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SCIENCEFriday 24 November 2017
Good night, night: Light pollution increasing around globe
By MARCIA DUNN More and more places are Sky Association , based in
installing outdoor lighting Tucson, Arizona, has been
AP Aerospace Writer given its low cost and the highlighting the hazards of
overall growth in commu- artificial night light for de-
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. nities’ wealth, the scientists cades.
noted. Urban sprawl is also “We hope that the results
(AP) — The world’s nights moving towns farther out. further sound the alarm
The outskirts of major cities about the many unintend-
are getting alarmingly in developing nations are ed consequences of the
brightening quite rapidly, in unchecked use of artificial
brighter — bad news for all fact, Kyba said. light at night,” Director J.
Other especially bright hot Scott Feierabend said in a
sorts of creatures, humans spots: sprawling green- statement.
houses in the Netherlands An instrument on the
included. and elsewhere. 2011-launched U.S. weath-
Photos taken by astronauts er satellite, Suomi, provided
A German-led team re- aboard the International the observations for this
Space Station also illumi- study. A second such in-
ported Wednesday that nate the growing problem. strument — known as the
Franz Holker of the Leibniz Visible Infrared Imaging
light pollution is threaten- Institute of Freshwater Ecol- Radiometer Suite, or VIIRS
ogy and Inland Fisheries — was launched on a new
ing darkness almost every- in Berlin, a co-author, said satellite Saturday by NASA
things are at the critical and the National Oceanic
where. Satellite observa- point. and Atmospheric Adminis-
“Many people are using tration. This latest VIIRS will
tions during five Octobers light at night without really join the continuing night
thinking about the cost,” light study.q
show Earth’s artificially lit Holker said. Not just the
economic cost, “but also
outdoor area grew by 2 the cost that you have to
pay from an ecological,
percent a year from 2012 This photo combo of images provided by NASA’s Earth environmental perspec-
Observatory/Kyba, GFZ shows photographs of Calgary, Alberta, tive.”
to 2016. So did nighttime Canada, taken from the International Space Station on Dec. Kyba and his colleagues
23, 2010, left, where residential areas are mainly lit by orange recommend avoiding glar-
brightness. sodium lamps; and on Nov. 27, 2015, right, where many areas ing lamps whenever pos-
on the outskirts are newly lit compared to 2010, and many sible — choosing amber
Light pollution is actually neighborhoods have switched from orange sodium lamps to over so-called white LEDs
white LED lamps. — and using more efficient
worse than that, accord- ways to illuminate plac-
Associated Press es like parking lots or city
ing to the researchers. Their streets. For example, dim,
closely spaced lights tend
measurements coincide to provide better visibility
than bright lights that are
with the outdoor switch more spread out.
The International Dark-
to energy-efficient and and overall increased use. tion of birds, fish, amphib-
The findings shatter the ians, insects and bats can
cost-saving light-emitting long-held notion that more be disrupted. Plants can
diodes, or LEDs. Because
the imaging sensor on the energy efficient lighting have abnormally extended
polar-orbiting weather would decrease usage on growing periods. And for-
the global — or at least a get about seeing stars or
satellite can’t detect the national — scale. the Milky Way, if the trend
“Honestly, I had thought continues.
LED-generated color blue,
some light is missed.
The observations, for exam- and assumed and hoped About the only places with
ple, indicate stable levels that with LEDs we were dramatic declines in night
turning the corner. There’s light were in areas of con-
of night light in the United also a lot more awareness flict like Syria and Yemen,
States, Netherlands, Spain
and Italy. But light pollu- of light pollution,” he told the researchers found. Aus-
tion is almost certainly on reporters by phone from tralia also reported a no-
Potsdam. “It is quite disap- ticeable drop, but that’s
the rise in those countries pointing.” because wildfires were rag-
The biological impact from ing early in the study. Re-
given this elusive blue light,
said Christopher Kyba of
the GFZ German Research surging artificial light is also searchers were unable to
Center for Geosciences significant, according to filter out the bright burning
and lead author of the the researchers. light.
study published in Science People’s sleep can be Asia, Africa and South
Advances . marred, which in turn can America, for the most part,
Also on the rise is the spread affect their health. The saw a surge in artificial night
migration and reproduc- lighting.
of light into the hinterlands
