Have you ever seen a starry night in Hong Kong?
According to a study by the faculty of science at the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong has become the most light-polluted city in the world, with its local urban night sky as much as 1,000 times brighter than the international dark sky standard.
Light pollution in Hong Kong not only affects the visibility of stars, but also leads to energy wastage and post negative effects on ecosystem and living standards; nevertheless, it is possible that technological control measures, education, legislation and can tackle the problem from its roots.
As a crowded metropolitan city, light pollution has become a severe environmental problem in Hong Kong.
There have been increasing public concerns about the problem of light nuisance. Since 2009, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) has been receiving around 200 complaints against external lighting annually.
According to a survey conducted by the Department of Physics at the University of Hong Kong, the level of light pollution in Tsim Sha Tsui is 1200 times brighter than a normal dark sky, which is the worst reading in the world.
In the assessment of impacts on external lighting conducted by the task force on external lighting, the assessed values on glare, sign luminance, building façade luminance and light trespass level in Mongkok were all beyond suggested limit according to the International Commission on Illumination (CIE).
Corporations do not have enough awareness on energy conservation.
They have no incentive to control energy consumption as electricity price insignificant compared to production cost.
The government also imposes no laws to regulate excessive lighting currently. The existing guidelines for external lighting ins...
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...sk force on External Lighting, The Environmental Bureau of HKSARG. August 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.enb.gov.hk/bulbs/files/ExternalLightingEng.pdf
Ho, Tsz Wing. “HONG KONG- a city without starry night”. Retrieved from: http://hklawblog.com/2013/10/30/hong-kong-a-city-without-starry-nights/#more-2191 “The largest ever database on night sky brightness
HK urban night sky can be 1,000 times brighter than the darkest standard”. 13 August 2013. Press Release. The University of Hong Kong. Retrieved from: http://www.hku.hk/press/press-releases/detail/9405.html
Guidelines on Industry Best Practices for External Lighting Installations. Environment Bureau,
Environmental Protection Department, Electrical and Mechanical Services Department. January 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.enb.gov.hk/en/resources_publications/guidelines/files/guidelines_ex_lighting_install_eng.pdf
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).
For new or retrofit construction, every choice can lead to energy savings; energy that is derived primarily from fossil fuels. The typical household LED replacement for a 60w light lasts about 50,000 hours. Pretending that an incandescent could also last that long, it would consume about 3,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy whereas the LE...
Since the beginning of time, human beings were trying to find ways how to make their lives better. Technological improvements and inventions brought us a lot of benefits, but with benefits come consequences. Side effects are different types of pollution that we , as humans, are aware of. There are six kinds of pollution: land, water, noise, thermal, air, and light. The article "Our Vanishing Night," by Verlyn Klikenborg shows us the consequences of light pollution and completely neglects the positive aspects of artificial light. The author starts with a history lesson where he juxtaposes modern world to England in 1800. Back in the day, the most populated city in England, London, didn't suffer from light pollution since there
One of China’s best successes has in turn been one of its biggest downfalls. One of the main problems is China’s greatest success which has been its phenomenal economic growth. This is one of the main drivers of the current environmental problems that the country faces. Factories dump pollutants into the air and water. It is difficult to see the Chinese government making the significant sacrifices required to improve their environment if it means slowing down their economic growth.
Here are some of the testimonials given by residents of Anaheim: "My wife has asthma, and I have two kids that have asthma," resident Alejandro Robles, told the Titan. "When the fireworks go off, it really affects them and they have to go inside the house." "When the fireworks explode, the neighborhood turns into a wartime movie set," the Titan related. "People start to run for cover as ashes from the fireworks rain onto their cars and homes. Car alarms whistle and scream as dogs yelp and babies cry in the darkness." These are just a few testimonials from the residents of Anaheim. This problem of pollution is also affecting Hong Kong which already has a lot of pollution to deal with. But apparently, in 2002, Hong Kong’s Environmental Department was satisfied with the Disney’s reports which showed that they met the government standards of pollution and environmental effects. Although many refuse to accept this, Hong Kong didn’t pay attention to that. People have started wearing masks that cover their mouth so as to prevent themselves from inhaling the toxic chemicals. All this air pollution finally affects the environment and the ozone layer is getting depleted because of it. Disney may not be the sole reason for this but it is surely a part of
China’s economy is one very large indicator of its role in globalization. “In 2010 China became the world’s largest exporter” (CIA World Factbook). Without China many places such as the United States of America would be without billions of goods imported from China annually. An influx of companies moving their manufacturing to China has allowed people to flock to cities and find jobs. China’s economy has grown exponentially over the last few decades. In the last three years China’s economy has grown by nearly ten percent every year. Despite this influx of money to China it has also resulted in many drawbacks. For example, China’s environment has been obliterated. China burns more coal than every country in the world combined. Beijing has been so badly polluted that there are actually companies that sell cans of fresh air to people, and gas masks are a common sight. On January 12th 2013 Beijing’s air pollution reached a record setting 775 PPM. To put that into perspective, the scale for measuring pollution is 0-500 PPM. This set an all-time recorded high. In Los Angeles a high ...
Lights could have an emotional effect in some cases unrivaled by various other aspects of a hosting. Do you your ideal to bring as much all-natural light into the house as possible in order to maintain it cozy as well as welcoming. As well as if there isn't an excellent amount of all-natural light, make certain your spaces are easily lit.
In the next decades, pollution is said to become one of the major causes for death in many urban cities. Pollution is
Thomas Baietto, “Pollution: jeudi, l'air de Paris etait plus pollue que celui de Pekin” francetvinfo.fr. 3/14/2014. 4/2/2014. http://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/asie/pollution-en-chine/pollution-jeudi-l-air-de- paris-etait-plus-pollue-que-celui-de-pekin_552085.html
As the living quality and technology have improved, there are more manmade pollutions come up. From air pollutants, excessive noises, water pollutants to artificial lights, they are all manmade pollutions to our earth. Especially the urban light, which supposed to ensure the public safety, the overuse of urban light in the billboard and floodlights on the street resulted in bright sky at night. People cannot see the starry night and the view of universe but a daytime-like night. The general term of this effect called light pollution. Hong Kong is now suffering an acute light pollution problem that should be alleviated to reduce the impact on the environment and human beings. This essay will outline this phenomenon and impact, and give the possible solutions.
This would make the employees to feel that they are not safe with the noise, the lighting or even the temperature. The reason because or the temperature they may feel that if it is to cold or to hot this can affect their health. For the bad lighting it may be because there may be something wrong with the wiring so there could be someth...
Wong, Edward. "Most Chinese Cities Fail Minimum Air Quality Standards, Study Says." The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 Mar. 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
in major cities where the are a lot of cars, it cause pollution to be everywhere in that city.
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.
78, No. 1, pp. 3 Issue 14, 56-58. Zweibel, K. (1990). The Species of the World. Harnessing Solar Power: The Photovoltaic Challenge, Plenum Press, New York and London.