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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: 5, Interesting) by Sourcery42 on Monday November 27 2017, @07:47PM (4 children)
LEDs are part of it. I recall seeing some images a few years back of cities before/after conversion to modern, high efficiency lighting. I think they were in Spain, but I can't seem to find the articles now. The difference in brightness was striking. I've seen it on my block too. The city replaced a sodium lamp with LED, and suddenly the streetlight was obnoxiously bright. Even when they're properly shielded to not direct light up, the shorter wavelengths of modern white LEDs tend to bounce around more than the longer wavelengths you get off of traditional sodium lamps with their more reddish glow and skyglow gets worse.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday November 27 2017, @08:27PM (2 children)
Around here, sodium lamp color is associated with high crime areas that "need the light." So, when full spectrum LED came out and it was cheaper to operate than sodium, people started amping up their brightness levels simply because they could get all that light and get it cheaper than the old sodium lamps.
I think a rational flux limit for always-on safety lighting would be somewhere around 2x full moon at a distance of the pole height - this way you've got at least full-moon illumination flux out to a 30 degree angle from the lamp-post. But, that would be a regulation - say it sheep: regulations are baaaaaaad.
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(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday November 28 2017, @12:24AM (1 child)
Under full moon light, you don't actually distinguish colors. The US surely wouldn't allow people of the wrong color to be arrested for crimes they didn't commit, because of unreliable observers.
(Score: 3, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday November 28 2017, @04:10AM
As near as I can read the racial prejudice here in the South, there's white and there's non-white - don't much matter none whether you're black or brown.
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(Score: 5, Informative) by nitehawk214 on Monday November 27 2017, @08:45PM
Broad spectrum LED streetlights also obliterate night vision. It is the same as those blasted bluish HID headlights. Once you pass out of the area covered by the lamp, your headlights are insufficient.
They make LED bulbs that output a narrow spectrum like the old sodium-vapor lights, however very few municipalities are using them.
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