There’s So Much to See in the Dark

Did you go stargazing as a child? How about watching fireflies dance in the tree line? If you’ve tried to share these same beloved pastimes with your children or grandchildren, you might have noticed you can’t see as many constellations as you remember, and the fireflies are few and far between. Why? All of our bright lights. Flood lights, storefront lights, solar lights, street lights – it all adds up, and it’s bad for people, animals, and plants.

According to NOAA satellite imagery, the total number of acres lit by artificial light at night (especially blue and white LED lights) grew by 2% every year from 2012-2016, and things have only gotten worse since then. Mary Reynolds, author of The Ark, devotes a chapter to the dangerous effects of light pollution. It isn’t just bats and insects that suffer irreparable damage, increased nighttime lighting affects our hormones, circadian rhythms, and much more. It’s now well known that the blue lights on our many electronic devices interfere with our biological clocks, healthy sleeping habits, and the production of melatonin. Most LEDS, while energy efficient, create more disruptive blue light.

Here are a few examples of how light pollution affects wildlife here in New England:
• More Light = Less Birds. Most of our songbirds migrate at night, navigating by the moon and stars. Heavily lighted houses cause many birds to become disoriented and crash into the buildings, often killing them. This explains why you might find dead birds around your home in the morning.
• More Light = Less Fireflies. The fireflies that we all enjoyed as children are declining. Biologists believe that one cause is artificial lights interfering with their flashing mating signals, so different species have difficulty finding the correct mate.
• More Light = Less Flowers. When outdoor lighting attracts insects, including nocturnal moths that are important pollinators, they waste their time and energy at the light when they should be looking for a mate, thus reducing their populations.
• More Light = Less Frogs & Toads. Amphibians such as American Toads are attracted to in-ground lights to feed on insects, but this makes them very visible to nighttime predators.

You’re probably already aware of how artificial light affects baby sea turtles in Florida. Hatching at night to avoid predators such as gulls and crows, the baby turtles evolved to migrate quickly towards the bright moonlight reflecting on the sea’s horizon. Artificial lighting confuses the hatchlings, so instead they crawl inland, towards house lights and parking lots -- a deadly mistake for them. Now many coastal towns ask residents to protect hatchlings by shielding lights, shining them downward, or turning them off altogether.
The good news is that protecting the night sky, and everything we love about it, is as easy as flipping a switch. While human safety is important, there are many ways to reduce the harmful effects of artificial lighting on our own property and in our towns:
• Turn off all exterior lighting, or use a motion sensor or timer so lights don’t stay on all night.
• Close your curtains at night.
• Avoid lighting your house and landscaping for aesthetic purposes.
• Keep exterior lights pointed away from natural areas like wetlands and tree lines.
• Amber and red tone lights are less disruptive to wildlife.
• Purchase exterior lights that are 400 lumens or less, with shields that direct light downward.
Visit the Dark sky website, https://darkskymass.org/  to learn more and see examples of appropriate lighting.