Last week I read an article about the cons of city lights. The article wrote about how once in Los Angeles, there was a huge power outage. When the lights were gone and the stars were shown, a lot of people were seeing them for first time, and they had no clue on what they were. The lights can also mess up a person’s brain by causing sleep deprivation, which leads to less synapses in your brain, which can bring the same symptoms as depression. The night lights can also mess up plants and animals. Some plants that bloom only during the night or day are opening and closing irregularly. This means that the animals that depend on them for food are starving and dying, because their instinct tells them to be awake at the same time as the open plants, but if the plants are acting irregularly, the animals can’t depend on their instincts anymore, and they die. Another way the lights affect animals is when birds migrate, their instinct is to follow the lights of the stars, which is very faint. When the birds are migrating and they fly over a city, they are attracted to the lights, and start to follow them. Following the city lights leads nowhere, and eventually, the birds fall to the ground, and die of exhaustion. Or they become easy prey. When turtles hatch at night, they follow the reflection of the moon on the water safely into the sea. Because of the city lights, the baby turtles become confused and follow the artificial lights. They die of exhaustion, get hit by cars, get stuck in sewers, etc.
I chose to read this article because I thought night lights are just lights. Lights don’t cause problems. At first, I thought that the article title was being dramatic, and an exaggeration. I wanted to know what harm the lights at night could cause. I thought there would just be one slightly big problem, like sleep deprivation or something. I was incredibly surprised at the amount of problems they cause and the level of severity. I think that this article is important for society. A lot of people probably don’t realize the damage these lights at night cause. If more people know about the problem of these lights, we can come up with a better, less harmful alternative. Even if one more person knows, they can make a small difference, by at least turning off the lights outside and closing the curtains in the rooms with the lights on.
How does sleep deprivation cause less synapses? What in the artificial light changes the plant’s and animal’s behaviors? What would be the best light alternative for artificial lights?
Savanah, This is such an important topic! I knew how bad they were for plants and animals but I didn’t realize the sleep issues and brain trauma they can cause humans. They are coming up with better lighting for cities that casts the light down and not up into the sky. There was an uproar in my little town of Lake Leelanau and so they switched out the lights for better night vision. Did you know there is an International Dark Sky Park just north of Petoskey? Can you imagine never seeing stars????