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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: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday November 29 2017, @10:02PM
That particular group in the Board of Governors was a real bunch of snakes. They'd push and push their agenda, whatever it was, under the auspices of something else: "crime wave" or "neighborhood beautification" or "fiscal responsibility" or whatever, then, when you'd finally parsed their whole proposal, 90% of the talk was a smoke-screen for the real things they were after, things they barely talked about if at all, things that required 90% of their proposed budget, while the big talk items really didn't cost anything.
Needless to say, our next (and current) home is in the unregulated county. That condo association was cool about 80% of the time, until a "bloc" of bad apples got in control all at once - then they really made a lot of people unhappy in a very short time. We've been gone ~6 years now, and I understand that: A) after we left they got to the point of paying a Sheriff's deputy to oversee the casting and counting of ballots electing the next board, and B) they've circled back to "bad times" again recently.
Fortunately, the real jerks lived nowhere near me, otherwise I might have installed a terrawatt spotlight focused on their bedroom window, with a random flash controller.
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