LIGHT POLLUTION AND ITS EFFECT ON THE ENVIRONMENT

ABSTRACT

The 24-hour day/night cycle naturally helps to maintain balance and stability within a nocturnal
ecosystem. While the rhythms of the natural light-dark cycle of day and night are able maintain a stable
balance with ecological and human-made activities in relation to the nature of lighting and darkness,
light pollution still significantly reduces average human well-being, impacts on the visibility of faint
night sky objects during the night with the naked eye and telescope, and damages the night environment.
It can be defined as “every form of artificial light in the wrong place at the wrong time which creates a
sky glow, glare, nuisance, and other relevant causes of environmental degradation including some
properties of artificial light which emit non-environmentally friendly or inappropriate light.” Light
pollution can reduce human health, interfere with the nocturnal and/or dark-sky environment, reduce
transportation safety and waste lighting energy consumption.
Therefore, hard laws and soft laws from international and national jurisdictions established a duty on
local authorities to manage outdoor lights and control all key elements of light pollution so as to ensure
that people are not exposed to risks to the night environment. These also include environmental risks
arising from a sky glow when measuring the non-environmentally atmospheric smog that hangs over
urban areas at night where the level of exterior lighting from outdoor light sources is relatively high.
However, English law does not contain stage processes and responsibilities for local authorities to deal
with all aspects of outdoor light pollution. It also does not contain powers concerning the use of certain
measurable degrees of nonenvironmentally friendly light metric, together with powers for the
Government to approve a single framework for the minimisation of sky glow in public atmospheric areas
at night. According to Cinzano, Falchi, & Elvidge (2001), the Netherlands is one of the countries with
the highest amount of light pollution.