By: Mya Taylor
When you walk outside at night and look up at sky, you may notice that something is missing.
The presence of stars captivated our curious eyes as children. We were once gifted with these jewels of the galaxy, and now, stargazers mourn the night sky that once was. Light pollution is the thief in the night that robs us of seeing stars.
Diane Turnshek is an astronomer, lecturer and demo manager in the Physics Department at Carnegie Mellon University. When taking a trip to the Mars Desert Research station in Utah, Turnshek was amazed by the starry night sky.
In that moment, she was reminded of what a night sky truly looked like. However, after returning to Pittsburgh, she noticed that there were not as many stars in the sky.
This inspired her to begin advocating for the return of clear, dark night skies. Turnshek defines light pollution as excessive artificial light that brightens the sky at night.
When this light beams upward and scatters off particles in the atmosphere, it creates skyglow. Turnshek says that skyglow is a rounded vault of light that covers the city of Pittsburgh and can be seen from 200 miles away.
When residents in the city look up at the sky, they can only see the moon, a few planets and very little stars.
“It’s really disabling to people to not be able to see the sky, to see stars,” Turnshek said.
The Culprits
LED lights are commonly used for outdoor lighting. However, while they are deemed environmentally friendly, their brightness is not.
LED lights have been identified as the main culprits of light pollution.
“So the reason why LEDs cause more light pollution is because the outdoor lights that we put up have a blue spike in them,” Turnshek said. “The LEDs have the broad spectrum but then a spike in the blue area where it’s higher output, and blue light scatters more easily in our atmosphere than red light.”
LEDs were first created high in temperature. Manufacturers are now switching to producing warmer lights that are better for human health, but not many people have caught on to using them.
Turnshek believes that since most people have older LEDs installed, it will take a longer time for them to transition to the newer, more environmentally friendly versions.
Why is light pollution harmful?
Light pollution disrupts the normal behaviors and lifespans of plants. The artificial light acts as daylight, prolonging the light exposure to plants.
This results in plants living in a state of confusion and can lead to a late winter freeze that can kill budding plants. Bird and insect populations are also suffering from light pollution.
Urban Bird Conservation Coordinator Jonathan Rice says that since some birds use stars as a guide when migrating at night, they can mistake the bright lights from cities for their usual starry path.
This can lead to bird-window collisions, which often result in numerous traumatic brain injuries for birds.
Rice is over the Birdsafe Pittsburgh program, in which he studies the occurrence of these collisions. A volunteer base collects research data on the makeup of the buildings involved in these collisions, and the communities where they take place.
Rice also oversees the Northeast Motus Collaboration, a research project that focuses on migratory wildlife and bird conservation. The wildlife tracking network has built over 150 automated radio stations in the Northeast United States.
The stations help provide the conservationists with a better understanding of bird migration behaviors. Before beginning construction, they observe the state of the land, such as the soil makeup, power and road accessibility.
After the landowner permits construction, they purchase the equipment, and the assigned team constructs the station. Construction usually takes 1-2 days to complete depending on road accessibility and weather.
The team conducts yearly upkeep of the stations to make sure they are running correctly and to address any issues. Intense upkeep is performed in the summer months, in which they reconstruct stations damaged by inclement weather events and wildlife pests.
To keep track of the birds, the team uses nanotags. Nanotags are battery operated tracking devices that help monitor bird movement and behavior. To be tagged, birds must meet health and weight requirements.
The nanotag rests on the lower back of the birds with the help of a harness, which is pulled over their feet and wrapped around their abdomen. This placement helps to conceal the tag with the bird’s feathers and allows the birds to shed freely.
“As these birds move through, and these microbursts being transmitted by the tag, the antenna picks up the microbursts, transfers it to the computer running the station,” Rice said. “The computer is able to read the time, space between four bursts, and that tells the computer what individual tag it just heard.”
This also alerts the conservationists of the species of bird that sent a signal.
Some species of birds can be harder to track than others. For example, the teams will have a hard time getting a signal from birds that prefer sound restricted areas like thick forest floor vegetation.
At times, antennas can mistake certain sounds for signals.
The material used to create the harness loops decomposes within a few weeks or years. After the batteries die, they will fall off the bird, allowing it to continue its life without carrying “dead weight.”
As the housing area developments continue to grow, native bird species are at risk of losing their homes.
“98 to 99% of bird-window collisions usually take place at small low rise residential buildings that make up the majority of our surface landscape,” Rice said.
Insects, like birds, are drawn to brightly lit cities and communities. This can cause them to become vectors of diseases due to interactions with other animals.
Turnshek says that reports have shown light pollution is a form of injustice that is afflicted on minority neighborhoods.
“In cities it’s been seen that Hispanic and Asian and Black communities generally have up to twice as much light pollution as white communities,” Turnshek said. “You ask why that is, they’re basically targeted by law enforcement to be brighter, so that they can be watched and that’s not a comfortable thing.”
The biggest perpetrators of light pollution are pot greenhouses. The houses are typically made of glass and use light throughout the night to help the plants grow. The lighting produces a pink and purple hue, which is then reflected in the sky.
Warehouses and fracking wells are also contributors to light pollution.
“It’s deeper and more complex than people think. I’m constantly discovering new things about the way people light areas at night,” Turnshek said.
What is being done to stop light pollution?
In 2015, Turnshek gave a TEDX presentation discussing the issue of light pollution. The presentation was so impactful that the state of Pittsburgh established its first Dark Sky ordinance, which focuses on reducing light pollution from parking lots and buildings.
There are now 19 states that have light pollution ordinances. On the other side of Pennsylvania, legislative changes are in the works.
Pennsylvania House Bill 1803, the Responsible Outdoor Lighting Control Act, is a nonpartisan bill that was started by Dark Sky Committee chair and co-chair Timothy Lawlor and Suzanne Webster. Lawlor is an astrophysicist at Penn State University’s Brandywine campus.
Webster is an English Professor at Elizabethtown college. Eight years ago, Webster, who's originally from England, began noticing that she could not see as many stars.
She was able to connect the presence of bright light to their disappearance. However, the issue became even more clear to her when new bright lights were installed near her home four years later.
Webster, who was passionate about light pollution, was invited by Lawlor to co-chair the committee with him.
After learning about the work being done in Europe to combat light pollution, Webster wanted to take action in her own community. Webster and Lawlor presented the issue to the office of Pennsylvania State Representative Chris Pielli, who supported the bill.
The chairs were sent a layout of a past lighting bill, which they revised with regulations for modern day lighting technologies. Responsible lighting organizations and other dark sky advocates also offered their support for the bill.
Pielli is now the sponsor of the bill. If passed, the bill would require light minimization from streetlamps and government buildings.
“In order to make it less of a financial burden, the idea is basically that the bill won’t impact a property until it’s replacing its lights,” Lawlor said. “The one exception to that is that whenever possible if you can redirect the lights so that it’s not creating glare, then you have to do that.”
At first, Lawlor was worried that people would not want to hear about light pollution. However, since the bill has generated much support, he is glad to see that times are changing.
Rice believes that while the bill is a great start to address this issue, he hopes that there will be more enforced regulations that focus on the conservation of bird species.
“I want the basics of responsible outdoor lighting to be observed by the government and the states in Pennsylvania, and that for that to be an influence upon private businesses and residents,” Webster said. The bill is now in the discussion process.
What can be done right now?
The Environment Protection Agency has not acknowledged light pollution as a category of pollution. Despite the Dark Sky ordinance being put in place, people are still not aware of light pollution and its negative impact on the environment.
There is a fear of darkness due to the belief that criminal activity will take place. However, there is no scientific evidence that confirms bright lights keep neighborhoods safe.
Turnshek recommends those who want to overcome their fear of darkness to take baby steps. The Dark Sky Committee does not want a dark world, but a clear night sky.
“Darkness has value, it's beautiful,” Turnshek said.