The problem of light pollution -- and 5 ridiculously easy ways to fix it | Kelsey Johnson
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- čas přidán 5. 01. 2020
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Ever gaze up at the starry night sky? This stunning view is at risk of disappearing -- unless we act now, says astrophysicist Kelsey Johnson. In this fascinating, unexpectedly funny talk, she explains how light pollution affects almost every species on earth (including us) and shares five "stupidly simple" things you can do to help solve the problem.
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I was aware of light pollution and it has always annoyed me because I enjoy the night sky, but I honestly didn't realize the full extent of it until I visited Bora Bora a few years ago. Out in the middle of the Pacific with no major cities nearby and nearly no lights around for hundreds of miles allowed me to view our Milky Way band for the first time in my life with my own eyes and without a fancy camera or special equipment. I didn't know what I was seeing at first, I thought it was a cloud actually, but when I realized what it was, I understood immediately how much we're missing out on due to light pollution. It's sad that we willingly block out the best views our planet has to offer.
It's even more sad that the same individuals responsible for blocking our views are the only ones who can afford to regularly travel to places so remote that the effects are almost not evident.
@Pretty Awesome Person well then you're misinterpreting what I said
@@Jimmeh_B If I'm included in that remark, you're making an awful lot of assumptions.
@@whiplash636 no my friend, you're not.
@Pretty Awesome Person I never said it was.
Last night I took a walk and complained that my city is too poor to afford the street lights to be on after 10 pm. Now I'm proud to live in a poor city.
Facepalm 😯😯
Lol I live in Detroit this means that makes me the luckiest sob on earth lol
I'm jealous!
@@looiart same
Im glad this light pollution problem is becoming more popular, we must save the night sky.
And bird. it is easier for birds to navigate if they can see the sky
You have my vote
Last year we had a city wide blackout in Addis Ababa and when I looked up it almost felt like I was floating so many stars other than the Orion I never thought were visible to the naked eye. That is an experience I wish I could experience everyday
One thing about pollution is that it's often voluntary. Of course life always makes it easier to do the wrong thing even when it really isn't practical, which can seem systematically destructive or even self destructive.
The sad thing is that most people just don't care. Only after you tell them of the consequences of light pollution do some try to do something about it. The general public needs to be more aware about the problem of light pollution.
I'm perfectly aware if the BS in this video.
But how do we control crimes at dark if we focus on light pollution.
@@shankarsharma174 You can have the same amount of lighting to control crimes. You just need to point it down not up into the sky. Also excessively bright cold light doesn't benefit anyone. Warmer light is much more pleasant and does the same job.
Reminds me of a quote with a cyberpunk aftertaste: "The sky above [the port] was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel". When William Gibson wrote Neuromancer, he was probably not referring to astronomy but it does portray what city dwellers see (or rather don't see) in the night sky.
I dare you to go out into an area where light is absent at night, you will not understand how bright our solar system is unless you find such a dark spot.
One of my most memorable experiences occurred in a dark part of the Northeast United States on a cold summer night with a telescope. I saw 4 moons of Jupiter. I don't think my children have seen a black night sky, however.
Wow I didn't even know Jupiter had 4 moons!
@@thehorsebackheroine5950 Jupiter has 79 known "Moons"
What are you doing this weekend? Or this summer? Take them for a weekend away or a couple of days back out there and show them? I’m sure that they would love it :)
@Natalia June - they are grown men now living in one of the most exciting cities in the world.... Missed that chance.
In the outback of Portugal the Milky Way is also more spectacular than in Berlin. Also I´ve seen there Venus the first time in my life at dusk. Wondered at first what a big star it was. : D
I live in New Zealand and even though there is definitely light pollution it was no where near as bad as other places. I went to LA once, and it was night time and the plane was landing in the airport. I just remember looking how the window and being amazed at how YELLOW the sky in Los Angeles was. Just crazy. Never seen anything like it.
"Losing touch with our place in the cosmos" is something I can relate to. I know I've seen the night sky in places relatively unaffected by light pollution, many years ago, and there is a sense of wonderment and awe.
So much great information that Kelsey shares here. We don't even realize what we are missing each night. It's so important that we take the time to use these tips to fix the light pollution but also to travel somewhere where you can truly see the stars shine.
We took out grand daughter out to death valley. We listened to her whine about having no signal all the way there. When she saw the Milky Way in near pitch darkness she grew quiet and then started crying tears of joy. It was a wonderful moment!
I really doubt she started crying but no doubt she learned how important it is to see how microscopic we are as humans. Thank you! An important lesson here is you don't have to embellish to still prove a good point.
@@Randsel She really did. It was a very emotional moment.
@@paulsmith9341 ok, fair enough :) have a great day!
@@Randsel thanks, right back at you!
I'm sorry but how does light pollution cause obesity? I'm serious, can someone link me a study that supports this?
@@sidog6444 I was not aware that anyone slept with the light on. Live and learn.
@@sidog6444 thx
@@MoodIndigo1 Loads of people sleep with their TVs on as well... and they wonder why they're always tired.
Also, curtains are made to stop natural light from entering your bedroom but, even if you use heavy curtains, it's still impossible to stop all the light from entering you room.
@@sidog6444 nope, pretty easy. i have an irregular job so i sleep alot during day time, my room will be pitch black at height of day. no matter the amount of light from the outside. just with quality thick curtains
So thankful for no ads 🙏
As an Astrophotographer I'm sick and tired of Light Pollution. All I do is fight it.
Pessimistic rant:
I live in a major city where the sky at night, especially with low clouds like the ones we have pretty much throughout all of autumn and winter, looks like the 'pea soup' fogs that London had back in the coal era. I was aware of how detrimental it is to the quality of my sleep (not to mention that seeing sky the colour of baby barf isn't that exciting), but Ms Johnson's remarks about the diseases that it causes and how much it gets in the way of smart people doing their jobs was still a bit of an eyeopener.
And then ta-dah! A luxury wine outlet moved in across the street, with a banner so huge, white and bright it floods my 6th floor bedroom like two full moons. So guess what? When I went to see the manager and ask her if the store could turn the sign off during closing time, she dismissed my request saying that
a) the banner was made in accordance with city laws
b) yes, it is going to be left on 24 hours a day, even in months when we get approximately 6 hours of daylight
c) if I can't sleep and won't put up blackout curtains it's my problem
d) if I care that much about light pollution, how about I go ask all the stores in the street to turn their signs off as well
e) basically could I please go fudge myself.
This merry story goes on to show that massive action from the government and the scientific community in order to get something going in this respect. But when scientists have been shouting from the rooftops about climate change and the disappearance of species due to pollution and, generally, human activity but in most countries governments and enterprises only care about making a killing, that seems implausible.
It’s very disconcerting to see cities implementing obnoxiously blue 4000K and 5000K temperature LED street lighting. It’s jarring, bright and invasive, far worse than the old 2200K orange glow sodium lamps.
11:56 The solutions begin here
Not the best explanation but the main point for humans is it effects our body clocks. Humans weren’t engineered to be up all night with bright lights flashing in our face. We should be resting allowing our bodies to heal and regenerate for the next day. It causes obesity because we go out late and eat in well lit places as opposed to in the past we eat when we can see what we’re eating which was usually lit by sun light. Then we don’t sleep long enough for our food to digest before we eat breakfast
“Go out on a clear night and look up. Your destiny is there. Your difficulties are there. Your opportunities are there. Your redemption is there.”
Greater Community Spirituality: Chapter 15: Who Serves Humanity?
What do you mean? Fly?
@@fabiogasperini5868 What do you mean fly? The quote is about going out on a clear night and looking up at the stars, which represent our local universe.
We need to know what is flying in our skies. Read the free Allies of Humanity Briefings and learn about the alien Intervention that is intervening in this world. Hint: it is not for the benefit of humanity.
@@fiddler5 woah nelly!
That was brilliant. Simple, dumb down, nitty-gritty and super informative discussion on ALAN. Thanks Dr!
A phenomenal talk, I'm glad I got to experience it early before it (hopefully) reaches a much wider audience
Well said!
I am lucky enough to be living as an adult on the same rural property I grew up on. As a child I can recall clearly spending nights lying on the trampoline looking at the constellations and making up names for them. You could also see the milky way most nights very easily. Now though a big industrial estate and rapid growth of the nearby town has meant all you can see now are satellites and the brightest planets.
It's sad.
This Tedtalks is helping out with my light pollution artwork HeptoBokeh, thank you Kelsey Johnson. I hear ya’ all the way in The Bronx!
I would love to have a conversation with her
Vega is like a blue diamond. Incredible in a telescope. Thanks Kelsey :)
Any links to peer reviewed studies to backup some of these claims? Links?
I'm only doing this for the snail's.. Writing a letter to my HOA and City to make this better
That's a great talk!
This might be a radical idea but how about some blinders?
I learned a lot from this short video.... Thank u
Such as?
These aren't actually effective ways to get rid of the problem. You said highways are the biggest source of this and yet none of your "5" solutions impact it whatsoever. And just like regular polution, the problem isn't individuals, its large government/corporations. So yea, its another problem without a solution (cuz we need streetlights)
Streetlight frequency could be reduced in a lot of cities, in the one where I used to live I often saw people driving around at night without their headlights on because the streetlights were so close together.
I heard that replacing current street lights with a less polluting light (that is also turned downwards) is actually an existing option and not that much of a problem. I'm guessing the problem is just raising awareness and the public caring enough to make the governments care, and also money I guess.
She's right about the satellites. When I sit out in the unpolluted darkness of the Romney Marsh, the main activity in the sky is satellites!:-(
Another example of "straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel." 🙄 Really? Making a plea to "individuals" using lamps that are covered inside their home and not even going up into space is ridiculous. Doesn't take a scientist to know federal and city leaders and private industry are the real culprits. Cities use lights as entertainment, complete overkill. The first time I ever saw Times Square in NYC and also the Vegas strip, I was appalled. Not to mention the theme parks and even new, wealthy planned communities with their "brighter than the sun" street lights blaring into my bedroom window! Go after the main players with the money and power instead of kicking cans at the little guy.
She's obviously not talking about indoor lights, you knit.
SkankHunt42 but at the end when she discusses what we can do about it she doesn’t really call out the real culprits.
she mixed personal advice in, to create awareness and a feeling of :you can change something... and then step 5: go to your officials and act loud
@@ForChiddlers and what are the officials going to do? Turn off the street lights which are there for our safety?
@@fabiogasperini5868street lights using sensor s and only shine down exist already. saving energy and money and minimizing pollution
Night shifts exists
Scientists: light pollution cause cancer
Night shift kills people. It shouldn't exists in the first place.
@@Dimetropteryx 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@fabiogasperini5868 I highly recommend reading up on the health effects of night shifts. It literally kills, it's not hyperbole.
It is ironic that the automatically attached advertisement is for LED solar lights to "make your house the brightest house on the block."
In the summer when is very hot i open the windows in the night to get some fresh air. Unfortunately is is quite bright
Myyyyy gush... And where was I when you were looking at Minnesota's dark sky on summer nights?! Must admit, a lot of what you say, is all I lived. Still, my fun of every night is to for eg, get out, cloud permitting, and look at the summer triangle (And not only your Vega but added Altair and Deneb), my favorite of the three being Deneb and all the rest Cygnus has to offer... in the way of lullaby! And must admit though my sky from LA's yard is also in the red/grey/WHITE zone of the LP map, I do see a handful of more stars from this side of the pond than your NY view. So terribly sorry about that.
But long story short and I found my soulmate here! So first of all, let me say how much I love you and enjoyed this presentation.
Then, besides those 5 points you mentioned, and a simple request to all that made a connection here with each other today, let's aim it for TONIGHT and in addition to all the 5 points, let's turn off one extra light (One that actually might be needed!) at our home, only for this night to see if we can survive the night. And if so, whether this is something we can do more often and ask our close friends to follow the same path. May be while listening to John Lenon's "Imagine"!
As a hobbyist astrophotographer, can't tell you how much I suffer, first from that extra, unneeded light you talk about, then all those pile & tangle of wires that are scaring all the sky, in every direction, under the name: "Power lines", when they could run a lot safer underground. And to top it all, and when actually that image of deep (So-called dark) sky is taken, ... the tracers of airliners that are an inevitable part of every sky, even from remotest Hawaiian islands! Now as if this wasn't enough, add the showing up of those ugly, ugly space junks that scratch no ruin almost every night's long term worth of data acquisition, no matter where on earth you are located...
And we call the human race, the "Smart life form"...
greatly
amazing mam
02:43
06:24
11:28
2:51
6:32
11:36
wow
you tell em. im to mad to.
Once Starlink is global, it'll make a different nightscape for everyone.
sorry, but this could have been broken down to like 2-3 minutes... miss seeing lots of stars though :/
in my community they installed energy saving blueish led street light. LED are so efficient compared to old lamps that you can let them shine for the whole night.
list starts at 11:58
From 12:00 for me it's the end
❤
Damm, I didn't know that I hate space... All lights in my house are daylight
Lol i hate natural lighting during the day
Wait if NY is in the bottom right, then how is DC even visible?
BaconBitz the photo was flipped so we were viewing the US from a different angle
Stars I see: 19-20-29-27-16
Milky Way Views I got: 0 (😭)
Light Pollution Level I got: 6-7-8 (😭)
Light Pollution Zone I'm In: Red (😭)
Yes there is a lot of light pollution because the lights are not designed well or installed correctly. But there will always be light pollution from the light reflected off what we are lighting.
She is perfecet!😍
@@midwestinyomouth that’s rude it’s not nice to judge
সত্য সুন্দর প্রকৃতির সুন্দর সুযোগ সধ্যান সৃষ্টির সেরা জীব বৈচিত্র্য সত্য প্রকাশে স্বাধীনতা ইতিহাস সৃষ্টি কারিগর।
Whilst it is the case that having a blue light in one's bedroom whilst sleeping (even a small, "not bright" light) can negatively impact one's health studies have shown that "warm light" lighting whilst one is awake and active causes/aggravates depression. Blue/daylight lighting is best when one is awake and active.
Can you provide a source? As a lighting designer I've never heard about warm light having to do with depression so I'm interested.
Saya melihat video ini sambil tiduran menikmati bulan purnama,,bersama anak saya 01.22 am oct 28 2023
This was always an important topic to me, but I'm confused. It sounds like she's trying to appeal to individuals only, but shouldn't we try and address the bigger sources of light and the authorities that place them there? Like street lamps, neon lights, big buildings and such. What would changing our personal habits do if all that light is still out there? 🤔
The most amazing thing I learned growing marijuana indoors is you can keep a plant in its vegetative growth cycle by keeping the light on for 18 hours or more. Vegetative growth is all about stems and leaves as opposed to flowering which is about flowers, of course, and fruit or bud growth in marijuana.
If the amount of light can alter a plants growth cycle, what is it doing to insects? How is light effecting the microbial world both outside and inside your body.
My main concern is that light may be keeping organisms at every level awake longer and this may be generating unnatural heat. It might have something to do with ocean acidification, it might be a large contributor to Climate Change.
I would love to hear responses from scientists who can link to some studies.
Stephen Lewis wow, very clever deductive reasoning
Kai Chase Thanks. I haven’t grown in about 6 years but it’s been on my mind since then.
Oke I get that light polution is bad but the "facts" she is spitting around 7:30 don't make sense to me. I don't believe that the cancer and tumors and obesity chances increase because of the light polution. I think that is the case because where there is a lot of light polution you mean big city's. And the things that causes these horrible things are the gasses and particles in the air that are in major city's. So yes of course you have a bigger chance to get a horrible decease in major city's then in rural areas but that is not because of the light. That there is more light there is merely a consequence of the bad air and more people living closer to eachother.
Light affects very important hormones in your body such as cortisol and melanin, as well as your circadian rhythm in general. Of course it will affect your health - physical and mental.
It's a stupid thing that we can't just have the answers of the title , and then , got explications if needed !
Before watching this video I was staring at vega and just wondering about it and taking everything in
Lets hear an easy fix for being sprayed with aluminum, barium and strontium particles every day...
EXACTLY 😑
Who is watching this on your phone lol
xiChaex always
Lighten up
Plastic pollution, light pollution, noise pollution (because of cars) - POLLUTION!!!
Light pollution isn't going to matter with Starlink coming in and absolutely destroying the night sky.
Wait til you hear her secret! Moths hate her!
The car pollution is the much bigger problem.
possible, but we should care aso about such things
HVAC and electricity usage is the biggest contributor over transportation exhaust and other fuel exhaust.
That’s an easy google search.
We should care about both. There's no contradiction.
LandAhoy Absolutely, but is extremely important to understand and prioritize the challenges in the correct order so we do the most good in the shortest amount of time.
It’s not a competition of who is smartest. I’m simply putting out information I learned in my Environmental Science class.
When we were discussing this in class, the instructor asked which area we thought was causing the most damage to the environment.
My answer then was transportation. I was blown away.
@@StephenLewisful I was kind of replying to TheArkei's comment, and I don't see how my comment has to do with trying to sound smart... I was just saying they are both important issues.
As for shortest amount of time and spending money, I see how prioritizing is important, but I think raising awareness about different issues is still important, because that means that ongoing research and technological advances take many things into consideration. And in some cases new technology, for example, can be designed to improve several things at once. Even when designing new means of transportation, we can take several things into consideration.
A theory I have on light pollution is as follows, in a nutshell if you can't see just how vast and beautiful our galaxy and the Universe is, and thus just how humongous it is compared to us, what will that do to the human mind? It ties into where I believe religion came from, religion came about back when our species had no idea what this array of lights and colours in the sky was, and to put it into small enough amount of words for this comment, we invented religion to try to explain it, as well as the rest of the world we didn't understand.
But now we have science, and maths, and other tools to help us understand the cosmos in which we live. And this age of humanity is about coming out of childhood and facing reality, its also about accepting we are *not* alone in this world. We have evidence for a nuclear massacre on Mars for peats sake.
In summary, stopping the masses seeing the Galaxy and vast majority of stars does a lot for making people stay within their own little bubbles and stopping us from realizing this planet is WAY smaller than we think and uniting to better survive and thrive in this Universe, which would include stopping using fossil fuels, abolishing currency to enable a new age of prosperity for all, and removing the greedy power-hungry narcissistic traitors who currently run the society we are trapped in.
@Finn MacCool I've seen you before, i also remember you to be a special kind of degenerate, get a life mate
tbh there is a clear reason why “narcissistic traitors” run the society you are trapped in for you, no spoilers tho
I agree
@Jones I'm not saying I know exactly how it needs to be transitioned, but look at all the problems it has created. And if you don't want to live in that kind of an age, that ok. Your going to die within a century so, as we all are. Science advances one death at a time, meaning old ways of thinking die and new ones come about with new generations
@@krystal5887 Like it or not if we lived as our ancestors did the biosphere/ecosystem wouldn't be at threat of collapse from human causes
I'm from Pakistan,and I can easy tell you that, we have light pollution problem.
I hate warm lights at night. Moonlight isn't yellow. I just want to be in moonlight...
It's not yellow but it's also very, very weak. You get about 1 lx from it whereas from a simple night lamp you'll probably get around 20-50 lx a meter from it. Bright cold light affects your sleep negatively as it affects certain hormones in your body and makes you awake. Not to mention that 4000 Kelvin of natural light and 4000 Kelvin of artificial light are simply not the same thing.
I'm not sure what you're trying to tell me
But what I'm saying is
I have yet to find a yellow light that isn't incredibly jarring/intense/stressful to my eyes.
@@GaasubaMeskhenet I don't know what sources you are using but I would recommend Philips or Osram (or similar quality) LED lights of 2700 Kelvin and >90 color rendering index (100 would be best but hard to find). And the lights should be bright enough for whatever task you are performing. If you are using lights with low color rendering index or they are not bright enough then they would be uncomfortable.
While moonlight is natural and therefore it seems like the logical choice to have at night, 1) moonlight and some artificial cool light sources are not the same although the label of the light might suggest that they have the same color - it's not the same color and art. lights are dozens of times brighter, and 2) cool artificial light has a negative effect on your sleep. Thus, although warm light doesn't seem natural to you, it's actually better for your body in the evening. You just have to use the right one.
@@FrogLehane so it's better to have these bright yellow lights at 3 a.m., right as I'm about to go to bed, than any other light?
I'm really getting an "averages bias" vibe from this. What if I'm some rare case of actually needing something more approximate to moonlight than to sunset light?
(I'm certain I'm at a crazy level of ignorance on this topic... It's really difficult to even follow what you're saying since I don't feel like googing terms on mobile)
,💓💓👍👍
Anyone come here from Dante and Ari?
Liz Cheney continues to surprise me lately
Living is dangerous to your health.
I agree! I suggest everyone driving at night turn your headlights off, stop living.
Personal sob story from 0-11:58
The clickbait answer you where looking (is so simple is just 1s) 11:59
12:00-13:28 unknown (to me).
This is not a school report, don't "fill pages" just to reach to the 10 minute mark and cash the ads. Provide content please.
You think she gave this speech to an audiance, spoke for 10+ minutes explaining the extensive negative effects of light pollution just to get past the ten minute mark for CZcams? Perfect "Bruh" moment...
You're dumb
So right. It was like "yak yak yak yak yak.... bla bla bla bla blah..." then a five-second blurb about directional lighting. UGH.
A waste of a speech. A meaningless and slightly woke nonsense.
Is The Onion Talks becoming a reality
Репост (repost )
Who dislikes this stuff
People who are too ignorant to appreciate.
People who feel attacked by the facts.
I bet she's the kind to move to the country then complain about farming going on.....
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Right, get natural light LED. Got it!
I notice that some people use the harsh blue LED to light their homes, and I don't understand how they can tolerate it. It's so horrible.
@@aaronrosenberg6633 Its probably to keep all the vampires away ;)
Why everything has to be ‘evolved’ ? Have you seen a Tesla ‘adapt’ all by itself?
I still do not know what is light!!!!!!!
國防報告
阿童木 I don’t know what this says, but it looks really cool.
@@StephenLewisful I ’m a Taiwanese. This year ’s college report is about writing your videos. So I leave a message as a record. Haha
That’s awesome. Will you share a little bit about your school, your major and are you having good time? What do you want to do? Are you optimistic about the future?
How are you?
Maan car pass card
change nal
Lol.
I'm surprised that TED would allow such a pseudo-scientific, nonsense talk.
- the speaker is a relatively unknown astrophysicist, with seemingly no relevant experience (or publications) in biology, medicine or psychology
- there are a handful of studies showing a flimsy **association** between light pollution and obesity and some of the other mentioned effects, but no definitely no causation. There are a lot of other factors that could make this disappear easily.
Ergo: This talk is unproven guesswork, TED should know better.
have you seen ANY of the 2019 ted talks, pseudo science is TED
How exactly do you expect causation to be proven in a study on such issues? You obviously have no idea about what science is. These types of studies might not be perfect but they are the best we're gonna get. It's either that or we should all just ignore them and start listening to your feelings.
5:05 - watch the guys who don´t laugh.
Maybe because those who laugh are fools?
Not in this case, psycho.
she rambles on and on and her solution is turning off lights that are inside my house under my roof lmao
It's good that you don't have windows then, or anything in your yard or on your facade.
05:06 The guy on the right is absolutely shcked, no time for jokes woman!!
She basically just said...
“I like to see the sky so imma compare Montana in the 70s to one of the most populated places in the world.”
Well yeah? That juxtaposition is proving her point so of course she would bring it up.
It's good that you're not writing her speeches cause they would be very stupid.
ButtonFace - nope
I’d have mentioned a solution and given examples that weren’t ludicrous.
Guys hmu let's play R6
PC or console
NVM your on PC 😂
@@ichaeyoung639 lmao
First
Fake
No it’s not
Read other's comments first
Sam Sen but there where none.
@@hannahisapartridge_ Haha. Tell them!
If only we didn’t have to light the night to keep the cockroaches at bay
Why is she crying when laughing??????
Heheheeh I’m so happy I’m the first comment
Way too long to make this point.