Light Pollution on BBC Breakfast

[laser_jock99]

Anyone see the big piece on BBC Breakfast this morning?

I'm looking for a link.

[Demonperformer]

Green flag rep was telling us all how turning down/off the lights is dangerous and makes urban areas unsafe

[glowjet]

It is a pity the Green Flag man could not be transported back to the last War period, then he could see first hand people struggling to find their way in the dark, being run over by vehicles with no lights, it makes you wonder how on earth they managed

[todd8137]

are local council told me it will take 4 years to do it in are area

[angusb1]

It is a pity the Green Flag man could not be transported back to the last War period, then he could see first hand people struggling to find their way in the dark, being run over by vehicles with no lights, it makes you wonder how on earth they managed

Very good . I thank my lucky stars I was born in an age of street lighting and not in the "Dark Ages".

You'd think with the amount of money at stake someone would do some empirical research into this and answer the question once and for all.

[AustinStargazer]

Well I know LP prob will never get sorted out / enforced, I'm lucky that I recently moved to the country.

P.S with all this LP we prob look like a very dim star to other civilisations outside of our planet lol

[JB80]

Well it's good to see the BBCs no bias policy is kicking into gear as today on breakfast they keep bringing up the Herts campaign to turn the lights back on.

[Auntystatic]

My street lights were replaced a couple of years ago with white ones, some birds sing ll night long now.

[Psychobilly]

There is another story on BBC Breakfast this morning about the problems caused by the switch off in Somerset... Including a road accident death on Christmas Day...

[dazliss]

My street lights were also replaced. Before I had a great view looking south from east to west. Now all but the brightest objects are completely lost. When I complained to my council they said its OK the lights will dim over time. Yeah right!

[4lefts]

where my parents live, and therefore where i first observed from with my prinz 7x30s, they changed the lights to white, and made them taller. now it's like permanent full moon in the back garden. at the back of my flat now there's fields, and an footpath leading to a 5 bar gate, which the farmer has planeted a hedge in so people don't climb over and go through his fields. fair enough, so now there's a path that goes nowhere. it'd be a good spot to observe from for a gardenless flat dweller, except there's two streetlights on it, lighting up nothing.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I'm seeing more and more news items on the Beeb about councils turning off street lights. Obviously us astronomer types are for the idea but most are not. I can see their point(s).

To be honest i dont think turning off public lights at night is a good idea for many reasons (health and safety).

[4lefts]

i don't know if many astro people are really in favour of turning off that many lights. i, for one, only really want completely pointless lights turned off, like the ones lighting up the car parks of the offices down the road, and footpaths that go nowhere.

[todd8137]

what we will see is a massive increase in security ,and porch lights ect be in switched on

[ixalon]

Even turning them off for 2 hours (say 2am to 4am) would be great. Very few people should be traveling at that time, and those that are should be aware of how to drive safely in the dark. People are perfectly capable of driving around in the rural countryside where there are no streetlights, surely they can cope elsewhere too

[umadog]

The density of street lighting in some of the suburban UK is pretty astonishing and over the top. Light pollution is increasing a much higher rate than population growth because we keep adding more lights and brighter lights without really evaluating why. The default position is that adding lights is always good and taking them away is always bad. Nobody has shown, however, how much lighting is adequate for our needs and how much is too much.

Sure, switching off all the lights is a bad idea and isn't going to happen. But I think we need to take stock of where we are and where we're going. People complain about dimming lights or removing lights, but doing so would only take things back to where they were two or three decades ago when things were just fine. This is what is forgotten a lot of the time, I feel.

[Draco61]

Retail parks are the worst. Why have all those sodium lights to illuminate acres of empty tarmac.

Just install night vision cameras & turn the lights off.

Saves energy & our frustration. Win Win.

[Double Kick Drum]

The density of street lighting in some of the suburban UK is pretty astonishing and over the top. Light pollution is increasing a much higher rate than population growth because we keep adding more lights and brighter lights without really evaluating why. The default position is that adding lights is always good and taking them away is always bad. Nobody has shown, however, how much lighting is adequate for our needs and how much is too much.

Sure, switching off all the lights is a bad idea and isn't going to happen. But I think we need to take stock of where we are and where we're going. People complain about dimming lights or removing lights, but doing so would only take things back to where they were two or three decades ago when things were just fine. This is what is forgotten a lot of the time, I feel.

I think this pretty much hits the nail on the head. I also think it is unrealistic to switch off everything but lighting motorways and suburbia like it is broad daylight is unnecessary.

Let's just switch off what is wasteful.

[AstroMum]

Retail parks are the worst. Why have all those sodium lights to illuminate acres of empty tarmac.

Just install night vision cameras & turn the lights off.

Saves energy & our frustration. Win Win.

Stops the boy racers having meet-ups there too!

I think the key argument here is that we're not asking to turn off all the lights, we'd just like them used more sensibly.

[Cath]

I used to be able to see the MilkyWay when I looked up when I was younger where we live, nobody had a problem with the far less lighting. Now the sky is a nice shade of orange and lots of white glow and see very few stars

I agree we shouldn't turn off all the lighting, but I think it is way OTT these days.

I just took this (10pm), it's suppose to be dark outside!