On Thursday, October 4, 2018, I visited the university’s planetarium. I spent some time on selecting which video to watch, but I decided on the ‘Losing the Dark’ because it seemed interesting. I have never been in the planetarium before, however, the atmosphere was beautiful. It was dark and there was no one other than yourself, there was a sense of peacefulness and it was so realistic. Being able to see how our world can be without light is amazing because you can see how much humanity has created and changed through time. This show made me realize that I was not fully aware of the damages we create.
For instance, what is Losing the dark all about? Losing the Dark is an educational video of how us humans are losing the ability to look up and see a starry night. We are losing the ability due to light pollution. Light pollution is the excessive or artificial use of light (usually outdoor). More than a 100 years ago we were able to look up into the night and see our galaxy along the sky. Most often than not, we wonder how is it that artist created such beautiful paintings of the sky because we don’t get to see it, or at least see what they were able to before light pollution. Artists such as Van Gogh or writers like Shakespeare used the night sky as inspiration for some of their best work of art.
Moreover, Light pollution affects every living organism. There have been many studies that show how it disrupts ecosystems, that’s not all it affects, it also has a negative health effect which creates sleeping problems such as insomnia. It interrupts ecosystems by confusing animals during their migration period, it also modifies the interactions of predator vs. prey. Although, it can be beneficial for a species to be able to avoid their predators due to light pollution; when the food chain is broken, entire lifestyles can be destroyed. Furthermore, some of the few health effects are sleeping disorders, working fatigue, forms of obesity due to lack of sleep, and increased anxiety. All of these issues are formed due to exposure to artificial light.
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Thus, there are different types of light pollution, such as glare. For example, Glare is the unprotected lighting that is a public hazard, in the eye it causes loss of contrast, which can temporarily blind you and lead to dangerous driving conditions. The second type of light pollution is light trespass which is the unwelcome light that enters an apartment while a person is struggling to sleep. The third type of light pollution is skyglow. Skyglow is the glow effect that can be observed from heavily populated areas. It is the blend of reflected light and upward-directed light escaping into the sky.
Hence, we are more than capable of fixing out light output in our everyday lives. We can fix out light pollution in 5 simple changes. For instance, we can do is reduce decorative lighting; this does not mean throwing them away but using them less or turning them off when not being used. Another thing we can do is cover bulbs that the light is only facing downwards. By doing this it helps reduce brightening of the skies and eliminates light reflecting into the sky. Although this can be complicated to do, we can also work together as a community by turning all the street lights into automatic systems that are only used at certain times. Automated timers limit the use of lights and encourage natural lighting.
Moreover, putting a stop to the use of needless light during the day as shown to be beneficial as well. If you have the chance to use natural lighting or turning off the light as you leave it not only saves you money but helps the world. The use of motion sensor lights is very important to use outdoors which is also another way we can reduce light pollution It helps keep our families safe if any intruders are near and it only turns on if anything is near which cuts electricity down by a lot.
All in all, light is all around us no matter where we go, however, we absolutely need to cut back our light pollution. Even though we have lived in this world for thousands of years, we humans are hurting it, but it is hurting us more than we think. Us as humans don’t realize how many organisms we are hurting all around the world. The change starts with you in your home, with your family just turning off the light before you go to a late-night movie goes a long way.
