I love looking at the stars. I especially love locating the Southern Cross, a kind of mental anchor in my life ever since I was a child.
I love the evening star, first to arrive and last to leave, and the Milky Way with its brilliant swathe of stars sweeping across the night sky. Not all star-gazers are as lucky as we are. I was astonished to learn this week that about two billion people in the world cannot see the Milky Way. They live in such brightly-lit cities that the artificial lights drown out the starlight. How sad is that? Star visibility varies from one region to another. According to research published in the journal Science Advances, 60% of people in Europe and 80% in North America cannot see the Milky Way. And in Singapore no one can see the Milky Way. No a single soul. Too much light pollution. Same goes for Kuwait, Qatar and Malta. But light pollution is not just about missing out on star-gazing. The journal Environmental Health Perspectives says there is a growing body of scientific evidence that too much artificial light at night can have bad health effects on people and wildlife. One of the biggest effects is that it disrupts our circadian rhythms – our 24-hour internal clock that makes us sleep when it is dark and wake when it is light. According to the Sleep Foundation, circadian rhythms play a vital role in almost all systems in our body, from weight control to regulating blood sugar and cholesterol. These rhythms also influence our mental health, our immune systems and the DNA repair processes involved in preventing cancer. Too much artificial light at night messes up these functions. Light pollution can also mess up wildlife. Two examples: migratory birds navigate by moon and starlight, but artificial light can lead them off-course. Apparently millions of birds die every year because they crash into brightly-lit buildings. Sea turtles that hatch on the beach at night normally find their way into the sea by the bright ocean horizon. City lights attract them away from the sea into the towns and onto roads, and millions of baby turtles die every year as a result. Then there is the waste. Estimates are that 35% of lighting in the world is wasted because it is directed up into the sky where it illuminates nothing. This is a huge waste of money too – about $3billion a year in the US alone. No one is suggesting we do away with lighting, of course, just that we do it differently. If you are looking for suggestions, go online to the International Dark Sky Association. It is doing a good job getting people and policy-makers to cut light pollution by using outdoor lighting in a sensible way. It might be a good idea to start “Dark Sky thinking” on the Garden Route. We can still see the Milky Way now, but what will our night skies be like when your children are your age?
