Night Lighting Part 1
Have you ever thought about how wonderful it is that you can see the stars in the night sky over Adams County? It’s easy for us to take this miracle for granted, but visitors from cities and suburbs notice it right away. It’s one of the ways we’re compensated for the inconvenience of living so far from the centers of art and commerce.
For ancient man, the night sky was fascinating entertainment; a companion, the equivalent of today’s wide screen TV. The ever-changing constellations and phases of the moon marked the passing of time, and provided a dependable way to navigate. In today’s 24-hour world, many people have lost touch with the infinite wonder of the night sky, but we here in Adams County can still enjoy it.
Like so many things in the natural world, darkness at night is a non-renewable resource like clean air, clean water, peace and quiet. Little by little, we can lose these precious things without even realizing it. Once they’re lost it’s very hard, almost impossible, to get them back.
For all of earth’s history, life has relied on a predictable rhythm of day and night. It’s encoded in the DNA of all plants and animals. Plants and animals depend on Earth’s daily cycle of light and dark rhythm to guide life-sustaining behaviors such as reproduction, nourishment, sleep and protection from predators.
Humans have radically disrupted this cycle by lighting up the night. Scientific evidence suggests that artificial light at night has negative, and sometimes deadly, effects on many creatures including amphibians, birds, mammals, insects and plants. Nocturnal animals sleep during the day and are active at night. Artificial light radically alters their nighttime environment by turning night into day.
According to research scientist Christopher Kyba, for nocturnal animals, “the introduction of artificial light probably represents the most drastic change human beings have made to their environment. Near cities, cloudy skies are now hundreds, or even thousands of times brighter than they were 200 years ago. We are only beginning to learn what a drastic effect this has had on nocturnal ecology.”
Humans have also evolved to the rhythms of the natural light-dark cycle of day and night. Like most life on Earth, humans live by a circadian rhythm (our biological clock), a sleep-wake pattern governed by the day-night cycle. Artificial light at night can disrupt that cycle. The spread of artificial lighting means most of us no longer experience truly dark nights.
Research suggests that artificial light at night negatively affects human health, increasing risks for obesity, depression, sleep disorders, diabetes, breast cancer and more. Our bodies produce the hormone melatonin in response to circadian rhythm. Melatonin has antioxidant properties, induces sleep, boosts the immune system, lowers cholesterol, and helps the functioning of the thyroid, pancreas, ovaries, testes and adrenal glands. Nighttime exposure to artificial light suppresses melatonin production. It’s also bad for your eyes. According to a 2012 report from the American Medical Association, “Glare from nighttime lighting can create hazards ranging from discomfort to frank visual disability.”
How can we enjoy modern life while still preserving the beauty of the night sky? We’ll explore this dilemma in this column during the coming weeks.
Steve Boehme is a landscape designer/installer specializing in landscape “makeovers”. “Let’s Grow” is published weekly; column archives are on the “Garden Advice” page atwww.goodseedfarm.com. For more information is available atwww.goodseedfarm.comor call GoodSeed Farm Landscapes at (937) 587-7021.