Hi everyone! Having learnt about the types and effects of light pollution, let us look at the law attempting to control or regulate light pollution. Today, we shall first give our interpretation of what “light pollution” is, and we will then look at the first ever law on light pollution, the Czech Republic’s Clean Air Act (Clarke, 2002). We shall take a look at the law and analyse if the law described light pollution well. Firstly, let us provide our definition of light pollution.
Our definition of light pollution
“Light pollution includes anthropogenic light that
(a) is reflected above the horizon (i.e. skywards); or
(b) shines onto places unintended by the user or designer; or
(c) shines at an intensity unnecessary for its purpose
We deem that (a) and (b) are rather straightforward, being literal definitions of sky glow and light trespass (Narisada & Schreuder, 2004). However, we gave our own interpretation of glare for our definition. Originally, glare should be considered for all lights, regardless of purpose, as long as it causes discomfort (Narisada & Schreuder, 2004). However, we understand the need for bright lights, such as for lighthouses and searchlights (if the case of military uses, not consumer uses). Thus, rather than blindly (heh, pun intended) making all bright sources of light “light pollution”, we only consider it to be pollutive if it is shining at an intensity above what is normally required. While this definition does not exclude consumer applications of searchlight which can also cause light pollution in our opinion, it was the trade-off we decided to accept.
Czech Republic’s Clean Air Act
According to Section 1(r) of the 2002 Clean Air Act, light pollution is:
“every form of illumination by artificial light which is dispersed outside the areas it is dedicated to, particularly, if directed above the level of horizon.” (“Air Protection and on Amendments to Certain Other Acts (Air Protection Act),” 2002)
Do note that the official law was written in Czech! However, when we used Google translate and other sources, the translation of the law to English seemed to give the same definition. As we discussed in our earlier post, light pollution consists of sky glow, light trespass and glare. From the Clean Air Act itself, some aspects of light pollution are indeed tackled.
Firstly, the phrase “dispersed outside the areas it is dedicated to” addresses the problem of light trespass, where light “trespasses” into areas not intended to be lit up. As it is a literal explanation of the process, we deemed it adequate. Additionally, this does seem to address the problem of sky glow, where light reflected was directed skywards. However, we are uncertain on whether we should interpret it with the context of the dispersed light. Even though the following phrase mentions that light pollution also includes light “directed above the level of horizon”, the interpretation could be lost in translation. In our case, we interpreted this portion as as (1) all light improperly directed above the level of horizon is a form of light pollution and (2) light intentionally directed upwards is not considered light pollution. In this case, this interpretation addresses the problem of sky glow as well. However, this law ends here. This means that the problem of glare, where excess light is being produced, is ignored.
Having seen both our definition of light pollution and the Czech Republic’s version, what do you think? Do tell us your opinions by commenting down below and in our next post, we shall compare and conclude this week’s theme on light pollution. Stay tuned!
Lee Yang
References
Air Protection and on Amendments to Certain Other Acts (Air Protection Act), (2002). Retrieved from http://svetlo.astro.cz/zakon/t0912pz.htm
Clarke, T. (2002). Day one for light pollution law. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/news/2002/020527/full/news020527-14.html
Narisada, K., & Schreuder, D. (2004). Light pollution handbook. Springer.