Eighty percent of children alive today will never see the Milky Way, said Jim Richardson, a photographer for National Geographic.

Richardson gave a discussion called, “Our Vanishing Night: Light Pollution” on Tuesday in Hendricks Chapel. The lecture, a part of the University Lectures series, was free and open to the public. Through photos, Richardson showed the effects of light pollution on the environment, and encouraged the audience to take steps to join the movement.

“The stars you see up there in the sky are not just beautiful objects,” he said, gesturing to his photograph of a deep blue sky, scattered with glowing stars. “They are our home.”

In the last 100 years, the dark side of the Earth has grown brighter, Richardson said. Light from sources such as industrial plants and street lamps now pours into the night sky.

He showed an aerial photograph of Chicago, a city he said provides a dramatic depiction of the effects of light pollution. In the photograph, street lamps illuminated the city’s streets, visible through breaks in clouds gilded by reflecting light.

“That light going up that you can see in the sky is a waste,” he said. “It is doing no one good.”

Light pollution does more than just aesthetic damage, he said. A lack of darkness at night suppresses melatonin production. It also disrupts circadian rhythms, resulting in a sense of fatigue and worsened general health. The glare from streetlights also makes driving at night unsafe, he said.

Humans are not the only ones who suffer. Birds fly into buildings, their flight migrations disrupted by artificial light. Fireflies are especially sensitive to light – even something as small as a flashlight can disrupt what he referred to as their “sex orgy.”

Lighting on the beach also affects turtles’ ability to nest. Richardson showed pictures of a turtle on Juno Beach in Florida. He named her Kathy, after his wife. Kathy’s ancestors have returned to the same area to lay eggs for millions of years, he said, but the animals now struggle with the presence of light on the beaches.

“They survived the past 100 million years,” he said. “But now, will they survive us?”

Despite its negative environmental effects, light pollution is not an irreversible issue. Cities such as Paris and Berlin have begun to turn down their light usage. Communities such as Harmony, Fla., regulate their light use, creating a pleasant night scene and allowing them to coexist with wildlife, Richardson said.

He encouraged the audience to promote sensible lighting. Light pollution has only existed for the past 100 years, and society can help reverse it, he said.

“You don’t have to change the whole world,” he said. “You can change your part of it, and make a huge difference.”

Reducing light pollution will make life richer, he said, and create a better life for all.

“I think it’s time that we, the children of the stars, grow up, assume our rightful roles as adults in the universe, and start taking care of the world we were given,” Richardson said.

Nicole Perman, a senior geography, Spanish and policy studies major, said she found Richardson’s presentation interesting, although she expected him to talk about National Geographic, not light pollution.

Published on March 20, 2013 at 1:44 am

Contact Kerry: kwolfe01@syr.edu