Light has been touted as one of the most life-changing inventions to mankind and remains undeniably fundamental to our day-to-day lives. There is, however, a fine line between necessary lighting and pollutive lighting, making it even harder to regulate and set thresholds for its production and consumption limits.

Light pollution has been severely understudied compared to other pollutions (such as air pollution, marine pollution etc), as it is a relatively new issue that has garnered global attention only in recent years. Further research needs to be conducted in order to wholly understand this issue and to be able to thread the thin line between reducing light overproduction whilst maintaining optimal light levels for safety, security, and accessibility. Light pollution studies should also be targeted, since local factors are the main determinants of light pollution levels, as with other pollution forms. Individual countries should study factors specific to their localities – population density, light pollution levels, negative externalities (presence of coastlines and biodiversity etc) and other factors to craft specific policies targeted on a local level to ensure a holistic understanding of issues.

Over the past few weeks, we have explored light pollution in-depth in this blog – understanding the significance of this pollution problem, the possible measures that can be taken to mitigate this issue, as well as the relevance of light pollution to Singapore. I hope that you’ve been en-light-ened in one way or another!