Light Pollution

"The natural world, our traditional source of direct insights, is rapidly disappearing. Modern city-dwellers cannot even see the stars at night. This humbling reminder of Man's place in the scheme of things, which human beings once saw every twenty-four hours, is denied them. It's no wonder that people lose track of who they really are, and what their lives are really about."
Michael Crichton (Author of Jurassic Park)

Almost everyone knows about air and water pollution and most of us have heard about contaminated land. Quite rightly so - this wanton damage to our environment is nothing short of an outrage. The common feature of all forms of pollution is that they change our "natural" environment and change it for the worse. Pollution reduces the range and diversity of life all over the planet. It also endangers the life and health of humans. And even where it does not directly threaten us, it reduces our quality of experience and quality of life. How many people would rather walk over a polluted waste tip rather than through an oakwood full of bluebells ? How many would rather see a stinking, sterile pool instead of a clear, tree-lined pond full of ducks and moorhens ?

But how many people have heard of "Light Pollution" ?

Light pollution has been described as "the cinderella of pollution issues". In our unnatural urban environment, we tend to forget that darkness is both common and commonplace. It is dark for nearly half the time. Many animals, such as bats, mice and moths only come out at night. And for us humans, who are basically daytime animals, night and darkness can be a mysterious and magical experience. There can surely be no more impressive, but also sobering, experience than seeing the full glory of the night sky - the moon, planets and stars. They alone convey to us something of the majesty and immensity of creation.

But how many of us experience real darkness ? How many of us allow or encourage our children to experience it ?

Glaring Britain

In our urban environment lights are everywhere. Of course there are good reasons for lights in house and streets. But we should confine lights to where they are needed. We need to keep our gardens and parks and open spaces dark. Only if we do this, can we hope to preserve the more natural parts of our town and countryside.

There has been a worrying trend over recent years to regard darkness as a dangerous thing, to be avoided wherever possible. There is no doubt that in certain conditions, for example late in the evening in town centres, people can be more at risk from attacks in dark places. But this is no reason to try and fill everywhere with light. The reality is that the risk to someone from being in a dark place is very, very small. Far smaller than the risk from being injured or killed by motor traffic in well lit places or from breathing our polluted air or from lack of exercise because we don't spend enough time walking (or cycling) during the day or night. Parents and the authorities need to stop teaching children to be scared of the dark. Darkness is at worst harmless and at best magical.

Some enlightened MPs are aware of the issue

In Sep 2003, a House of Commons Committee produced a report called 'Light Pollution and Astronomy'. A small number of MPs, displaying unusual thoughfulness and even soul, came up with a series of conclusions that highlighted the government's lack of interest and concern about one of mankind's most magical and majestic experiences - darkness and the night sky. See quotes from their report.

Links

MPs report on Light and Astronomy
Back to Pollution Introduction