When Los Angeles recently replaced more than 150,000 streetlights with LEDs, the city saved roughly $8 million dollars annually, or more than 60 percent on energy costs.īut while LEDs are cheaper than previous alternatives, they come with hidden costs. Now, light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, are fueling an indoor and outdoor lighting revolution that could see energy consumption drop dramatically both for individual consumers and entire cities. “It’s a place where you can reduce energy consumption with basically no loss to anyone.”įor indoor lights, the switch to new kinds of bulbs has often been about energy savings, as homeowners moved from conventional incandescent bulbs to cheaper, brighter alternatives such as compact fluorescents. “You would think that environmental organizations would be all over light pollution, because it’s just such a complete waste,” says Christopher Kyba of the German Research Center for Biosciences. And in some areas, substantial improvements are already in place, powered by a new wave of cheaper, more energy-efficient light bulbs. Now, as the consequences of light pollution tiptoe from the shadows and into the spotlight, cities, regulatory agencies, and conservation groups are agitating for solutions. We lose that sense of stillness and awe that should be right over our heads every night.”

“We lose something essential we lose a part of ourselves when we lose access to the night sky. “The disappearance of the night sky is tied up in our ever more fast-paced world,” says Amanda Gormley of the Tucson-based International Dark-Sky Association. And in a primal sense, we’ve lost our connection to nighttime skies, the tapestries into which our ancestors wove their star-studded stories, timed the planting and harvesting of crops, and deduced the physical laws governing the cosmos. We’re endangering ourselves by altering the biochemical rhythms that normally ebb and flow with natural light levels. The excess light we dump into our environments is endangering ecosystems by harming animals whose life cycles depend on dark. But if light bulbs have a dark side, it’s that they have stolen the night.

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