The average brightness of the night sky is increasing by 10% every year, making the stars less visible and impacting wildlife.
It is wholly a confusion to suppose that more efficient lighting leads to diminished consumption. The evidence from space says otherwise.
There is more artificial light at night across the globe and that light at night is getting brighter. The rate of growth is approximately two percent each year.
The Milky Way, the brilliant river of stars that has dominated the night sky and human imaginations since time immemorial, is but a faded memory to one third of humanity according to a new global atlas of light pollution.
From the medieval candle to phosphorescent trees and glow-in-the-dark concrete, Daryl Mersom charts the trajectory of urban light, and asks how the problem of light pollution can be tackled in the modern era
