Light pollution is the over illumination of cities and night skies by artificial lighting. What are your thoughts on its unintended yet harmful impacts on the world?
National Geographic Guangzhou is a city that suffers from light pollution. It has severe sky glow from the extremely unneeded lighting on building roofs. Those lights are even government funded and serve no purpose.
As someone who grew up in a rural area, I always freak out when I go to a big city because the sky is totally artificial. I actually think that not being able to see stars cuts you from nature and therefore don't help thinking about conserving it
I used to live in a rural area. Then they installed the new lights. Now I live in a nightmarish science-fiction suburbia. These new lights are an environmental catastrophe. I can only assume public engineers are mostly blind.
@@NatGeo Dear National Geographic, please show the effects of one of the most rapidly deforested region on Earth; Sumatra. I was looking through satellite images, and it was horrifying seeing entire regions of the islands being converted into something processed foods have; Palm Oil.
People need to be aware of this aspect of pollution , any effort to spread the awareness is greatly appreciated . It's appalling just how many of us go through life oblivious to the sheer glory of the night sky away from light pollution.
Azliana Lyana Yeah, I remember Planet Earth talking about how many newborn turtles on beaches go towards the light of buildings near them and get run over
My heart felt sick when I heard that light pollution increases 6 to 10% each year... as an a astronomy-lover, stargazer and nature-lover, I'm worried about it. Too worried...
Go to places that dont have buildings. Aka most of earth. Whats wrong with you guys. If you are dying to see ths stars just drive off and see them. But if you could always see them you won't care would you?
@cold485 What are you talking about? Light pollution isn't just about stars, it messes with animals too. Baby turtles, birds, they all guide themselves by the moonlight, and city lights confuses them and attracts themto cities instead. And for stars, It's not just "drive off" when you're surrounded by cities. A good dark site is at least 80KM away from cities, and again, when you're literally surrounded by cities, 80KM of places with no light becomes harder to find each year as cities grows...
See now. Cheaper Powerful led lights now exists nearly in every household in India. I live in small city ( tier 3 city ) of India. Nearly 15 years ago light pollution in my city was at level 3. Now due to boom of cheaper powerful led lights in every household. Now light pollution in my small city is at level 6.25 .
Light pollution is rich ppl problems. Its pathetic to actually cate about this when we still have ppl dying of hunger. And putting caps on light takes money, even if they are reflecive you'd still need to install more lights per distance.
isn't it ironic how arttificial light lights up our world, but it also isolates us from the world beyond ours. it's like decorating your room but it gets smaller and smaller every time
I wish one day all president around the world make a deal for turning off all light around the world so we can watch the stars perfectly at the night and stop the -light pollution- for at least *1 hour* ..
Part of the problem comes from the shape of the light fitting. If you have a lense/diffuser that's bowl shaped, all the light can escape in any direction. If you have a flat lense that points downwards, none of the light can escape above the horizontal plane and it'll all be directed downwards. Also as nice as decorative outside lighting can be, we should restrict our use of it to either special occasions or for one or two hours after sunset.
""Also as nice as decorative outside lighting can be, we should restrict our use of it to either special occasions or for one or two hours after sunset."" There is no resone to force other people to follow your views.
Thank you for touching on glare, light trespass and sky glow. So many other aspects of the problem, including "insecurity" lighting - the misguided more-is-better approach (think overlit gas stations and car dealer lots). (:-( Gratuitous roadway overlighting with harsh, glaring LEDs a growing problem. (:-( Peace.
Day - sun light Night - darkness People need to learn and feel the true beauty of this planet. Using artificial light in closed up space is like making a prison of your own room. Especially during the day is dreadful.
Watching the video, I couldn't help this question popping up in my mind: "Could a decline in bee populations be correlated to (certain kinds of) light pollution?"
..., Yes !! All living things on earth evolved over millions of years to the circadian rhythms of daylight and darkness after sunset. It is only natural and organic. Please visit FB group Ban Blinding LEDs to find out more ...,
Various forms of LEDs are ruining my small community. The glare is at dangerous levels. Their 4500 K brightness is blinding. Yet light trespass is considered a non-issue. Buy some opaque blinds I'm told. It reduces crime to light the night to the point of daylight I'm told. This insidious glaring trend is unhealthful. It is worsening due to the lower cost of illuminating with LEDs. How to stop it I wonder???
Educating the public is the first step towards solving this problem. And no, brighter lights at night will not decrease crime - they actually have the opposite effect, because criminals feel safer to commit their crimes. Take the lights away, and even they begin to have doubts. They're still people, after all.
If you look up at a blue sky during the day, you can see the humidity increasing week by week..... It is this humidity, which is reducing the amount of Light reaching the Earth's surface at night, and the light from Cities is also illuminating this increasing humidity, more and more.
When @MarkedThing said how hes saw the northern star a year ago, and how it is completly gone now, a tear fell down my eye. It shows how fast light pollution could happen. :(
I live in a village/small town in ireland with 2000 people between two big towns mostly i can barely ever see much stars but tonight im having a sleep over so i stayed up late ams right now its 4:26am and i looked up out my window cuz ive a stuffy nose and needed fresh air and see millions of stars and the constellations and then what do i see, a shooting star, im not superstitious but i wished to be able to see that everynight and maybe even better by seeing all the colours of the galaxy 🌌 The adress of the village is Dunleer, county louth, ireland. If you are wondering
Newer street light designs are directional which is great. If you drive down a lit street pay attention to the lamps. Old ones will cause light glare while newer ones do not. Now that aside, some newer LED based ones are using a higher color temperature (maybe around 4000k) wheras older street lights are usually around 3000k so give off a softer orangecolor that is easier on the eyes at night. For the case of wilflife the color is an issue because it can see it as moo light. Orange ones AFAIK are not so bad on wildlife
Good video. Light pollution is a nuisance and a big waste of energy. Attn Astronomers: Wind turbines (in their present form) can turn sharp planetary images into blobs of light because the turbines create a lot of air turbulence. Try not to use your telescope downwind from wind turbines.
Hey Edison Look at this. what do you think? It's miserable,isn't it? That's okay We can solve this problem. Everything depends on how it is used it. We are a community. Use only certain people and save some special people,but all of them have to be harmed by those selfish people. We're all members of society, so I want everyone to think about this problem. If you follow this method, light pollution will gradually increase.
Out of All of the types of pollution that we produce ..., Light Pollution is the Easiest to fix. Please visit the website of the IDA (International Dark-Sky Association) and on Facebook group called: Ban Blinding LEDs ...,
I knew how harmful it is by observing how flies are flying in a disruptive mode at night under these light and how active they are in the morning under sun light. عرفت تأثير الضوء الصناعي المضر دا من تأثير الضوء الصناعي على الذباب وحركتها المضطربة وضوء الشمس اللي بيحول حركتها لنشاط
You guys forgot about lightbulb and LED efficiency as a cause for the rise in light pollution yearly.. with the invention of LEDs, the carbon footprint may decrease, but light pollution increases.
Light pollution is the over illumination of cities and night skies by artificial lighting. What are your thoughts on its unintended yet harmful impacts on the world?
National Geographic Guangzhou is a city that suffers from light pollution. It has severe sky glow from the extremely unneeded lighting on building roofs. Those lights are even government funded and serve no purpose.
Every country should turn all lights off for example at between 1.00 am-4 am everyday. We could see Milky Way at least.
National Geographic oh wow human has create a new type of pollution time to get a noble price
we do need the warmlight led's and also better dimming , shielding, no light tresspass in india like all western countries.....
@@SenerS10
I agree!
As someone who grew up in a rural area, I always freak out when I go to a big city because the sky is totally artificial. I actually think that not being able to see stars cuts you from nature and therefore don't help thinking about conserving it
Yeee hawww
Even in light polluted cities you can see stars, buy only the really bright ones
I was kinda blown away when we went to our province and the sky is soooo clear.
It's night time over here in downtown Illuminati Disneyland and I'm like why is the night sky still bright
I used to live in a rural area. Then they installed the new lights. Now I live in a nightmarish science-fiction suburbia. These new lights are an environmental catastrophe. I can only assume public engineers are mostly blind.
With great power comes great responsibility.
Such a great use of this quote. Thank you for watching!
@@NatGeo thank you for uploading such educational videos!
@@NatGeo Dear National Geographic, please show the effects of one of the most rapidly deforested region on Earth; Sumatra. I was looking through satellite images, and it was horrifying seeing entire regions of the islands being converted into something processed foods have; Palm Oil.
jokar jokar uh yes it does??? Are you joking?
@jokar jokar You are the one who make no sense
My country has no light pollution what so ever, probably because we have blackouts on a daily basis, Beat that
The world need your guidance Supreme Leader.
Plot twist :
he is the real Kim Jong un
btw, i bet seeing the gegenschein lights and the zodiacal lights make you think the USA is intruding you lol.
This is kim official page?
Funny lol
People need to be aware of this aspect of pollution , any effort to spread the awareness is greatly appreciated . It's appalling just how many of us go through life oblivious to the sheer glory of the night sky away from light pollution.
Please join us on Facebook Group called: Ban Blinding LEDs , take a look around and join us if you'd like ...,
Because there is no resone for it.
@@your-username-here2308 If we put too much light then astronomy would be impossible
Interesting info, especially the one on turtles. Didn't think the impact would affect wildlife directly. Great info National Geographic.
Planet Earth or some show with "Earth" in it showed how the lights affect baby turtles. Saw it about a year or two ago.
Did you see how they were filming the young turtle with the bright light directly at it?
Same goes for moths and a lot of birds
Same goes for most of nocturnal insects too
Azliana Lyana
Yeah, I remember Planet Earth talking about how many newborn turtles on beaches go towards the light of buildings near them and get run over
My heart felt sick when I heard that light pollution increases 6 to 10% each year... as an a astronomy-lover, stargazer and nature-lover, I'm worried about it. Too worried...
Go to places that dont have buildings. Aka most of earth. Whats wrong with you guys.
If you are dying to see ths stars just drive off and see them.
But if you could always see them you won't care would you?
@cold485 What are you talking about? Light pollution isn't just about stars, it messes with animals too. Baby turtles, birds, they all guide themselves by the moonlight, and city lights confuses them and attracts themto cities instead.
And for stars, It's not just "drive off" when you're surrounded by cities. A good dark site is at least 80KM away from cities, and again, when you're literally surrounded by cities, 80KM of places with no light becomes harder to find each year as cities grows...
Turn your lights off! Don't leave the porch light on at night. Get automatic/motion lights
Such great advice! Thanks for watching.
@Ramdom Guy by turning the lights off you will save electricity and, it will be less light pollution. Light on, light off. Lol
Climate Changed But who leave the porch light on ? I’ve never seen someone do that
Not everyone can afford such automatic tech.
@@Jen-jd3ci You can always turn your non-automatic lights off manually before you go to bed.
I’ve been thinking about this...the nights are becoming ruined by the light. I can’t even sleep correctly anymore. We need to shutdown at night!
Right but we are living in Village thanks God
10PM sleep and early 5:00AM
Every Morning
@@sadeeqakbar601 you lucky see a milky way change see a andromeda galaxy ,orion nebula, and other star clusters
""We need to shutdown at night!""
Im sure all the People who are not sleeping at night or workers are 100% in support of that ide....oh wait.
I was underestimating light pollution. It is actually dangerous and makes sky ugly. Thanks for making this video.
This pollution is mainly in *DEVELOPED COUNTRIES* .They should have think about this. And for the developing countries they should be aware of it.
Because of cheap LEDs, lower cost of power India also on way of this.
See now.
Cheaper Powerful led lights now exists nearly in every household in India.
I live in small city ( tier 3 city ) of India.
Nearly 15 years ago light pollution in my city was at level 3.
Now due to boom of cheaper powerful led lights in every household.
Now light pollution in my small city is at level 6.25 .
Light pollution is rich ppl problems.
Its pathetic to actually cate about this when we still have ppl dying of hunger.
And putting caps on light takes money, even if they are reflecive you'd still need to install more lights per distance.
To avoid being polluted by light, that’s why I wear sunglasses at night like all those big time actors actresses
Like Corey Hart.
Lmao
yeaaaaa now I have an excuse to tell whoever asks me why u wearin sunglasses in the midnight...
@@dwaynewladyka577 exactly like Corey Hart
isn't it ironic how arttificial light lights up our world, but it also isolates us from the world beyond ours. it's like decorating your room but it gets smaller and smaller every time
Most over-looked kind of pollution.
"underrated" is a bad word to use because it's usually a word to describe something GOOD.
Noise pollution too, especially in the ocean.
@@idontknowanymore2437 Thanks replaced it. Hopefully appropriate now. :)
I wish one day all president around the world make a deal for turning off all light around the world so we can watch the stars perfectly at the night and stop the -light pollution- for at least *1 hour* ..
Kill3rz we have that, not by presidents, but us. It's call "Earth Hour"
Lmao I don’t because I’m scared of the dark
ur weird... this is weird.... stop being weird there is no way Trump and Kim Jung Un are going to co-operate
There is the Earth Hour where the monuments are off. I know they try to turn off in Europe. For exemple, 40% of French towns are turned off at night.
@@devedee2393 doesn't matter north korea is barely lit up 😂😂😂
Part of the problem comes from the shape of the light fitting. If you have a lense/diffuser that's bowl shaped, all the light can escape in any direction. If you have a flat lense that points downwards, none of the light can escape above the horizontal plane and it'll all be directed downwards.
Also as nice as decorative outside lighting can be, we should restrict our use of it to either special occasions or for one or two hours after sunset.
""Also as nice as decorative outside lighting can be, we should restrict our use of it to either special occasions or for one or two hours after sunset.""
There is no resone to force other people to follow your views.
@@your-username-here2308nobody is forcing anything, they're just saying it would be better to RESTRICT it, not go completely dark at night
Thank you for touching on glare, light trespass and sky glow. So many other aspects of the problem, including "insecurity" lighting - the misguided more-is-better approach (think overlit gas stations and car dealer lots). (:-( Gratuitous roadway overlighting with harsh, glaring LEDs a growing problem. (:-( Peace.
I totally agree with natgeo. The nights is not dark like earlier and it's just heart break !
I always wonder about this! How much warmer is the planet getting because of this!
Day - sun light
Night - darkness
People need to learn and feel the true beauty of this planet.
Using artificial light in closed up space is like making a prison of your own room. Especially during the day is dreadful.
Not for me.
It was useful to know in detail the light pollution I didn't know.
It's a curse. We cannot see any star in the night sky
Ok?
Issac17 I really wanna see that dawg 😭
Mud Boy • 13 years ago Just go on a National Dar Sky
True
Okay and?
Watching the video, I couldn't help this question popping up in my mind: "Could a decline in bee populations be correlated to (certain kinds of) light pollution?"
..., Yes !! All living things on earth evolved over millions of years to the circadian rhythms of daylight and darkness after sunset. It is only natural and organic. Please visit FB group Ban Blinding LEDs to find out more ...,
" If you choose death and destruction, then death and destruction will choose you."
헐
한국인!!!
That makes no sense lmao, thats like saying if you choose burger, burger will choose you lmao
@@aytj2073 only genius will understand
Most Underrated kind of Pollution ✨✨
Wow! Thank you!
I really wanted know about light pollution from a long time...😉😉😉
Great video - thanks.
Very interesting!
God, I love humans...
I think it's inspiring to know that we are capable of blotting out the sky, as a side effect no less!
First time heard about light pollution thanks NG😘
Darn light polution....always getting in the way of photography
Light pollution might actually one of the most ignored pollution.
It's amazing!
Why you not show these type good things on television
Thank you.
It was surprising. Never thought that light could cause pollution 😮😮😮😲😲😮😮😮😮😮😮
Please talk about light pollution in Mexico City!!! Urgent!! 🧿
I like it it was interesting to me to watch about light pollution videos
outstanding format! thanks a lot !!!
i love this video its lots of information
Here's an idea, get global auto lights.
Like self-activating lights in homes, have them made for streets, so they're off until someone comes by.
Please elaborate, this is a little confusing
@@roguewhitewolf The light is off until it detetcts a person.
المحتوى حقكم رائع بمعنى الكلمه
The turtle part was Amazing
1:25 "light that isn't from the moon is bad for baby turtles"
*shines light that isn't from the moon at a baby turtle*
Various forms of LEDs are ruining my small community. The glare is at dangerous levels. Their 4500 K brightness is blinding. Yet light trespass is considered a non-issue. Buy some opaque blinds I'm told. It reduces crime to light the night to the point of daylight I'm told. This insidious glaring trend is unhealthful. It is worsening due to the lower cost of illuminating with LEDs. How to stop it I wonder???
Educating the public is the first step towards solving this problem. And no, brighter lights at night will not decrease crime - they actually have the opposite effect, because criminals feel safer to commit their crimes. Take the lights away, and even they begin to have doubts. They're still people, after all.
@@ayjanu ""because criminals feel safer to commit their crimes.""
That is not true. Also, not everybody wants to live like a caveman.
@@your-username-here2308if it is dark outside it vecoumes harder to commit crimes becouse you can not see anything
Nice video! Now, I'm looking for a video on sound pollution.
Great information that might help me in my research
Good knowledge about light pollution because I don't know before that pollution also causes due to light .
If you look up at a blue sky during the day, you can see the humidity increasing week by week..... It is this humidity, which is reducing the amount of Light reaching the Earth's surface at night, and the light from Cities is also illuminating this increasing humidity, more and more.
When @MarkedThing said how hes saw the northern star a year ago, and how it is completly gone now, a tear fell down my eye. It shows how fast light pollution could happen. :(
so cool
I live in a village/small town in ireland with 2000 people between two big towns mostly i can barely ever see much stars but tonight im having a sleep over so i stayed up late ams right now its 4:26am and i looked up out my window cuz ive a stuffy nose and needed fresh air and see millions of stars and the constellations and then what do i see, a shooting star, im not superstitious but i wished to be able to see that everynight and maybe even better by seeing all the colours of the galaxy 🌌
The adress of the village is Dunleer, county louth, ireland. If you are wondering
Wow / you can see a andromeda galaxy and other faint / sadly use big apeture telescope and eyepicese 50mm bruhh
I'm grateful to be living in a rural area.
The pun in the end really got me good
Succinct. Well done!
I wonder.. Whatever happened to "Earth Hour" people ❓ 👀 We should have one Every month from now on.. 💕🍃🌍🍃💕✌
I blacked out my entire bedroom. It's 100% pitch black at night in there. Since I started doing that, my sleep has improved so much.
a very meaningful video, but could you do a crocodilian 101, sharks 101 or mammoths 101 ?
So what kind of light should we use?
Newer street light designs are directional which is great. If you drive down a lit street pay attention to the lamps. Old ones will cause light glare while newer ones do not. Now that aside, some newer LED based ones are using a higher color temperature (maybe around 4000k) wheras older street lights are usually around 3000k so give off a softer orangecolor that is easier on the eyes at night. For the case of wilflife the color is an issue because it can see it as moo light. Orange ones AFAIK are not so bad on wildlife
@@zfoxfirethe ground still reflects light just turn it of during the middle of the night when most people are in bed
Never seen the milky way before...
The electricity part makes sense
Good video. Light pollution is a nuisance and a big waste of energy. Attn Astronomers: Wind turbines (in their present form) can turn sharp planetary images into blobs of light because the turbines create a lot of air turbulence. Try not to use your telescope downwind from wind turbines.
Nice
wow I underestimated the effects 🤔
Hey Edison Look at this. what do you think? It's miserable,isn't it? That's okay We can solve this problem. Everything depends on how it is used it.
We are a community. Use only certain people and save some special people,but all of them have to be harmed by those selfish people. We're all members of society, so I want everyone to think about this problem. If you follow this method, light pollution will gradually increase.
Just this isnt a problem for alot of People.
ok cool
We r only the responsible for all type pollution on the earth 😢
I always loved the night stars but there should be a day where we turn off the light for a few minutes
I HATE light pollution.
who made this cool video?
cool
Interesting fact but how do we stop the light pollution, light is a basic need today. Is there any chance to minimise the impact.
Out of All of the types of pollution that we produce ..., Light Pollution is the Easiest to fix. Please visit the website of the IDA (International Dark-Sky Association) and on Facebook group called: Ban Blinding LEDs ...,
Sum-thing needs 2 be done ✅ bout it I also hate how there’s 2 much light 💡 it’s so annoying
Well I didn't knew that light pollution is a thing before this.
But I think anything excessive is not nice
I learned about light pollution through English class, but I knew more about this video
Meanwhile me at minecraft: Torches Everywhere!
Light pollution lets us can't appreciate the spectacular sky.
i reduce the brightness of my mobile after watching this video😂😂🌻
have fun
Why do skyscrapers and other office buildings even have lights illuminating their entire building at night?
Why not ?
@@your-username-here2308 Because it's literally a waste of electricity and just adds light pollution.
@@delta1525 How can you see then
Yes... The perfect video to type
By your polluting powers combine, I am Captain Pollution!!!
I think natural light is more beautiful than artificial light.
Its lit
Wow
Don’t forget about the moths.
The observatory too
I knew how harmful it is by observing how flies are flying in a disruptive mode at night under these light and how active they are in the morning under sun light.
عرفت تأثير الضوء الصناعي المضر دا من تأثير الضوء الصناعي على الذباب وحركتها المضطربة وضوء الشمس اللي بيحول حركتها لنشاط
I didn’t Know that a lot of light can give u cancer! Thank u my friend for teaching us.
Alway choose amber color lights 2500 Kelvin or less. Turn light off. Use light only necessary fully shield lights.
I remember seeing the north star a year ago. Now it's completely gone.
My melatonin levels are low because of the night light
I swore I recognize the outro background music from somewhere. Oh, the intro of The Italian Job!!
Omg I love national geographic it's even better going to trampoline park
Cool so cool cool cool
Hrje
Our world has so much light
My country too is light polluted no stars at night city is so illuminated
You guys forgot about lightbulb and LED efficiency as a cause for the rise in light pollution yearly.. with the invention of LEDs, the carbon footprint may decrease, but light pollution increases.
Woah ..
We need to find a way to solve light pollution :)
first was doubtful with the term light pollution, but now I am understood:(