Archive for Dark sky
Too many lights in our cities at night is really bad for our economy as we waste electricity and thus money. It is also a bad idea for nocturnal animals, plants and amateur astronomers who need to go further and further to have a darker sky.
Now, to a new American study, too many lights is also a bad thing for air quality. As the BBC notes : ” Their research indicates that the glare thrown up into the sky interferes with chemical reactions.”
I am not sure this is the definite argument to push forward slashing the amount of lights but this is still something to point to if the ordinary fails to convince…
I already wrote a few articles on dark skies and light pollution. It seems the phenomenon is even worse as one can see with the image on left (courtesy of Stellarium, a great astronomy freeware)
This also has an important impact on greenhouse gases emissions. In Australia alone, public lightning is responsible for 1.15 million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. I guess it’s high time to install more efficient lights in our streets.
Barcelona have a great idea that should be replicated all around the world. This way, streets would be lit only when needed and with energy efficient lights. This would reduce consumption by 30 percent.
The city of Barcelona and Spanish utility Endesa have been installing smart LED lightning systems that automatically switch themselves off when no one is around. This enables the city to cut by 30 percent its electricity consumption.
I really would like this idea to spread across Europe and even the entire world. Indeed, how many plants are used only to light streets unnecessarily? This would drastically cut costs and would go far beyond the Earth Hour…
Last but not least, this would also improve the night sky quality drastically. As we have seen previoulsy, darker skies would benefit Nature and astronomers alike. Continue reading “Barcelona’s amazing smart lightning idea” »
Earth Hour was a tremendous success as many people participated. Cities turned down the lights of their monuments and the pictures of the event are amazing and totally illustrate how much energy and money we could save.
The Boston Globe proposed a series of 17 great pictures illustrating the phenomenon. Instead of turning down all those lights one hour per year, couldn’t we do this every night after 10 pm or midnight ?
This would make two to three thousand hours and subsequent savings in money and greenhouse gases. Another plus would be darker skies. What do you think ?
Light pollution is a major problem for astronomers in most if not all countries (see map) . But for the International Year of Astronomy this may change with the following initiative.
Globe at Night allows astronomers to easily assess the phenomenon with a series of charts. By watching the Orion Constellation, it is simple to know if your local sky is polluted or not.
Significant changes have been reached in the past few years in local areas but we now need a global initiative to decrease the amounts of lights of our cities and suburbia. Continue reading “Assessing and ending light pollution” »
This week-end was held in Slovenia the seventh European Symposium for the protection of the night sky.
This is the occasion to have a look at the lightning of our cities at night. As more lights mean more greenhouse gases emissions, we will have to reduce the amount of lightning to fight climate change.
The image used for this article is Europe and North Africa at night, according to the Nasa. With this, I believe one can really understand quickly the problem.
