Quality of Light Affects Quality of Life
Light pollution affects the lives of people around the world. It comes in a variety of forms and can be a nuisance, wasteful, and harmful. It may be a street light shining in a window, a high energy bill, or the absence of stars in the sky. Light pollution is a growing problem as human populations continue to thrive, land is increasingly developed, and Earth’s precious resources are consumed. In order to reduce current levels of light pollution and to keep the problem from escalating out of control, action must take place.
Common consequences of light pollution have been named, defined, and are now synonymous with the term “light pollution”. Light trespass occurs when a neighbor’s lighting crosses property lines. Skyglow is the light seen in the sky even on the clearest of nights, blocking the view of the stars. Glare is one of the most common problems caused by bright and poorly aimed light, resulting in discomfort of the eyes. Quantifying these terms and researching at which points they become problematic will play an important role in creating and enforcing light related laws.
Light pollution does not just cause inconvenience, it can cause physical illness. Many people, especially those that live in apartments, dorms, or other large housing units, are unable to sleep in complete darkness. Bright lights that are poorly aimed can enter the windows of bedrooms, even through curtains. This results in reduced production of melatonin, a hormone generated in darkness that is responsible for feelings of alertness and sleepiness. Current research on melatonin is testing possible benefits of the hormone such as reducing the risk of cancer. In addition, lack of sleep can c...
... middle of paper ...
...its will be higher quality sleep and reduced stress. Light pollution is a large problem in our world, but with education, creativity, and persistence it can be addressed and solved.
Resources
Environmental and Social Consequences of Artificial Lighting Course Syllabus
http://www.du.edu/~rstencel/hnrs2403.htm
International Dark Sky Lighting Code Handbook V1.14 Sep 2002
http://www.darksky.org/ordsregs/lchintro.html
Mizon, Bob. Light Pollution: Responses and Remedies. Springer-Verlag London Limited. 2002
Audubon Society “Decreasing Light Impacts.”
http://www.audubon.org/bird/at_home/SafeImpact.html
National Sleep Foundation. “Melatonin: The Basic Facts. June 2004.
http://www.sleepfoundation.org/publications/melatoninthefact.cfm
DeNoon, Daniel. “Hormons Melatonin Slows Breast Cancer” July 2003.
http://my.webmd.com/content/article/71/81159.htm
The restrictions on lights would produce happiness because it will help people be in less accidents. Also, making the yellow light longer so there is not anybody slamming on the car breaks.“It also found that most traffic camera violations occurred within the first second after the light turned red,”[3]. The solution to this problem is to make the are which area before the light longer and when it turns yellow so people far way can see it. Also, it would make people happy if they did get a ticket that they were notified earlier rather then later.“People may not receive citations until days or sometimes weeks after the alleged violation,”[1]. Having alternative ways to find way s to give people tickets other than just sending them in the mail people rather have tickets given to them when pulled over then getting a ticket weeks after it
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.
According to Wilson (2005), sleep deprivation can cause not only traffic accidents, but also medical conditions such as: obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabo...
Today we are here trying to figure out why is it that the color blue affects our sleep cycle. The electronic devices such as televisions, cell phones and tablets to name a few with screens in numerous sizes that are used every day may be the cause of many people’s sleep deprivation. There are various symptoms that can grow and disrupt our sleep as well as have long time serious effects on us for the future. Through-out the years there have been experimenters who have participated in this study to find out the cause for this action, in which we will analyze today. By the end of this study, we will have our result and understanding why we cannot sleep while this light is on. We can also come up with a way to turn this negative action and make it a positive one and also how it can better our lives. Blue light can affect sleep in any age range.
A common argument made against standard time is that daylight savings time prevents road accidents because of the abundance of natural light at times that most people drive. However, is it worth it to disrupt the circadian rhythm so that drivers have more natural light? The governments have implemented lighted highways and roads and cars are equipped with headlights to aid in vision. While lighted highways consume energy, the claim that daylight savings time contributes to less energy consumption is contradicted by research efforts. Indiana did not adopt daylight savings time until 2006, thus making it the perfect environment for a study on the correlation of energy consumption and daylight savings time. According to Brian Handwerk, the “lighting demand dropped, but the warmer hour of extra daylight tacked onto each evening led to more air-conditioning use, which canceled out the gains from reduced lighting and then some.” Along with this study, researchers have argued that energy consumption may be lower in the evening, but consumption goes up in the dark mornings thus making the results equal. According to another study conducted by Hendrik Wolff, everywhere that has air conditioning takes a loss in regards to daylight savings time. In the long run, day light savings time does not have a significant impact on energy consumption thus being
capture the full effect of light during this short period of the day with the study
street lights would benefit during the night time it would also help during the day time. The
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.
Melatonin, a hormone which keeps cancers from developing and also our bodies need darkness for sleep. Sleep disorders lead to several diseases like Diabetes, Obesity, Heart diseases , depression etc. In addition, a recent research also suggests that the main cause of short sleep is too much
One of these new innovations is glow in the dark road markings. This new technology uses solar power obtained from the road throughout the day to “charge” the photo-luminising powder that is the glow in the dark lights. Expensive lighting will be replaced with this more cost efficient option that can glow up to eight hours a night. This innovation can already be found on the N329 highway in Oss, Netherlands. Other advancements in lighting to come include wind powered lights and interactive lights. Wind powered street lights will be powered by the gusts of wind created when a car passes by, reducing the need to burn fossil fuels to power the lights. Interactive lights will be turned off but as a car approaches they light up, then fade back away as the car passes by. Smart new technology has the future of roadway systems
More recently, many cities have adopted LED street lighting. It was only a couple of years ago when I first learned how to drive and got late from a weekend out that I noticed how rampant the use of LED lights is in the street of my town. Many of the roads that had orange lights are adorned with the more intense white light. Besides creating unwanted glares that make driving difficulty, these lights brighten the sky and take away the joy of stargazing. While the color rendition of the white light is outstanding, the high intensity takes away any pleasure for stargazers. Shielding the LEDs can reduce the glare and light spills (Falchi, Fabio, et al 2715). However, just a week ago, when I decided to write about light pollution, I got out of the house and realized how the snow is contributing to light pollution by reflecting light to the sky. Indeed, it is for this reason that the most light-polluted sky nights occur during the winter. LED lighting only helps in exacerbating the
Environmental disruption is one of the many factors in sleep deprivation among teens and young adults. The light coming from cell phones and computers before bed are examples of environmental disruption in sleep. "Light influences our internal clock through specialized "light sensitive" cells in the retina of our eyes. These cells, which occupy the same space as the rods and cones
Important public policy issues have arisen in our modern 24-hour society, where it is crucial to weigh the value of sleep versus wakefulness. Scientific knowledge about sleep is currently insufficient to resolve the political and academic debates raging about how much and when people should sleep. These issues affect almost everybody, from the shift worker to the international traveler, from the physician to the policy maker, from the anthropologist to the student preparing for an exam.
Now when people go to bed they stay awake to look at their social media applications on their phones while lying in bed. This can cause sleep deprivation because you are up later reading about other people’s day. The light from the phone also causes your brain to not shut off for the night as easily. It has been suggested that exposure to bright lights at the wrong time of the day can alter circadian rhythm sleep with insomnia and excessive sleepiness (Wolniczak, Cacerer-DelAguila, Palma-Ardiles, Arroyo, Solis-Visscher, Peredes-Yairi, Mego-Antonio, Pernabe-Ortiz 3). Many hours of sleep per week are lost due to social media, which in turn also decreases productivity at