I’m sure many of us are familiar with solutions to reduce light pollution such as to turn off lights when not in use and to switch to more shielded light sources. However in this post we will take a look at more novel ways to reduce the impacts of light pollution in different cities. These include tangible technical solutions as well as the more intangible aspects through spreading awareness. …
In the previous post, we introduced the increasing designation of Golf Courses as Dark-Sky Places which started in the Americas and exploded in popularity worldwide. In today’s post, we delve deeper into why we see this trend emerging in relation to golf courses, some pitfalls we need to beware of and other solutions. So… Why Golf Courses? What exactly makes them such a good place for dark spaces? For…
With growing awareness of the implications of artificial light exposure at night, various responses are starting to take off in different parts of the world. An innovative example to combat light pollution is the creation of dark spaces in golf-courses. This trend is particularly in North America in places like California, San Diego, Texas and Colorado, which is unsurprising considering that the International Dark-Sky Association was founded in nearby Arizona…
“Thus hath the candle songs the moath” -Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice Just like the quote above, more commonly known today as the phrase “like a moth drawn to a flame”, light pollution can result in increased mortality for moths as these nocturnal creatures often fly into urban light sources. Through direct burning or increased exposure to predators, their attraction to light can be fatal. Take a look at the…
Looking at the global distributions of breast and prostate cancer points us to consider its possible association with artificial light exposure at night (Figure 1&2). Figure 1. Breast cancer rates (per 100,000). Source: (Haim & Portnov, 2013)Figure 2. Prostate cancer rates (per 100,000). Source: (Haim & Portnov, 2013) Not only do we detect an oddly similar global distribution of breast and prostate cancer, we also see that cancer incidence rates…
Unlike the impact of light pollution on animals and plants which are generally negative, the impact that light pollution has on bats is one that is not entirely bad. With the right amount of tree cover that shields light from street lamps, certain species of bats can in fact thrive in urban conditions as Ultraviolet (UV) light attracts insects that bats feed on and a dense tree cover provides protection…
As we commute home after a long day of work or school, perhaps this will be the view that most of us see. In a developed city like Singapore, we rely heavily on street lamps to light our roads and ensure the safety of pedestrian and drivers. However, what we might not see is the figure below, the fact that the light emitted from street lamps, especially if poorly illuminated,…
Artificial light pollution at night (ALAN) has yet again been associated with another aspect of our health — mental illness. Studies such as this have investigated the impact of outdoor light at night and its association with the emergence of depressive symptoms in the Netherlands. Analysed data revealed a positive association between the exposure to outdoor ALAN within the immediate residential environment and depressive symptoms. Other studies conducted on Japanese…
Did you know that travelling light can reach our brains? This reality alongside the increasing severity of global light pollution has led to a growing interest amongst researchers to investigate the impact of artificial light on the brain in recent years. In this post, we will be looking at a newly released study by Fasciani et al. (2020), on the effect of artificial light on dopamine neurons and possibly as…
Let’s have a quick check on your eyes right now. Are they irritated? Are you blinking excessively? Are the words glaring right off your screen? Perhaps, it’s time to give your eyes a little break… right after you finish reading this post! In this post, we will follow this study on the possible consequences of light pollution on [our] retina[s] to find out more about how light damages our eyes…
