Sean Bromilow
On a crisp, cloudless night in Nottingham, how many stars can you see? According to this interactive map, made with data from the Countryside Charity’s 2023 Star Count, it’s likely that you won’t spot more than 10 stars in the entire sky. This isn’t a local issue, or even one that just affects big cities– observers only counted 10 stars or less in over 50% of the country.
Noctalgia represents a loss of identity, heritage and endless curiosity
The light that comes from sources like motorways, businesses, streetlights, and even reflective satellites in orbit, is flooding our night sky, hiding all but the brightest stars from our view and diluting what little of our universe we could already see. This stark decrease in sky visibility is so severe that astronomers have recently coined a new term, noctalgia, to capture the feeling of ‘sky grief’ associated with losing our traditional access to the stars. Noctalgia represents a loss of identity, heritage and endless curiosity that humanity has always associated with looking up at the night sky.
Places like these are enormously important for preservation efforts, but their value isn’t just in their beauty
However, the good news is that this loss is not permanent. Pockets of truly dark skies are being preserved across the UK, and around the world, by dedicated people working to halt the fading of our stars.
Most of the UK’s darkest skies are found in our national parks, like those in Northumberland, Exmoor and the Yorkshire Dales. Rural areas like these, far from the busy roads and well-lit streets in more built-up areas, are much easier to keep free from heavy light pollution. In fact, some of the skies in these parks are so clear and star-filled that they’ve been officially recognised for their outstanding visibility, being granted the title of ‘International Dark Sky Park’. Places like these are enormously important for preservation efforts, but their value isn’t just in their beauty. The organisations responsible for these parks also run events and festivals, drawing attention to the growing issue of light pollution.
Recently, one such event was the ‘Big Switch Off’; held in Keswick, Cumbria on the 8th of February. This was a community effort from businesses and residents to turn off their lights, revealing thousands of otherwise unseen stars as well as encouraging electricity conservation. The event involved activities such as stargazing and astrophotography, with the aim of raising awareness of our effect on the world around us.
experts estimate between 100 million and 1 billion birds are killed like this in the US each year
The Big Switch Off has run for many years now, and each time it grows in its popularity and impact. This demonstration of community engagement is helping rural Britain slowly reclaim it’s gorgeous skies, one Big Switch Off at a time.
The issue of light pollution in cities, on the other hand, is a whole different kettle of fish. With a much greater density of artificial lights, simply turning them all off presents a tougher challenge for communities, but we know it can be done.
An excellent example of this is in the city of Philadelphia, USA. Light pollution from the city has been known to confuse migrating birds, pulling them away from their usual paths and into deadly collisions with buildings. Unfortunately, with tens of millions of birds flying through Philadelphia every year, this leads to an enormous loss of avian life. And this problem is by no means specific to Philadelphia, in fact experts estimate between 100 million and 1 billion birds are killed like this in the US each year.
By taking action, rather than giving in to sky grief, we might see starrier nights in the future
In 2020, the people of Philadelphia took action to address this problem, setting up the ‘Lights Out Philly’ event. Ever since, during bird migration seasons many people and businesses have been turning off their lights and reducing as much external light as possible. Lights Out Philly has been estimated to reduce bird deaths by around 80%, preventing a huge loss of biodiversity, as well as saving thousands of dollars. The success of this scheme demonstrates the enormous difference that can be made when communities work together to improve their environment.
In the end, it’s important to acknowledge that the responsibility for lighting mainly lies with local authorities, who need to consider many factors such as safety, cost, and environmental impact. Despite this, as individuals there are a few steps we can take to tackle light pollution. Among these are reducing unnecessary indoor and outdoor lighting, and using low-energy bulbs or LEDs to reduce the intensity of our lights. Most importantly, we can spread awareness of the issue and lobby our local governments. By taking action, rather than giving in to sky grief, we might see starrier nights in the future.
Sean Bromilow
Featured image courtesy of Nadiia Ploshchenko via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
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