The darker side of a world that gets brighter every year
Australia’s lit area decreased due to wildfires, while wars in Syria and Yemen dimmed their light
Washington — The world is getting brighter, but scientists say that may not be a good thing. Satellite data shows Earth’s artificially lit outdoor surface at night grew by about 2% annually in brightness and area from 2012 to 2016, underscoring concern about the ecological effects of light pollution on people and animals. The rate of growth observed in developing countries was much faster than in already brightly lit rich countries. The researchers said on Wednesday that the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather satellite data may understate the situation because its sensor cannot detect some of the LED lighting that is becoming more widespread, specifically blue light. "Earth’s night is getting brighter. And I actually didn’t expect it to be so uniformly true that so many countries would be getting brighter," said physicist Christopher Kyba of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, who led the research published in the journal Science Advances. With fe...
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