Effects of Light Pollution
- Todd Burlet, President, Starry Skies North
We previously learned the 4 main categories of light pollution: Glare, Light Trespass, Clutter, and Skyglow.
Glare creates problems for people of all ages but is especially hard on seniors.
As we age our irises are slower to respond to changes in brightness, so glare creates discomfort until our eyes adjust. Our reaction is to avert our vision, so now we’re not looking where we need to be looking to keep ourselves and others safe. Once past the glare there’s another problem -older irises are slower to open, leaving seniors temporary blind. Clutter also causes more problems as we age. As our brains age, they naturally slow down a bit, so it takes longer for older brains to make sense of a cluttered image filled with light sources vying for attention. This can delay our response to important things in the visual field, be they pedestrians or cracks in the sidewalk. The third challenge is overly-blue light. Blue light scatters more in our eyes than amber light. As our eyes age this scattering increases. Blue light in older eyes scatters 16 times as much as amber light in a young eye. Scatter reduces contrast, and contrast is key to vision. Glare, clutter, and scatter all combine to create real vision issues for seniors, reducing their mobility and independence.
Wildlife, including birds and bats, struggle under light pollution.
Insects are attracted to artificial light, and some species of bat are light-tolerant and can feed at the resulting smorgasbord. Other bats avoid light and go hungry because all the insects are elsewhere, or eaten. Did you know that 80% of songbirds travel at night? Building strikes by migrating birds are well known, thanks to the work of the Audubon Society, but migrating birds face additional challenges. When they enter an urban area they loose their night vision and can’t find their way out, so they circle the city all night, burning time and precious calories. Then they’re forced to make a no-win decision when searching for nesting habitat -should they pick a spot with food water and shelter that has bright lights that exposes them to predators, or should they pick a darker location with less access to food, water, and shelter?
What can you do to protect birds, bats, our seniors and more?
Look at how your outdoor lights are pointed.
Does the light spill into the street and neighboring properties, or does all the light stay in your yard? Can you redirect the light so it stays in your yard, or can you use a shielded fixture to prevent light trespass?
Next, look at the color of your outdoor lights.
Do they look amber or are they bluish? If they’re bluish that’s too high of a color temperature. Replace them with a 2700K or lower (amber color) light.
Next, look for examples of glare, light trespass, and bluish lights in your neighborhood, and talk to your neighbors about the affordable changes they can make, and why it matters. If your local businesses don’t stock 2700K light bulbs and shielded fixtures, ask them to add them.
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