Light Pollution
Light pollution occurs when there is an over-exposure of light.
This is often seen in large cities where the light creates a sort of orange glow above the city and means that it is impossible to see the stars in the night sky. It can also affect the ecosystems of animals and habitats and makes astronomical research near to these points very difficult.
Light pollution may not seem that dangerous on the face of it, but in fact this type of pollution accounts for much of the world's energy consumption and so is contributing to global warming. Excessive lighting has also been shown to have an effect on human health and has been linked to headache, mental stress, fatigue and loss of sexual drive as well as an increase in levels of anxiety. Some offices use fluorescent lighting and this has been shown to increase the risk of elevated blood pressure.
High levels of artificial light can be detrimental to both plant and animal life as it can confuse animal's navigation systems who rely on light to guide them and may alter they're behaviour. Some flowers bloom at night and during this time relies on moths for pollination; a lack of these moths due to excess light could see a decline in whole species of plants that are unable to behave normally.
A lot of birds migrate by night and are attracted to lights left on in tall buildings. Millions of birds are killed each year this way and office workers are being urged to make sure they turn off lights before leaving for the day in order to prevent this.
There are certainly many reasons for reducing light pollution so how can we go about doing this?
By only using the minimum amount of lighting we need to to accomplish a task.
Making sure we turn off lights when we leave the room. Having lights on a timer may also help with this (i.e. to make sure we don't leave them on at night).
By improving the way our lighting works so that light is not being lost and we are not wasting valuable light.
Adjusting the type of lights that we use to the most environmentally friendly option.
