LIGHT POLLUTION
By Melissa King Stansbery
Toastmaster's International Project #5
Speak with Your Body
Presented April 18, 2007
NO DOUBT - Everyone in this room is familiar with AIR POLLUTION..... we live in L.A.!!!
And I'm certain, that everyone in this room if familiar with WATER POLLUTION.
if you are of my generation and grew up with a TV as entertainment, you remember the striking television commercial featuring a tall, proud Native American looking at trash washing up on the shore of a river. The camera zooms in to close-up and you see ONE SAD TEAR falling across his stern countenance. It was deeply moving.
But what is Light Pollution? And how did I become aware of it?
How can light be pollution? What's the real harm? It's only light, right?
Money Wasted - (Show photo of United States) - Millions of dollars are spent to light the sky instead of lighting the ground.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Earth_night.jpg
Unable to see the stars.
Soon after moving to LA, the first time I was outdoors on a cloudy night, I was amazed! at the way clouds look at night. You can see every curve, shadow and bump... and I thought, that's eerie.... I've never seen that type of detail at night...
- First civilization in thousands or possibly millions of years to not be familiar with the night sky. I moved to LA shortly after the Northridge Earthquake, and I've read accounts that 911 calls were coming in from all over the area with people describing a strange milky trail high in the sky and they were wondering if could be connected to the earthquake. These wonderful people were observing the Milky Way for the first time.
Navigation – I’ve been told stories by friends who have traveled in the desert and come upon places in the sand that were huge intersections, with camel tracks intersecting from all directions.
Warning of Meteors
Effect on Wildlife
A few years ago I read a story in a magazine about a flock of migrating birds, looking for a place to spend the night, mistook a well lit asphalt SuperStore parking lot for a lake and the consequences were not pretty. Hundreds of birds landed at a rate appropriate for water but not for asphalt. Needless to say, when workers reported to work the next morning there was a really sad mess to clean up before customers arrived.
Effect on Plants
Tree - Show Photo
What I was most surprised about in my research was light pollution's
Effect on people.
Who hasn't noticed how much longer and better we sleep in a dark room? Have you ever overslept for a business meeting while traveling and sleeping in a hotel with those wonderful blackout curtains?
Are there security lights or street lights that shine into your home at night that make it difficult to sleep?
Scientist and medical researchers believe that sleep loss contributes to depression, diabetes, weight gain to name a few, and the most surprising link I found was research done by Dr. ____Richard Stevens, an epidemiologist. In 1985 puzzling over the increased rate of breast cancer in developed countries and the amazing increases over the past 50 years…___________ which, believe it or not links nighttime light exposure to the increase in Breast Cancer rates. What Dr. _Stevens_________ found in his research is that melatonin, very strong hormones, is only produced when we sleep and exposure to lights at night severely limits our production of melatonin. Even exposure to ambient light from a television or a night light, inhibits the production of melatonin. Our bodies seem to produce the most melatonin around the hours of 2 and 3 am.
He studied nurses and noticed those nurses working the night shift experienced breast cancer at rates 36% than those who worked days.
As part of his research, he took blood samples from his study group. Some were taken from people who were awakened and samples taken in a dark room, some were awakened and exposed to bright lights for an hour and a half and samples were taken. and some samples were taken from people working shift work. Melatonin was much more scarce in those subjects exposed to light at night. He injected those blood samples into lab mice that had been implanted with cancerous breast tumors, and found that those mice receiving blood with higher melatonin levels tumors either made no change or grew very slowly, but those mice receiving low melatonin levels tumors grew at an increased rate.
Scientist and Medical researchers more and more learn the importance of sleep.
SECURITY ARGUMENT:
Many argue the bright lights outdoors are necessary for security purposes. In reality this might not be true. The glare of overbright outdoor lighting can actually inhibit security, offering criminals dark places to hide in the shadows. The glare of misdirected security lights can blind drivers and innocent people alike, making it more difficult to see in shadows. The human eye is just amazing to me. have you ever noticed how when we first flip off the lights at night that we can't see a thing? But if we happen to awaken in a dark room, we can see every surprisingly well with no artificial light? That is called dark adaptation. The human eye becomes completely dark adapted after only 30 minutes in a dark place.
Because so many security lights are installed poorly, meaning pointed outward or at a 45 degree angle, they are mostly ineffective at lighting the area we most need to see. Simply installing shielded lights pointing downward, our vision is actually improved. Often lower wattage bulbs can be used, so there is a cost savings associated too. A very effective alternative is motion sensitive lighting....
a 150 watt floodlight operating from Dust to Dawn is operating for 4170 hours per year at a cost of $115. CO@ emitted per year is 8/10 of a ton, Sulfur dioxide emitted is 10 pounds, and Nitrogen oxide emitted is 6.5 lbs.
a motion sensor light on the other hand might only be on for one hour per night or 365 hours for the year. At a cost of only $10. CO2 emitted is <>
the cost and environmental savings of replacing just one 150 watt floodlight significant!
And Taxpayers are footing the bill for the majority of inefficient lighting. I'm told there are mercury vapor street lamps still in use that were installed in the 50s. The unique thing about MV bulbs is that they almost never die... they just get dimmer and dimmer, but they are using the same amount of energy to burn. Replacing Mercury Vapor floods should make a very positive environmental impact.
considering that Municipalities, States and the Federal Govt. are routinely running in deficit spending situations, I'm thinking more efficient lighting is a pretty good idea for all taxpayers.
So, wrapping up, it looks like there are many possible benefits to cutting back on light pollution:
Environmental impact in energy savings.,
Benefits to Plants, Wildlife,
even significant health and security benefits....
To end,my speech, I would like to circle back to the subject of Astronomy, which is what initiated my awareness and research on the subject (Driving for hours and hours to shiver on top of a mountain for a glimpse at a large meteor shower tends to make one think... “gee, I wish I could do this in my backyard, where I can go in periodically to warm my fingers and toes.”)...
My husband and other astronomers speculate that if our skies were darker, it might be easier to monitor the skies and maybe see a meteor as large as the one that put an end to dinosaurs and possibly do something about it before it hit.
My view is, maybe we could do something, maybe we couldn't, but if our night skies were darker, at least we would have a front row seat to a REALLY big show!
For more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_pollution
http://www.darksky.org/
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