Light illuminates and unravels anything crossing its path but in itself, it is mystifying enough to trouble Human minds.
There is so much beyond what a Human eye can detect and even beyond the aspects of it we have studies so far. Its beautiful indeed, whatever passes across an eye, yet it can hold so less.
Well, according to a renowned astronomer John Hearnshaw, Light pollution has become one of the great environmental catastrophes, though neglected easily in past 50 years.
As if we were already not entangled with fighting all sorts of pollutions, light pollution has been increasing at an average of 2 percent a year on global level and hence, skies are getting brighter than ever.
It is to note that more light pollution is going undetected because the sensors used at times in studies cannot measure light below 500 nms, including some of the blue light that LED bulbs emit.
He further explains: “It’s making people sick because blue light from the new LED street lights is disrupting our hormones and especially melatonin and melatonin is only produced at night in the absence of blue light.”
“It’s well known that if you disrupt your hormones with blue light then it increases hypertension, it causes depression, it can even lead to suicidal tendencies so blue light at night is very serious.”
One can seem to infer that this kind of light trespassing is not only harming Earth but also degrading the lives of its residents in most possible ways.
Like the most of environmental pollutions on Earth are derived from humans and their inventions, Light Pollution is caused by the guiding light that helps us to see, when the sun goes down.
It arises out of an excessive or unchecked use of outdoor artificial light, such that it affects human health, wildlife behavior, and the ability to observe stars and other celestial objects in night sky.
Some of the World’s most light-polluted countries are Singapore, Qatar, and Kuwait.
World Atlas of Night Sky Brightness maps and showcases where our globe is lit up at night, based on the intel received from various satellites.
More than 80 percent of the world’s population, and 99 percent of Americans and Europeans, live under this glow.
Problems with extra-glary sky:
Out of all the different Circadian processes of life, one that is severely hurt is the production of the hormone melatonin, known to release in dark and is inhibited when there is light present.
An increased amount of light especially at night, lowers melatonin production.
This results in sleep deprivation, fatigue, headaches, stress, anxiety, and other health problems. Recent studies have also shown a connection between reduced melatonin levels and Skin cancer.
Threats to birds and other helpless animals:
Light pollution is known to disturb their migration patterns, wake-sleep habits, and habitat formation.
Because of it, the sea turtles and birds guided by moonlight get confused during migration, lose their way, and often die.
Large numbers of insects, a primary food for birds and other animals, seem to be attracted to artificial lights and upon contact with these light sources, lose their lives.
Where lies the actual evil?
The new LED, or light-emitting diode in use these days for street lighting having have a high blue component, has been pointed out to be the new evil.
And in some cases, the blue light coming from LEDs can even make spring arrive early.
Probably the LED lights can be dimmed or being switched on and off by a central computer control system to lessen the light pollution. Warm-colored bulbs can also find use in such a scenario.
This method of saving Energy has exacerbated another problem of light Pollution.
At the same time when unnecessary light governs whole world, the greater satellites in number are actually reflecting sunlight, particularly just after sunset and just before sunrise.
According to the legendary Astronomer: “Elon Musk has his Starlink project to launch about 30,000 communication satellites to give internet coverage globally to everyone everywhere.”
“Astronomers with big telescopes are taking images and hundreds of satellite trails can streak across these research images and it’s a very serious problem.”
Streaks from these orbiting-satellite flare are a form of light pollution adding to its woes. Especially the ones in Low-Earth orbit can get really bright.
Do we have any solutions or just a load of problems?
In order to overcome such an anomaly, one can change the surface of these heavenly spacecrafts so it becomes more absorptive and less reflective, maybe Black or we can even make it more transparent.
The electrical conductors can become completely transparent without the innate need of metal or glass with even transparent conductors in the glass can do the charm.