Letter to the editor: Reduce light pollution

Not so long ago I could easily view celestial wonders — planets, stars, nebula — from within Montana’s larger city limits. Unfortunately, that is now difficult due to explosive city growth and the concomitant increase in light pollution from homes, businesses, parking lots, and streetlights. Human light pollution is switching the stars off. The Seven Sisters (the Pleiades) is reduced to three or four stars. Star hopping to identify constellations is challenging. Only Orion, Cassiopeia and the Big Dipper are easily identifiable.

Light pollution’s harms extend beyond night sky viewing. It suppresses peoples’ melatonin production and disrupts circadian rhythms. It is linked to cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, and cancers in night shift workers. It confuses birds during their biannual migrations. Bats, wildlife, and pollinating insects and moths are negatively affected by it, as is the respiration cycle of plants and trees. Lighting contributes 5 to10% of greenhouse gas emissions. Much of outdoor lighting shines up and is useless. Personal, business and taxpayer dollars are misused and wasted.

Simple, inexpensive solutions to reduce light pollution while maintaining human safety and comfort exist. Closing blinds, turning off unnecessary lighting, softer light bulbs, shielded outdoor fixtures to direct light downward, and outdoor lights equipped with motion sensors are easy and inexpensive.

It is hard to protect precious things, and harder to lose them. We don’t have to lose the night sky and what it nourishes. Please look around your home and business to see how to reduce light pollution. Then do it.

Michael Smith,

Bozeman