The occurrence of new "light damage" caused by LED lighting is a concern on the global scale

ByNorthern Spark

Lighting fixtures using LEDs, such as automobile headlights and street lights, flash provided in smartphone cameras, are now being used more often in familiar places. Although it is compact but bright, yet has low power consumption and long lifetime, it is an LED light that has excellent performance as a lighting fixture, but concerning the environmental impact on the explosive spread to the world in recent years It is getting started.

Science Journals - AAAS - e1701528.full.pdf
(PDF)http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/advances/3/11/e1701528.full.pdf

Energy-saving LEDs boost light pollution worldwide
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/energy-saving-leds-boost-light-pollution-worldwide-190823253.html

The unfortunate side effect of LED lighting - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/23/16693914/energy-leds-boost-light-pollution-worldwide

It is the research team focused on the research institute of the German Earth Science Research Center (GFZ) that clarified this influence. The team used data obtained by measuring the brightness of the earth surface using an observation device mounted on a satellite to investigate the increase and decrease of the area that is artificially illuminated at night and the increase and decrease of light intensity. The data are meteorological satellites orbiting on the polar orbital operated by the United States Maritime Aeronautics AgencySuomi NPP"What is measured by the use is used.

As a result, it turned out that the area of ​​the Earth's surface illuminated by artificial light continues to increase at a rate of 2.2% per annum from 2012 to 2016. The following figure shows (A) a diagram in which the increase / decrease in light intensity of the entire area is color-coded and (B) a diagram in which the change in light amount in all the areas is color-coded, and the fact that the more the red color is stronger the larger the change in the plus direction is showing. It is a content that can grasp that there are many colors closer to red than median color even at a glance, and you can grasp that "the whole earth has become brightly illuminated by artificial light".


In addition, the change is observed as a difference in the wavelength of light. One example is a change in the color photograph of visible light that took a night view of Milan, Italy. In the color photograph (A) of 2012, the entire city is illuminated by the light of a street light like an orange, whereas in the color photograph (B) of 2015 the whole city has changed to a whitish color, And the color difference with suburbs without color change is obvious at a glance. According to the research team, this is a change caused by the transition to an LED bulb. Figure (C) shows the brightness change that occurred between 2012 and 2016 in the same area, color-coded for each point. Although the light intensity is decreasing in the center of the city, it is shown that the light intensity is increasing in the surrounding area.


Chris Kyba, who led the research team, said about this change "Changes in the lighted-up areas are noticeable in South America, Africa and Asia, with few exceptions.By pathways in the park and suburbs Like the expressway extending to the area, the place not illuminated once is now being lit up brightly. "

And it is feared that this change will have a bad influence on various environments. In the report, it is suggested that the balance of day and night collapses by increasing the area brightly lit even at night, and the influence that the nature of the earth would be disturbed by the day's cycle that we have followed is suggested.

ByEvans E

It is thought that this has an impact on humans as well as animals including small animals and the ecosystem of plants. As there is a "body clock" that periodically changes upon reception of sunlight on the human body, many animals and plants on the earth also have a biological clock based on the change in ambient brightness of the surroundings It is thought to be. That cycle is widely disturbed by the increase of artificial light spreading on a global scale, so it is concerned that the entire ecosystem of living things will be influenced. Franz Holker, coauthor of thesis, says, "Many people are using lights at night without thinking about their impacts at all," and they are alarming about the adverse effects of excessive use of artificial light.

The data revealed this time is data from 2012 to 2016, and it is expected to investigate the change on the decades scale by using the data retroactively to grasp the more detailed actual situation Where you want to do. In addition, by seeing the change from the era when human beings have acquired electric power and used artificial light on a large scale, we grasp what kind of influence actually affects the ecosystem It will lead to things.