As lighting technology continues to develop, the potential of lighting up the darkest region around the world becomes less of a problem. This meant that more people would have access to lights, especially during night time, in order to facilitate their daily activities. However, the advancement of lighting technology that brings about brighter nights for many came at a cost of the environment and its stakeholders, contributing to the problem of lighting pollution. Lighting pollution refers to the inappropriate or excessive use of artificial light in the night environment, which could be harmful to both the natural environment and ourselves.

Impact on the Natural Environment

As more cities around the world adopt the use of LED light as alternatives to traditional fluorescent or incandescent lamps, given that LED lights tend to be more energy efficient, it resulted in more areas becoming over-illuminated, such that large amounts of wasted lights are being produced. Furthermore, the light emitted by inexpensive white LEDs on the street tend to emit blue light that remains in the environment, thereby increasing the glow in the night sky. In fact, studies had predicted that almost 99 percent of the European and American cities suffer from light polluted skies, such that many natural night scenery had been disrupted by the adoption of lights around the world.

The negative impact of light pollution was not only limited to the disruption to the night scenes around the world. The natural ecosystem was also disrupted, as shown by the following picture in which trails of birds flying above the structure of the Opera House in Sydney, Australia. Both local and migrating birds tend to be led astray by artificial lighting at night, which can lead to accidental deaths as the birds are not able to see clearly in these levels of light.

Impact on Humans

Constant exposure to blue light that is present in our everyday environment, especially during night time, also has an aversive impact on the health of humans. Blue light reduces the production of melatonin, which is a hormone that directly affects the sleep cycle of individuals. The inability to obtain sufficient rest is associated with higher likelihood of depression, diabetes and cardiovascular problems. One potential solution would be to avoid bright lights or screens for at least 2 hours prior to sleeping, so warm colour lights would be beneficial in improving your sleep cycle and sleep quality.

Therefore, it is important for all users to make efficient and effective use of lights, in order to reduce the negative impact resulting from inefficient use of light that contributes to light pollution.

References:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/04/nights-are-getting-brighter-earth-paying-the-price-light-pollution-dark-skies/

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/blue-light-has-a-dark-side

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/brv.12036