad reality of light pollution: it’s blocking our view of the stars.
A study published in the journal Science Advances found that over 1/3 of the world’s population cannot see the Milky Way. This is because the light from cities and towns washes out the light from the stars.
More than 80% of the world and more than 99% of the U.S. and European populations live under light-polluted skies. The Milky Way is hidden from more than one-third of humanity, including 60% of Europeans and nearly 80% of North Americans.
SCIENCE ADVANCES
Before the Earth was illuminated with bright LED lights, we had fire. Until the late 19th century, fire was very much synonymous with light. And then something marvellous happened. Public electric lighting in the form of incandescent light bulbs spread like wildfire across the world, illuminating our cities.
But here’s the sad part: today, nearly 85% of the world’s population lives in places where there’s too much artificial light in the sky at night. In the U.S. and Europe, it’s practically everywhere. What’s worse, this light pollution is getting worse by about 10% every year, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop.
Imagine this: more than a third of all people on Earth can’t see much of them have never seen the Milky Way, that beautiful band of stars in the night sky. This includes folks in big cities like London, New York, and Tokyo. You can see how much you are affected by using this map.
If we don’t do something about it, in about 100 years, our world will look completely different. Think about a planet where almost everywhere you go, there’s too much artificial light at night, and you can’t see the natural beauty of the night sky anymore.
Will the people forget about the drive to conquer the universe? Was the recent slowdown in space exploration caused by the oblivion of the other worlds, from the general public, as well as most influential people, who are living in the areas with the most light pollution?
I could even come up with a hypothesis that the recent popular undermining of belief in god, could be in part sourced in disconnect from the universe caused by light pollution.
The light pollution that we have at night, it’s one of the greatest tragedies about modern civilization is that we’ve blacked out one of the most spectacular things you could ever see. The thing that really centres us and humbles us.
Joe Rogan
But light pollution doesn’t have only speculative consequences.
Light pollution disrupts our natural circadian rhythms, affecting melatonin production, a hormone essential for sleep. City residents often have lower melatonin levels, leading to sleep deprivation and fatigue. Moreover, studies suggest a troubling connection between reduced melatonin and various cancers.
In addition, the loss of the starry night sky can hurt our mental and emotional well-being. Studies have shown that people who live in areas with high levels of light pollution are more likely to experience anxiety, depression, and sleep problems.
Also from a stoic perspective, lack of exposure to the stars can lead to an exaggeration of personal problems, because we can’t look at them from a bigger perspective. There is a stoic exercise in which we should imagine ourselves from above and slowly zoom out further and further to see how small our problems are from the cosmic perspective
Light pollution isn’t just affecting humans; it’s disrupting the lives of animals worldwide. For the first time in eons, newly hatched baby sea turtles are sometimes led away from the ocean due to artificial light, putting them at risk of accidents and dehydration. Shearwaters, seabirds that rely on moon and starlight for navigation, become disoriented by city lights, leading to exhaustion and starvation. Even African dung beetles, which use the Milky Way to guide their movements, are now unable to see the stars, making them more vulnerable to predators. Light pollution is fundamentally altering the natural behaviors of these creatures, with potentially devastating consequences for their survival.
Light pollution has a number of negative consequences, including:
- Disrupting the natural patterns of wildlife
- Negatively impacting human health
- Making it hard to see the stars and planets at night
How to reduce the effect which light pollution has on us?
There are a number of things we can do to reduce light pollution and reconnect with the starry night sky. One simple thing we can do is to turn off lights when we don’t need them. We can also use shielded lights that direct light down instead of up, and we can choose dimmer lights whenever possible.
Another way to reduce light pollution is to support policies that promote dark skies. For example, we can advocate for zoning ordinances that limit the amount of light that can be emitted from businesses and other commercial establishments.
We can also bring the stars into our own homes by buying stars glows kit. Glow-in-the-dark stars are a fun and educational way to teach kids about astronomy and the importance of protecting the night sky.
By reducing light pollution, we can all help to preserve the beauty of the night sky and reconnect with nature and the universe.
As individuals, we have limited influence over light pollution, but we can mitigate some of its negative influence by installing darkening curtains which are blocking the light at night and paint glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling to reconnect with the universe.
I am offering glow-in-the-dark star patterns from any location and time for example from Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England Jan 4, 1643, when Isaac Newton was born. I will recreate any starry sky for you.
I really recommend this video on the “Be Smart” channel on Youtube, to even find more about the topic: