The Problem

Cities across the world experience having none to barley any stars at night,is caused by a type of lighting on streets that causes light pollution.

Light pollution is the effect of bad lighting designs in which the light shines outwards to the sky instead of the floor, this is seen highly throughout cities and receiving the name sky glow.

According to the 2016 groundbreaking “World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness,” 80 percent of the world’s population lives under sky glow. In the United States and Europe, 99 percent of the public can’t experience a natural night.

The excessive presence of light can also cause a disturbance in the human body’s circadian rhythms, which is physical, mental, and behavioral change that follow a 24 hour cycle. A disrupted circadian can also cause sleep disorders such as insomnia and delayed sleep-phase syndrome, as well as depression, hypertension, attention deficit disorder, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

This however not only affects humans but animals as well, take for example sea turtles a type of animals that uses its instinct of heading towards the brightest source of light to help find itself onto the beach. The starlight reflecting off the beach helps build a brighter light to give the turtles a sense of direction. However with major cities being in the way the turtle gets confused and in turn becomes dehydrated or roadkill.

What can be done

To help with a heavy light polluted sky having frequent meetings with homeowners, environmental group or city counsels can drastically help by providing examples of what to do and how to change lights in areas across.

The best and most effective way to help with light pollution is by just turning the light however this leads to bigger problems such as poor visibility or safety while walking.

A solution to this problem however can be to have a full timer or motion sensor that goes off when a person walks near the light as seen in the picture below.