It is proven by a global science project that every single year the brightness of the night sky is going up by around 10%. It may not seem like a lot, but light pollution also affects wildlife as well. If we don’t try to reduce the amount of light pollution now, who knows what our future will look like. Stop worrying about cool lights and start worrying about light pollution.

But how can you worry about anything, while not knowing what light pollution is? Light pollution is caused by artificial light, which lightens the night sky and can harm wildlife. There are three different kinds of light pollution, light trespass, glare, and clutter. Light trespass is when light travels to a place it is not wanted, for example, when the light of a street light shines into someone's home etc. Glare is when extreme amounts of light cause discomfort visually. Clutter is confusing and overwhelming groups of light. If you look at this Light pollution map you can see how different countries around the world are affected by light pollution, and how differently (by amounts) they’re affected.

When you look up at the night sky you can see a number of stars that seem like a lot. Can you believe there used to be so many more only 9 years ago? In 2014 the majority of New Zealand had low light pollution. Based off of land area, 93% of the South island and 74% of the North island had clear night skies, or the amount of clearness only reduced near the horizon. According to experts on light pollution, light pollution is growing double the amount of the human population, so imagine how big of a difference light pollution has made on New Zealand from 2014 to today.

Light pollution doesn’t only affect how we see the night sky-it affects wildlife as well. Birds, they’re species the whole of New Zealand know and love, but light pollution is making certain effects on the animals causing the population of birds to decrease. Bird species that hunt or migrate at night such as the Kiwi, Kākāpō, Song thrush etc, navigate using the moonlight and/or starlight. Uses of artificial light can cause the birds to drift off course, towards dangerous cities and eventually the birds could end up banging into uselessly lit up buildings. Millions of birds die every year because of artificial light.

With light pollution affecting so many things, you would think that it would affect some other wildlife too, right? Yes. Coral: Over 130 species of coral create new life by the moonlight and the moon’s phases. Artificial light can conceal the phases, throwing the coral’s biological rhythm off sync. Frogs+Toads: The glare from artificial light affects wetland habitats (the habitat of amphibians) and disrupts a part of Frogs and Toads breeding ritual. Artificial light disrupts their reproduction, which reduces the population. Sea turtles: When Sea turtle eggs hatch, they hatch on land. The hatchlings find the sea by finding the bright moonlight over the ocean, sometimes instead of travelling to the sea, the turtles travel towards artificial lights in cities.

Here is a list of other wildlife all over the world that get harmed by Light pollution

• Wallabies

• Zebra fish

• Sweat bees

• Monarch butterflies

• Atlantic salmon

• Zooplankton

• European perch

• Bats

• Mice

• Insects

• Geckos

• Fireflies

Light pollution is bad now, imagine what it will be like if we don’t try to stop it from getting even worse. Right now no one knows what the future will really look like with light pollution, but it doesn’t seem very good. In paragraph three I explained how much New Zealand had changed in nine years 2014-2023 and it turned out to be a lot. Now all the world is doing is evolving. Even AI is coming along, and who knows how much that could change the world, not necessarily in a good way. There is a way to fix this.

There are multiple ways to stop light pollution from going any further. You can use fully shielded light for outdoor light , to make sure that the light is pointing down;not up. Only use whatever light is needed, if you use too much light, it is extremely wasteful and harms our special wildlife. Installing timers and dimmer switches to your light when it isn’t in use helps as well. If you’re using security lights, use motion sensors. This next one we’ve all heard before, but most people still don’t do it. Turn off your lights when you leave the room!

In conclusion, light pollution needs to stop increasing, and quickly. Cloudy skies-near cities-are hundreds to thousands of times brighter than they were around 200 years ago. This shows how much damage humans have done by using too much artificial light. Light pollution has no good qualities, harming wildlife, brightening up the sky. All we get out of light pollution is being able to look at pretty lights. But is that really worth it? My theory is that no part of the world will be safe from light pollution in a few years. Light pollution is man-made, it’s our fault.

Citations and bibliography

• James Ashworth:Increasing light pollution is drowning out the stars | Natural History Museum 23rd January 2023

• National Geographic:Light Pollution 29 June 2023

• Stats NZ:Artificial night sky brightness | Stats NZ 18 October 2018

• Alice Geary: NZ Starlight Conference: Is light pollution the next global crisis? 27 October 2018

• Light pollution can harm wildlife brochure by the International Dark-Sky Association 3 July 2023