You may or may not have heard of light pollution. It prevents us from seeing stars in the city, interferes with a number of processes important to the health of planet earth and its inhabitants, and drains your pocketbook paying utility bills. Other than your wallet, why do you want to get light pollution under control?
Light pollution not only affects our pocketbook, but also it’s very hard on our health, the earth, and all living things.
The Effects of Light Pollution on Health
Have you ever lived near a parking lot or brightly lit commercial or industrial center? Chances are there were many nights you didn’t sleep as well as you should have because your bedroom was too light. You may not have noticed it, and might not have known sleep was a problem for you, but unless you have virtually complete darkness (you should even turn off the bedroom TV with those little red and blue lights), sleep cannot do what it’s supposed to – repair tissue, grow new tissue, restore energy, release hormones that regulate the entire endocrine system, and so on. Lack of proper sleep can cause sleep disorders, headaches, workers fatigue, stress, anxiety, and obesity. It is currently even being linked to cancer.
Some animals hunt only at night. In fact, their daytime vision can be so bad that it’s impossible for them to hunt at any other time. Not only is their survival threatened when they can’t do their night hunting, the survival of other animals for which they are prey is also at risk. And things snowball from there. We also risk being overridden by animals the nocturnal hunters would normally eat.
Plants also suffer. Those flowers that open in the morning and close at night do so for a reason. Light pollution inhibits their natural processes. That, in turn, inhibits their growth, the activities of bees and birds that pollinate the planet, and so on.
The Effects of Light Pollution on Savings and the Sky
When it comes to effects on the pocketbook, it’s not just one pocketbook being drained. Lighting is responsible for at least one-fourth of the energy consumption around the world, and it has a huge effect on the carbon footprint.
If light pollution had been going on longer than it has – it wasn’t a problem 100 years ago – we may never have been graced with Vincent van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’ and many other paintings that depict the night sky. And would we have ever reached the moon if we had been unable to study the stars?
At CBMC Lighting Solutions, we ensure your commercial or industrial site’s exterior lighting doesn’t pollute. We save you a lot of money, and you get to exercise your philanthropic tendencies as you help save the planet.
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