AUTHOR https://lichtrouten.de/khadouja-tamzini/
PUBLISHED 18 MAR 2025
Have you ever looked up at the sky and struggled to see more than a handful of stars? For most of us living in cities, the Milky Way is a forgotten sight. The artificial glow of streetlights, billboards, and buildings has taken over our nights, replacing darkness with an endless, unnatural twilight.
We often don’t think of light as pollution, but it is. Light pollution is one of the most overlooked environmental issues, affecting not just our view of the stars but also wildlife, human health, and even our sense of time.
We have changed the natural rhythm of our environment. Many species have evolved over millions of years based on the cycle of day and night. But in just a few decades, humans have altered this balance by flooding the night with artificial light.
Migrating birds use the stars to navigate, but city lights confuse them, causing fatal collisions with buildings, baby sea turtles instinctively follow the moonlight to reach the ocean. Now, they crawl toward streetlights instead, leading to their death. Insects, bats, and nocturnal animals rely on darkness for survival, yet they now struggle to hunt, reproduce, or even rest properly.
We have forced nature to adapt to our way of living, instead of respecting its natural cycles.
There’s something paradoxical about artificial light. It makes us feel safe, yet at the same time, it makes us feel like we’re always awake. A well-lit street feels safer than a dark alley. A bright home is comforting. From an early age, we are taught that darkness is something to fear, monsters hide in the shadows, and bad things happen at night. But what if too much light is just as harmful as too little?
This constant exposure to artificial light affects us more than we realize. Studies have linked excessive light exposure at night to sleep disorders, insomnia, higher stress and anxiety levels. Our bodies evolved with a circadian rhythm, a natural clock that tells us when to wake up and when to sleep, but when the night never truly comes, our internal clock is thrown off balance.
As someone involved in light art festivals, I constantly reflect on the impact of artificial light in creative spaces. Light art can be breathtaking, turning public spaces into glowing works of art that bring people together. It has the power to transform how we see our environment and create unforgettable experiences. But at what cost? At what point does artistic lighting stop being an expression of creativity and start being a source of pollution?
I have seen installations that push the boundaries of light and shadow, playing with our perception in fascinating ways. But I have also seen projects where light is used excessively, flooding an area in ways that feel more wasteful than meaningful. The challenge is finding a way to celebrate light without erasing darkness altogether.
These are the kinds of questions we need to ask as we move toward a more sustainable future.
The good news is that light pollution is one of the easiest environmental problems to fix. Cities can install shielded streetlights that direct light downward instead of into the sky. We can switch to warmer LED lights, which are less harmful to sleep and nature.
And on a personal level? We can simply step outside, look up, and realize what we’ve lost. The stars are still there , we just have to let them shine.
We have created a world where night never truly feels like night. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Light pollution is reversible, and with small changes, we can restore balance to our environment, our health, and our connection to the universe. Because a dark sky isn’t an absence of light. It’s the presence of wonder.