Brightening Nights
The World Atlas of Light Pollution, published by an international team of scientists, shows how much artificial lighting illuminates the night sky worldwide. Already in 2016, more than 80 percent of the world’s population lived under a light-polluted sky. Even 99 percent of people in Europe and the USA are affected. In Germany alone, for example, around half of all people under 30 say they have never seen the Milky Way in the night sky.
Animals and Plants Suffer From Light Smog
The permanent lighting of our cities also prevents the proper regeneration of animals. Many insects and birds are active at night and are disturbed in their rhythm or orientation. Light smog disturbs ecosystems, such as the newly hatched sea turtles that run towards the brightly lit city instead of the sea. The cones of light mislead migratory birds instead of orienting themselves by the light of the Milky Way. Another example: On a summer night, one streetlight can have 150 insects on its conscience, and there are about 7 million streetlights in Germany alone. Thus, artificial lighting poses a challenge in the context of the complex problem of bird and insect mortality.
Even plants need darkness to recover from photosynthesis and repair broken leaves and stems. In addition, plants that are continuously lit are less likely to be pollinated and thus produce less fruit. They miss autumn and spring by dropping leaves too late or developing new shoots too early. This also disturbs their biorhythms in the long run.
Effects on People´s Health
Too much light can also make us ill in the long term. The blue and cold light from the LEDs of neon signs and modern street lighting, as well as from televisions, mobile phones, and laptops, has the same effect on us as daylight and keeps us awake. Only when it is dark does our body produce the sleep hormone melatonin, which regulates our rhythm between day and night, similar to the way vertebrates do. Light inhibits the production of melatonin. Without darkness, we would live against our inner clock and sleep too little. The cells do not regenerate sufficiently, and the person cannot recover sufficiently. Too much light at night can cause long-term sleep problems and, as a result of the sleep problems, also bring about other health complaints.
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There are numerous ecosystems and natural processes affected by light pollution that cannot all be listed. Furthermore, the effects of light pollution are so complex and multi-layered that current studies are still very new and sometimes do not provide clear and easily interpretable results. In any case, light pollution has an enormous effect and impact on ecosystems, and what is known so far is mostly negative.
