due to the excess of artificial light Light pollution unstoppable progress. The proliferation of LED lights in white and bluish tones instead of amber or yellow allows this light to increasingly ‘clear’ the darkness of the sky necessary to see the stars. Experts consulted by the British newspaper Guardian warned that in twenty years it will be impossible to see most of the stars in the sky. However, there are also harms to animal species and other humans.
According to these experts, haphazardly and without any limitations outdoor lighting, public lighting, advertising and sports venues If it keeps pace with the escalation of this problem, it could make the Milky Way and nearly all the stars completely invisible two decades from now.
Astronomer Martin Rees is part of a multiparty parliamentary group that has produced a report that advocates for Britain’s dark skies and outlines a set of measures to reduce light pollution. These measures include: establishing a commission that regulates the use, intensity and direction of lights. In summary, besides the restriction of lighting hours, it is desired that the lighting should be lit only downwards, not sideways or upwards, and that energy is absolutely necessary.
This is a problem looming across Europe, as well as in Spain, as the Cel Fosc collective has warned for years, uniting the demand for a dark sky in our country and illuminating “only those who really need to be enlightened”. Its main motto is “It’s not about not illuminating, it’s about lighting it well”.
According to a study published by Christopher Kyba of the German Center for Geosciences, artificial lighting increases by about 10% each year, which threatens the contemplation of the stars except the brightest. The rate at which the sky is illuminated in this way means that if a child were now born in a place where 250 stars can be seen at night, by the age of 18 he would only be able to see less than half of it, about 100.
Surprised birds fall to the ground
But it’s not just a problem for observing the night sky. Many animal and plant species depend on the darkness of night for their survival.. Sea turtles, migratory birds, and other species orient themselves by the moonlight. Light pollution causes them to become confused and lose their way. For example, in the Canary Islands every year Dozens of seabirds gather, disoriented by the lights of tourist centers and dies crushed or stunned. In the Balearic Islands, the same is happening for the Balearic shearwater, a protected high-value species that mistook artificial lights for the moon and also threatened the survival of its young specimens.
Insects, which disappear at an unprecedented rate for various reasons, are attracted to artificial lights and die as soon as they come into contact with the source.
even eThe human organism is affectednot only because it disrupts night rest (the circadian cycle that regulates sleep needs darkness at night), but also because, according to many studies, excessive light can also warn of serious illnesses.
White lights are the worst
Professor Robert Fosbury of University College London’s Institute of Ophthalmology (UCL) says the bluish-white emissions from LEDs are almost entirely devoid of red or near-infrared light, which is harmful to the human body.
“We are running out of red and infrared light, and this has serious consequences.“, pointing out. “When a reddish light falls on our body, it activates mechanisms that break down high blood sugar or stimulate melatonin production. But since the introduction of fluorescent lighting and later LEDs, that part of the spectrum has been removed from artificial light and I guess affecting the waves of obesity and the increase in diabetes cases we see today“, pointing out.
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