It sounds pretty, but sky glow caused by anthropogenic activities is one of the most pervasive forms of light pollution.Īrtificial light can wreak havoc on natural body rhythms in both humans and animals. More than 80 percent of the world’s population, and 99 percent of Americans and Europeans, live under sky glow.
Astronomers are particularly concerned with sky glow pollution as it reduces their ability to view celestial objects. People living in cities with high levels of sky glow have a hard time seeing more than a handful of stars at night. Sky glow is the brightening of the night sky, mostly over urban areas, due to the electric lights of cars, streetlamps, offices, factories, outdoor advertising, and buildings, turning night into day for people who work and play long after sunset. Some of the most light-polluted countries in the world are Singapore, Qatar, and Kuwait. Vast areas of North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia are glowing with light, while only the most remote regions on Earth (Siberia, the Sahara, and the Amazon) are in total darkness. Available online for viewing, the atlas shows how and where our globe is lit up at night. This became glaringly obvious when the World Atlas of Night Sky Brightness, a computer-generated map based on thousands of satellite photos, was published in 2016. Light pollution, the excessive or inappropriate use of outdoor artificial light, is affecting human health, wildlife behavior, and our ability to observe stars and other celestial objects. However, like carbon dioxide emissions and plastic, too much of a good thing has started to negatively impact the environment. Today, automobile emissions are a major source of air pollution contributing to climate change, and plastics fill our ocean, creating a significant health hazard to marine animals.Īnd what about the electric lightbulb, thought to be one of the greatest human inventions of all time? Electric light can be a beautiful thing, guiding us home when the sun goes down, keeping us safe and making our homes cozy and bright.
Take, for example, the automobile or that miraculous human-made material, plastic. Most environmental pollution on Earth comes from humans and their inventions.
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