Mohamad Zraik
Mrs.Zellmer
English 201
11 March 2014 Falling Stars
When was the last time you really looked up at the stars? Have you forgotten they were there, or has light pollution blinded us? This is a problem that has been going on for a while now, and its getting worse. People only hear about the major pollutions, like water and air. They do not realize or never heard about light pollution and its effect on the planet. The media only talk about how global warming is killing our animals, but do not talk about how light pollution is killing us. “Our Vanishing Night”, written by Verlyn Klinkenborg, a graduate from Pomona College with a PhD from Princeton University, explains how light pollution is effecting worldwide. “News’n’More”, “O Stars, Where Are You? , is and article which agrees with Klinkenborg. Both articles agree the light pollution is effecting our environment and harming our beloved species.
What is Light pollution? Light pollution is artificial skylight that interferes especially with astronomical observations. Light pollution has been around for centuries. According to “Stars”, “two-thirds of humanity live under the orange haze of a light-polluted night sky and one-fifth cannot see the Milky Way, the galaxy that contains Earth.” The Milky Way looks like a line that is filled with starts stretching throughout the sky (“Stars”). Not a lot of people are aware of this issue. The main cause of light pollution is bad lighting design. This allows artificial light to shine outward and upward into the sky, where its not wanted (356).
In the article “Our Vanishing Night”, Klinkenborg uses real life examples to support his argument. One example is the streets of London in the 1800s:”Nearly a million lived there, making d...
... middle of paper ...
...ted downwards and not spread out into the atmosphere. This procedure can capture the excessive light and could help with improving these atmospheric particles that cause the blurring in the sky. Also if someone cant sleep without a night lamp, buying a colored one would be better. The darker the color is the less exposure it has and uses less energy.
It is hard for our new generations to live with no light. They have been used to artificial light since they were born. Even though, in the older times people had more children but they still used candles. Cutting down completely on all artificial light would be great, but that’s impossible to happen. Technology is going to keep improving. However, if we don’t stop and try to cut down on some of the lighting we use, there will be consequences. Our upcoming generations might not be able to see stars in the sky anymore.
Wexler, L. (2005, October 23). Darkness on the Edge of Town. In The Washington Post. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/20/AR2005102001715.html
In order to address the world’s excessive reliance on artificial light, Paul Bogard uses his skillful and persuasive writing techniques in his piece “Let There Be Dark”. In this article, Bogard talks about the consequences of losing light and the irreplaceable value of darkness. Bogard also talks about how darkness can benefit all forms of life and how heavy reliance on artificial light is slowly killing the much-needed darkness in our world. In order to persuade the reader about this issue of too much light, Bogard effectively builds his argument by using personal anecdotes, statistics, guilt, different research findings, and solutions to absorb the reader into this article.
With an estimated 1% of all Earth’s species becoming extinct each year, humans should spend their time and technology on protecting Earth before venturing outside it’s atmosphere. “...[W]e do not have a very good track record in protecting our planet home,” (Source E). Mankind tends to turn a blind eye to immediate environmental dilemmas in favor of gazing at the stars. For example, pollution, global warming, and deforestation are much more pressing matters that humans should be doing everything they can to find a solution for instead of trying to figure out how big or bright a star is that’s 20 trillion miles away from Earth. Consequently, until mankind can solve the
Hopefully, this letter places some perspective on pollution. It is something to be taken extremely seriously and it may soon destroy our planet if nothing is done. Health is something critical and nature is something humans and animals alike need to survive. The extermination of pollution will assure a healthy and safe life for future generations. Thank you for reading this letter and helping us put an end to pollution.
... inferior. Auschwitz is the most notorious concentration camp there was. Two things this camp had that others didn’t was the Gas Chambers and Dr. Mengele. His experiments took on a whole new meaning of cruel and the gas chambers were just another way to kill people. This paper gives me a better understanding of Night because sometimes it’s easier to understand what someone has gone through if you know the extent of the situation. Through my research of Auschwitz I found the extent of cruelty surpassed even my imagination. One thing Elie Wiesel said has stuck with me throughout all of my research on Auschwitz “To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” (book's introduction xv) It made me realize that we need to remember the Holocaust and the Genocide that took place during this time because letting it happen again is just as bad as forgetting.
Does one ever think of the potential catastrophic harm they’re causing by turning on the lights or by using their cars? Don’t we want a world where our grandchildren and great grandchildren can live safety and comfortably? At the rate were going this will not be possible; we’ve added more than 1.4 trillion tones of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in just two hundred years, and its messing up our planet (Siegel 1).
In the passage provided from Paul Bogard’s “Let there be Darkness”, the author seeks to convince the readers that our dependence on artificial lights might perhaps lead to damage in the surrounding ecosystem much in the same way as trash pollution.
Pollution is a massive problem, due to burning excessive amounts of fossil fuels and produces global warming. The rising in temperature of earth has resulted huge melting of polar ice caps, flooding of low-lying areas, and also rise in sea levels. If these conditions conquer the surface of earth it will face radical changes. Hence, the ozone holes are also being created trough this process, that creates a harmful UV rays that enters the earth surface. Apparently it affect human life trough causing diseases like cancer. Melanin that present in the skin reacts trough these high wave radiations. Skin cancer is one of the major forms of disease that known to be caused due to these reactions of the pigment present in the skin and infra-red rays. Besides that, when burnt sulphur, dioxide gas will also be produced. This factor forms acid rain. Acid rain could leads to destructions of most of monuments that were made up of brickwork or marbles. Even a lot of crops are affected due to the acidification of loams.
The life cycle of a star is lengthy and it’s an endless cycle. Once a star dies, a dozen more are born. Stars may seem unimportant and useless, but if it weren’t for stars, there would be no Sun. No sun means that there would be no source of light, which means plants wouldn’t be able to be grown and that would mean that animals who eat grass or any other kind of plant wouldn’t be able to eat and that would mess up the food chain for every living thing, including humans.
Pollution is affecting many individuals and life, as we know it. We need to do something about how it’s affecting our world. That’s why I urge the issue that more people should realize that pollution is an issue that needs to be prevented because of its negative consequences. Which are health affects, the total destruction of environments, and the death of animals and plants. More awareness must be brought up amongst the people and they must realize the long-term benefits it has for the world.
Light pollution happened slowly at first which was several decades ago it was a process that was hardly noticeable. A light here, a light there, burning way into the dark nighttime realm, helping us see in the darkness when people all their our beds fast asleep. The process still continues today, with little thought ever given to what we are stealing away. Our intentions are good but our methods need adjustment, and they needs to be done immediately. In fact, our methods should have been changed years ago, but nearly everyone has resisted, perhaps due to a profound lack of awareness. The use of too many lights at night can cause environmental pollution, known as light pollution. Light pollution can block our ability to see the original shining stars, which can affect people’s discoveries in astronomy. But since the lights are also very important for us at night when we are driving or walking alone on a street, I think there are certainly some solutions for protecting our natural environment while we can also use the lights at the same time. To admire the beautiful stars in the sky instead of looking at it in a picture, we can start to save energy resources by cutting off some unnecessary lights such as commercial building lights, outdoor residential lights, and by using shielded light to reduce the amount of light that we use in certain areas.
Air pollution according to the Wikipedia << is the introduction of particulates, biological materials, or other harmful materials into the Earth’s atmosphere, possibly causing disease, death to humans, damage to other living organisms such as food crops, or the natural or built environment>>. Therefore, human being should be aware of the facts that the environment and all living creatures are dying. They need to understand the importance of natural items, the nature, etc…
What is pollution? Pollution is a detrimental enemy to all species that walk on earth. It is a product of mankind carbon foot print on the environment. It consists of chemicals or particles in the air that can harm the health of humans, animals, and plants. Pollution occurs when pollutants contaminate the natural surrounding; which brings about changes that affect our normal lifestyles adversely. Pollutants are the key elements of pollution which are generally waste materials of dissimilar forms. Pollution disturbs our ecosystem and the balance in the environment. With innovation and development in our lives pollution has reached its peaks; giving rise to global warming and human illness. When raw materials, water, energy and other resources
Pollution is a massive problem that the earth faces. Pollution is the action or process of making land, water, air, etc…, dirty and not safe or suitable to use. Pollution of air, water, and soil are the most complex issues. Various types of gases and toxins that are released by industries
...ld. Solar lights are immune to black outs and they even work on cloudy days. The use of solar power is growing every day because of the impact it has had on the society. Although the solar panels are expensive to install, the cost of electricity goes down greatly.