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Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights.
- Henry David Thoreau
What is Light Pollution?
Most of us have been bothered from time to time by the glare of improperly installed outdoor lighting blinding us as we drive or shining in our bedrooms at night. More than a minor annoyance, light pollution is a safety issue, a waste of valuable energy resources, an unnecessary expense, and a hazard to nocturnal wildlife.
Think for a moment about the amount of energy that is used to generate wasted light. It's astounding. Some sources estimate that the U.S. wastes about 1.5 billion dollars every year to light up the sky. This energy and money could be saved by using existing technology and readily available products to install properly oriented and shielded outdoor lighting.
Wasted light and glare looks lovely when photographed from orbiting satellites, but serves no useful purpose here on Earth.
The above NASA image shows the United States illuminated at night. For a view of the light pollution currently affecting the entire Earth, click here.
Outdoor Lighting Code Handbook
This handbook discusses issues relative to outdoor lighting codes, their effectiveness, implementation, and enforcement. A "pattern code" is included, both as a starting point for communities who wish to consider a lighting code and as a way of discussing many of the issues that arise. This pattern code is not to be considered as a model code to be implemented as-is. Each community will have different needs and different priorities. The Handbook is written mainly for communities in the USA, but many of the issues are the same for other applications, such as state codes or codes outside the USA. Appendices include forms useful for administering a code, descriptions of several recently adopted lighting codes, and other information.
International Dark-Sky Association (IDA)
IDA's goals are to be effective in stopping the adverse environmental impact on dark skies by building awareness of the problem of light pollution and of the solutions, and to educate everyone about the value and effectiveness of quality nighttime lighting. IDA believes in a united approach that is very supportive of the many local and individual efforts. Much has been accomplished in some locations, but much more needs to be done everywhere. We believe that we can succeed in preserving dark skies and in improving the nighttime environment for everyone. Quality outdoor lighting is the key. IDA can and will be supportive of members' problems concerning these issues by sharing knowledge at the local, national, and international level.
Light Pollution
Good outdoor lights improve visibility, safety, and a sense of security, while minimizing energy use, operating costs, and ugly, dazzling glare. Many outdoor lights are poorly designed or improperly aimed. Such lights are costly, wasteful, and distractingly glary. They harm the nighttime environment and neighbors' property values.
Billions in Wasted Energy
America wastes about $1.5 billion per year in electricity bills needlessly spilling light into the sky, according to a study by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), a nonprofit group founded to educate the public and industry about light pollution. More on light pollution is available from the IDA.
Artificial Lighting and Ecology
Life on earth has evolved in association with a daily cycle of daylight and darkness but artificial outdoor lighting has transformed the nocturnal face of the earth. Individual countries and large towns can be identified from space at night by their illumination. Astronomers have difficulties in carrying out their observations due to the increasing level of background illumination of the night sky. Electric lighting in some areas has increased nocturnal sky brightness up to 20-fold. Modification of the natural environment on such a dramatic scale is unlikely to be without significance to flora and fauna. From Alan Outen at the Hertfordshire Biological Records Centre, U.K.
Satellite Imagery
A Catalog of Satellite Images of Earth at Night
Developed from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP)
Montgomery County Code pertaining to outdoor lighting.
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