Light Pollution | By Sandesh Kunwar
Recently, I encountered an essay titled 'Let There Be Dark' by Paul Bogard.' Since most of my childhood and adolescence was spent on the power cut situation which we called 'Loadshedding', I was quite amazed upon getting the essay.
Human beings have evolved over the years of dark nights and bright days. However, today we are all using artificial lights all the times without thinking about the effects that we are creating.
Too much artificial lights especially at night time affect the natural sleep cycle of human beings. The darkness produces melatonin which helps us to avoid certain cancer cells from developing. Similarly, too much looking into artificial lights can affect our eyes.
The animal and insects depend on the dark night as well. Owls and bats are active on the nights and hunt their prey in the night. Bats eat insects and flies which not only controls the insect population. Similarly, owls mostly hunt rodents and mouse. Therefore, bats and owl help protect our crops as they act as natural predators against these crop destroyers.
The insects such as moths and butterflies who are great pollinators are attracted to the artificial light bulbs as it destroys their natural cycle as well.
Personally, for me, the natural darkness of the night provides calmness and peace. All of my thinking and life decisions are done in the tranquillity of the dark night.
In conclusion, life is not complete without dark nights. However, we cannot also deny that artificial lights are very important in today world. Therefore, for the betterment of all, we have to minimize the use of artificial lights whenever possible.
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