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It is not clear how much is too much that is an important part of the research now.”Īccording to “The First World Atlas of the Artificial Night Sky Brightness,” a report on global light pollution published in volume 328, issue 3 (2001) of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, two-thirds of the U.S. Almost all of us awaken during the night for periods of time, and unless we have blackout shades there is some electric lighting coming in our windows. “So I think it is not only ‘night owls’ who get those photons. “However, in an environment where there is much artificial light at night-such as Manhattan or Las Vegas-there is much more opportunity for exposure of the retina to photons that might disrupt circadian rhythm,” he says. When does nuisance light become a health hazard? Richard Stevens, a professor and cancer epidemiologist at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, Connecticut, says light photons must hit the retina for biologic effects to occur. And a growing body of scientific research suggests that light pollution can have lasting adverse effects on both human and wildlife health. Many environmentalists, naturalists, and medical researchers consider light pollution to be one of the fastest growing and most pervasive forms of environmental pollution. But when artificial outdoor lighting becomes inefficient, annoying, and unnecessary, it is known as light pollution.

Artificial light has benefited society by, for instance, extending the length of the productive day, offering more time not just for working but also for recreational activities that require light. None of this is to say that electric lights are inherently bad. What they were really seeing-for the first time-was the Milky Way, long obliterated by the urban sky glow. Indeed, when a 1994 earthquake knocked out the power in Los Angeles, many anxious residents called local emergency centers to report seeing a strange “giant, silvery cloud” in the dark sky. In most of the world’s large urban centers, stargazing is something that happens at a planetarium.

According to the Tucson, Arizona–based International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), the sky glow of Los Angeles is visible from an airplane 200 miles away. Business and office building windows glow throughout the night.

Sports facilities blaze with light that is visible for tens of miles. Powerful lamps light up streets, yards, parking lots, and billboards. Since then, the world has become awash in electric light. In 1879, Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulbs first illuminated a New York street, and the modern era of electric lighting began.