In addition to causing breast cancer, light pollution has now been shown to affect the atmospheric chemistry at night in urban regions, increasing the next day air pollution by up to 5%. Ignoring any deleterious effect on astronomy, why are we being idiots on this? Why can't people aim lights correctly so they don't miss well over 50% of the thing they want to light? Why can't we understand if you want to light something on the ground, you can't do it by sending light up?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11990737
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/12/urban-light-pollution-boosts-air-pollution.php
Because it somehow got turned into a political issue?
ReplyDeleteProbably
ReplyDeleteHere's the abstract: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010AGUFM.A21C0117S