Light Pollution: The Problem Defined

Abstract

Since early humans sought the reassurance of their wood fires and tallow lamps many thousands of years ago, manmade light has been seen as our friend. It allowed its creators to see and perhaps frighten off the approaching predator, to go about their domestic business after sunset, and to paint images of great power and beauty in the silent fastness of caves. The precious light meant that they could share their thoughts, plans and opinions by night as well as by day. These were times when facial expression and gesture were important reinforcements of emerging languages. Nights were dark and the sky full of mysteries, and later in the human story, those who could calculate, predict and give meaning to the easily seen yet mysterious cycles and phenomena of the night sky became priests and leaders. Some of their durable stone sky-markers still stand. Nowadays, these may be mere tourist attractions, but in the days of their creators they formed foci for settlement and assembly, during humankind’s long transition from hunter-gatherer groups to more static and structured communities.