from the headlights,-white-lines-and-black-tar-rivers dept.
A new atlas has illustrated that 80% of North Americans are prevented from seeing the Milky Way's bulge by light pollution:
The luminous glow of light pollution prevents nearly 80 percent of people in North America from seeing the Milky Way in the night sky. That's according to a new atlas of artificial night sky brightness that found our home galaxy is now hidden from more than one-third of humanity.
While there are countries were the majority of people still live under pristine, ink-black sky conditions — places such as Chad, Central African Republic and Madagascar — more than 99 percent of the people living in the U.S. and Europe look up and see light-polluted skies.
The country with the worst light-pollution is Singapore, where researchers found that "the entire population lives under skies so bright that the eye cannot fully dark-adapt to night vision." Other countries with large percentages of people living under skies this bright include Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
The new world atlas of artificial night sky brightness (open, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1600377)
Related Stories
Light pollution is getting worse across much of the globe, with the exception of countries like Yemen and Syria:
A study of pictures of Earth by night has revealed that artificial light is growing brighter and more extensive every year. Between 2012 and 2016, the planet's artificially lit outdoor area grew by more than 2% per year. Scientists say a "loss of night" in many countries is having negative consequences for "flora, fauna, and human well-being".
A team published the findings in the journal Science Advances. Their study used data from a Nasa satellite radiometer - a device designed specifically to measure the brightness of night-time light. It showed that changes in brightness over time varied greatly by country. Some of the world's "brightest nations", such as the US and Spain, remained the same. Most nations in South America, Africa and Asia grew brighter. [...]
- In 2016, the American Medical Association officially recognised the "detrimental effects of poorly designed, high-intensity LED lighting", saying it encouraged communities to "minimise and control blue-rich environmental lighting by using the lowest emission of blue light possible to reduce glare. The sleep-inducing hormone melatonin is particularly sensitive to blue light.
- A recent study published in the journal Nature [DOI: 10.1038/nature23288] [DX] revealed that artificial light was a threat to crop pollination - reducing the pollinating activity of nocturnal insects.
- Research in the UK revealed that trees in more brightly lit areas burst their buds up to a week earlier [open, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2016.0813] [DX] than those in areas without artificial lighting.
- A study published earlier this year found that urban light installations "dramatically altered" the behaviour of nocturnally migrating birds.
Lead researcher Christopher Kyba from the German Research Centre for Geoscience in Potsdam said that the introduction of artificial light was "one of the most dramatic physical changes human beings have made to our environment".
Also at Sky & Telescope, NPR, and EurekAlert.
Artificially lit surface of Earth at night increasing in radiance and extent (open, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1701528) (DX)
Previously: Bring on the Night, say National Park Visitors in New Study
Light Pollution Prevents 80% of North Americans From Seeing the Milky Way
Study Shows That Artificial Lights Deter Nocturnal Pollinators
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2016, @03:51AM
Social media culture is navel-gazing. If it's not on facebook, it doesn't exist. If you can't tweet about it, it doesn't exist. If you can't snapchat it, it doesn't exist.
Science fiction predicted humans would reach the stars by now. It never happened because social media gave humans the greatest opportunity in history to seek attention from each other by showing off their rampant idiocy. Nothing else matters.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2016, @04:05AM
They wanted it like this. They polluted the night sky intentionally. They also got to poison us with Mercury-filled lights, lowering intelligence in newborns.
Soon, there will be generations that have never seen a star in the sky. They will be told there is nothing out there or it is so far away it is impossible to reach, and they will believe it. Then a one-world government can be put in place and humanity will not care, "knowing" that this is the only place with life and will accept open Jewish control. At this time the Jews have to hide behind governments and banks to do their thing; they have to use governments to declare war on unfriendlies. They want to change that and control the people openly.
(Score: 2) by Zz9zZ on Saturday June 11 2016, @04:06AM
*beep* wrong!
Social media is just a new form of socialization, on a weird scale. People have always been navel gazers, largely concerned with the banalities of life. He said she said, didja hear about??
If most do not care it is probably because most do not even realize what they are missing. When people see the images on WHATSPOPULAR they mostly are amazed and upvotelike it.
We haven't reached the stars because the technology has been lacking. New technologies are helping, but we still need a more efficient method than rockets to open the stars... Social media was a brand new phenomena, but it is peaking and will level out soon enough.
On a personal note, I attended University in a major urban area. One night, when tired at a party, I went outside to lie in the grass and do some star watching. I counted three in my somewhat limited field of vision (buildings, trees). It made me sad, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'm not the most amazing person in the US, one out of a billion would make it unlikely there is another who dislikes social media yet likes looking at stars ;)
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 1) by Francis on Saturday June 11 2016, @04:13AM
I like social media. It keeps the idiots away from me when I'm offline.
Thanks FB, I salute you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2016, @04:25AM
Nope, doesn't help. If I'm busy coding on my tablet, people around me ask if I'm texting. If I happen to hold the screen too close to my face, people around me ask if I'm taking a selfie. Everything is social to them. Everything.
(Score: 3, Touché) by maxwell demon on Saturday June 11 2016, @08:12AM
Well, you are texting — to your compiler. ;-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2016, @04:20AM
When people see the images on WHATSPOPULAR they mostly are amazed and upvotelike it.
Amazing graphics!! Is that a new game? Which app do I download?? +like +like +like
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday June 11 2016, @08:23AM
Yeah, this "outside" game has really great graphics; you cannot even discern the pixels. And it's full immersive 3D! Also the sound dynamics is incredible (although sometimes they do things a bit too loud, you also can overdo realism). And it has even force feedback!
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2016, @08:45AM
The mechanics are kinda wonkie, like the developers threw the shit together at the last moment. Leveling is haphazard and grindy, and I'm pretty certain some people have cheat codes ("there's no way you became a level 67 guild master with only two hours in").
I could do without the smell-o vision as well.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2016, @09:52AM
Yeah, this "outside" game has really great graphics; you cannot even discern the pixels
Pfff... You can tell it's shopped. Everything smoothed out and blurred and I would know because I've seen quite some 'shops in my time...
Now where did I leave my glasses?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2016, @06:32AM
Zz.... this right here, SN, is the only social media I mess with. I do not mess with facebook or twitter.
I did have a group on Yahoo Groups once, but it got deleted. For people who have sthenolagnia. Guess they considered it porn.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2016, @04:45AM
Turn off all the lights, and the problem is solved. As an economic bonus, demand will rise for night-vision goggles, because skank bitches won't want to get raped in the dark.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2016, @09:39AM
Humans instinctively associate light with security and nothing will ever change that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2016, @11:21AM
No-one wants to be eaten by a Grue!
(Score: 2) by deadstick on Saturday June 11 2016, @03:31PM
What is a grue?
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Saturday June 11 2016, @09:12PM
What is a grue?
I suggest you download and play a few games of Zork.
(Score: 2) by deadstick on Sunday June 12 2016, @12:57PM
Whoosh...
Did you ever type "What is a grue?" in Zork?
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday June 12 2016, @03:58PM
Did you ever type "What is a grue?" in Zork?
That never occurred to me. Now I am going to have to play Zork again.
(Score: 2, Informative) by kurenai.tsubasa on Saturday June 11 2016, @03:00PM
The flame keeps us warm on cold nights. It gives us light. It makes holes in the darkness when the Moon is new. We can fix spears at night for tomorrow's hunt. And if we are not tired, even in the darkness we can see each other and talk. Also—a good thing!—fire keeps animals away. We can be hurt at night. Sometimes we have been eaten, even by small animals, hyenas and wolves. Now it is different. Now the flame keeps the animals back. We see them baying softly in the dark, prowling, their eyes glowing in the light of the flame. They are frightened of the flame. But we are not frightened. The flame is ours. We take care of the flame. The flame takes care of us.
(Sagan, Carl. Cosmos. Random House, 1980, pp. 137.)
Humans discover fire, find other ways to make light and heat, and so many years later it's as though night never really comes any more. The chapter that quote is from is called “The Backbone of Night” (also shows up in that episode of the documentary series) after the name the !Kung Bushmen have for the Milky Way (Sagan 139).
It's at least a five hour drive before I can see the backbone of night even here in flyover country. I was able to find a good location using this light pollution map [lightpollutionmap.info].
The tricky part is making sure that it's not completely overcast. I've been using Weather Underground's 10 day weather forecast graph [wunderground.com]. (Location chosen at random—this one is near the Shawnee National Forest, which looks to be another good viewing location.) Under Customize, it's possible to show forecast cloud cover. That should be less of an issue now that it's summer.
In the world I see - you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway.
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Saturday June 11 2016, @03:05PM
Sagan, Carl. Cosmos. Ballantine Books, 1985, pp. 137.
Grr, been a while since I've cited something in dead tree form.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2016, @08:37PM
Thanks for the link!
I was able to find a good location using this light pollution map [lightpollutionmap.info].
Except that is uses a Bing map underlay, and now I think I have pancreatic cancer.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2016, @10:08PM
Clear Dark Sky [cleardarksky.com] is another good reference to use.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2016, @01:59PM
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday June 11 2016, @06:33PM
The story is that when the Northridge Earthquake hit 22 Years Ago on January 17, 1994, all lights in that part of California went out when power was cut. People called emergency services to ask if the strange band of light in the sky had caused the earthquake. They had never seen it before, and did not know what the Milky Way was.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Saturday June 11 2016, @09:18PM
The sad thing is that they are not too far from areas with great night skies. On my first trip to California I wandered into Death Valley and was stunned by the amount of stars visible in the night sky. Coming from the northeast US I had never seen a night sky that clear. Yes the Milky Way was visible. On a later trip I camped there above 8000 feet and the skies were even more spectacular.