Have you ever take a plane ride at night, and if you got the window seat and looked down and saw so many lights in Singapore and neighbouring countries? Well, welcome to light pollution which is what I’ll be talking about for the next few posts So what is light pollution? Well, I’m not really write out a lengthy post telling you what it is. You should have watched lecture 9. If you haven’t, might as well go to Luminus and listen to Prof Taylor’s recorded lecture. Or at least read through his slides 🙂
Okay I know you’re very busy and might not have time to listen to a 1 hour plus long video. Well let’s start with a short video.
So, if you watched the video above, you would know that light pollution is basically the over illumination of cities and night skies by artificial lighting. There are several components to this such as glare (excessive brightness that causes visual discomfort), skyglow (brightening of the night sky), light trespass (light falling in unintended or unnecessary areas) and clutter (bright, confusing and excessive groupings of light sources) (Dark Sky, n.d.). You can look at the picture below for a visualization of the components of light pollution mentioned.
The video mentioned mostly about the detrimental health impacts to humans such as harm to eyesight, disruption of sleep cycles and sleep deprivation. It only mentioned briefly on how sea turtle are affected by it. Additionally, it also mentions the environmental impacts regarding carbon emissions since coal or oil is burnt to produce the electricity needed.
Overall, what light pollution has done is disrupt the balance between light and dark on Earth. While it may seem like a good thing that allows for greater productivity, visibility and so on, it is not entirely a good thing. As mentioned previously there are many disadvantages to it. Yet, with more and more development, light pollution has been increasing over the years.
If you’re interested in looking at light pollution in the world, you can check out this map. The brighter the area, the greater the light pollution. Here’s the link: https://cires.colorado.edu/artificial-sky
References
Dark Sky (n.d.) Available at: https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution/
Check out the next few posts to find out some interesting information on how light pollution affects animals 🙂