The issues
Painting the sky with street lighting, not stars. Portsmouth, M27, marina and cloud reflection – the effects of skyglow on the night sky. Photo: Ron Arbour, CfDS image libary
Light pollution is rapidly increasing across this country, leaving less and less countryside where we can enjoy dark, starry nights.
Light pollution
- destroys our view of the night sky
- wastes energy - thereby adding to air pollution and emissions of climate changing greenhouse gases
- harms people's quality of life. For example, it can rob us of sleep when it shines into our homes
The problem is getting worse. Between 1993 and 2000:
- light pollution increased 24% nationally
- the amount of truly dark night sky in this country fell from 15% to 11%
- the amount of light-saturated night sky rose to 7%
To see how we arrived at these figures, look at our section on light pollution in your area, which includes our new light pollution maps.
Light pollution is caused by:
- badly designed street and road lights that spill light up to the sky
- security lights that light up buildings and their surroundings (including those on homes)
- floodlights used to illuminate games pitches, places of entertainment and buildings
