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Over 80% of the world’s population & 99% of Americans & Europeans live under "sky glow," where light pollution affects wildlife, human health & our ability to observe celestial objects.

As we lose the chance to look up & peer back in time at once vivid stars, we risk forgetting our place as a single species in the magnificent symphony of life. education.nationalgeographic.o… #space #science #nature #SharedPlanet

NASA image of the Perseid meteors in the night sky. The Perseids are debris remnants of Comet Swift-Tuttle, which takes 133 years to orbit the Sun once. The meteors often leave long “wakes” of light and color behind them as they streak through Earth's atmosphere. They’re also known for their fireballs, which are larger explosions of light and color that can persist longer than an average meteor streak. This photo was taken Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, in Spruce Knob, West Virginia. Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Light Pollution | National Geographic Society

People all over the world are living under the nighttime glow of artificial light, and it is causing big problems for humans, wildlife, and the environment. There is a global movement to reduce light pollution, and everyone can help.
education.nationalgeographic.org
#nature #science #space #sharedplanet
This entry was edited (2 years ago)
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Osma A 🇫🇮🇺🇦
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Osma A 🇫🇮🇺🇦
• •
Good call-out! It's very irritating that my hometown #Helsinki is one of the world's top light polluters per capita. Just look at this difference on lightpollutionmap.info/
Light pollution map of Helsinki, Finland is a bright blob
Light pollution map of Hamburg, Germany, has a much smaller bright center

Light pollution map

Interactive world light pollution map. The map uses NOAA/EOG VIIRS, World Atlas 2015, Aurora prediction, observatories, clouds and SQM/SQC overlay contributed by users.
www.lightpollutionmap.info
#helsinki
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Rémi Dupré
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Rémi Dupré
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most of the people I know are not even aware that you can see the milky way from earth and how gorgeous it is 😢
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

nedhamson
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nedhamson
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what? You mean there are still stars out there… I thought they had been cancelled… 😜
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Dandydan
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Dandydan
• •
when I am in mountains camping I look up to the thousands of stars for a while and wonder.
Than that feeling of being watched by a mountain lion.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

David P
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David P
• •

the only good thing about camping far from civilisation is the dark sky, and the view of the heavens.

At least, that's what I choose to remember most about my otherwise crap trip to Fraser Island (off Queensland coast, now known as K'gari).

#stargazing

#stargazing
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Andy Tasker
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Andy Tasker
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I couldn't agree more! The night sky gives a sense of perspective that isn't found elsewhere
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Pete
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Pete
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When I was a boy, I used to get home from the drive in after midnight and just spend some time looking up at the stars in wonder at the infinite billions of them. Now I look up and see a few of the brightest and planets, but it is nowhere near close. Kids these days don’t even know what they’re missing.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Bmorekarl
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Bmorekarl
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maybe that's why ancient civilizations built those monuments to the sky.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Annietime
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Annietime
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Oh how I yearn for dark skies! We’ve lost the sense of our place in the Universe, our belonging to something larger, the great mystery. 😢
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

jayrawd48
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jayrawd48
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I grew up in the Low Desert of California’s Mojave and could see stars from my backyard. Then after moving to the Inland Empire, I’m mad at how bad the light pollution is. On overcast nights, it’s a perpetual dawn/dusk with how much light there is.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

MarkR
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MarkR
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Once saw the Milky Way where light pollution was almost zero. It was an awe-inspiring sight.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

British Tech Guru
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British Tech Guru
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and now we have ten thousand of musk's satellites disrupting the view also.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Studio Beau
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Studio Beau
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I am privileged to live in an Int’l Dark Sky City. At night, walking my dog, the sky’s magnificence dominates the entire field of vision, & I’m located within a sense of wonder, of my place in that expansiveness. This is not fanciful, but real: when I visit elsewhere, there’s a discomforting sense of loss. I wish with all my heart society would value how essential this is, prioritize steps we can take to preserve it. For ourselves, for all life on this planet.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Peter Lichota
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Peter Lichota
• •
As someone with a telescope and an interest in viewing the stars, I’ve had to make use of a dark sky service which maps the best place to do that relative to me. I can’t really do that where I am because of light pollution. I would have to travel a good three or four hours north just to get to a good place! The cottage in the prairies is remote and a good place but any urban area, not so much!
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

chaase
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chaase
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I'm very lucky to live in a place without heavy light pollution and can see the stars every night
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Mike from Before
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Mike from Before
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I will be retiring this year. One of the first things I want to do is find a dark area away from street lights, motion yard lights and go camping. Its been years since i could just sit and gaze at the stars. I need to find that place.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Dean
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Dean
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Totally agree with this. Having lived in rural and urban settings I always stopped to marvel at the majesty and beauty of the universe at night when I was out of doors in the countryside. In the urban area not nearly as much...
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

PurpleWitch
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PurpleWitch
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I really appreciate that I live in a dark sky area. Walking around under a full moon, particularly on a cold winter's night, truly fuels the soul.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Myria
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Myria
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What is that milky streak in the middle of the sky? I ask as a Californian
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Sherri
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Sherri
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We should have one night a year where we turn off the lights and look at the stars. A few years ago, we tried driving from Utah toward Wendover looking for a dark spot. About an hour out, we pulled off onto a remote road that turned into a dirt road and finally found a place where we could see the Milky Way.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Kristoffer Lawson
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Kristoffer Lawson
• •
the crazy thing is even up here in the countryside well outside the Helsinki region, and amidst forests, the council has been adding street lights to roads. Roads with virtually no traffic whatsoever, particularly pedestrians or the like (cars have lights so they should be fine?). I hate it. Nobody seems to want it, yet it just slips through, one road at a time, because nobody bothers raising voices about it.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

NoctisEqui 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇪🇹🏳️‍🌈
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NoctisEqui 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇪🇹🏳️‍🌈
• •
I was so lucky to live in a dark sky area. Hoping to somehow get back. 6 years of exile and longing for the beautiful sky-view I enjoyed for 13 years.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Rishikesh
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Rishikesh
• •
This is so true. When I moved to the US from India a long time ago, one of the first things I noticed was the lack of stars in the sky when you lie down on the ground and look at the sky. The other thing was the cities in America looked like blotches of yellow light at night compared to Delhi, which at that time looked dark with a lot of fireflies.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Coffee Pinewood
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Coffee Pinewood
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I might be a direct victim of this. I am almost 40, mainly a city dweller and I am pretty sure I have never actually seen a sky full of stars.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

jujube
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jujube
• •
For those who have been able to visit or live in a place where there is no light pollution, the experience is almost mystical. So many celestial objects are visible that normally one would not see. I once lived on a remote island. During new moons, the darkness was all consuming. If not for starlight, navigation was impossible.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Vihio
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Vihio
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One of the results of this wretched postmodernism where it seems that only material goods count. So we are overwhelmed by them, they soon become rampant garbage and in the meantime we miss the wonders of nature.

#dystopia

youtu.be/AlVczvB4FQk


Soylent Green Opening Titles

Headlines today discuss the growing possibility of energy and food problems that were first brought to world attention in the 1970's. Films like Soylent Gree...
YouTube
#dystopia
Unknown parent

Sheril Kirshenbaum
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Sheril Kirshenbaum
• •

@sciencemagazine @dpnash I remember being filled with a sense of wonder by the night sky as a child/teen in the 80s & 90s at my parents house. It doesn’t look like that anymore.

I was in Tasmania last week & it served as a beautiful reminder of what’s really up there. I suspect if more of us could experience that, we’d remember our connection to the natural world & just maybe, we’d do more to protect it.

@Science Magazine
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Lord Kelvin
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Lord Kelvin
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On the other end of the spectrum, there's all these sincere, impassioned #Environmentalists who cannot understand why anyone in their right mind would not want to embrace #UrbanLiving - they know not the #TrueBeautyOfNature they believe they're trying to protect.
#environmentalists #urbanliving #truebeautyofnature
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Dan Neuman 🇨🇦
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Dan Neuman 🇨🇦
• •
My previous condo was on the 12th floor and I could read a newspaper by the light coming in from the street and a stadium over a kilometre away. It was unreal. It improved somewhat when the stadium was revamped and the street lights were changed to LEDs.

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