I was aware of light pollution and it has always annoyed me because I enjoy the night sky, but I honestly didn't realize the full extent of it until I visited Bora Bora a few years ago. Out in the middle of the Pacific with no major cities nearby and nearly no lights around for hundreds of miles allowed me to view our Milky Way band for the first time in my life with my own eyes and without a fancy camera or special equipment. I didn't know what I was seeing at first, I thought it was a cloud actually, but when I realized what it was, I understood immediately how much we're missing out on due to light pollution. It's sad that we willingly block out the best views our planet has to offer.

Last night I took a walk and complained that my city is too poor to afford the street lights to be on after 10 pm. Now I'm proud to live in a poor city.

Im glad this light pollution problem is becoming more popular, we must save the night sky.

Last year we had a city wide blackout in Addis Ababa and when I looked up it almost felt like I was floating so many stars other than the Orion I never thought were visible to the naked eye. That is an experience I wish I could experience everyday

The sad thing is that most people just don't care. Only after you tell them of the consequences of light pollution do some try to do something about it. The general public needs to be more aware about the problem of light pollution.

One thing about pollution is that it's often voluntary. Of course life always makes it easier to do the wrong thing even when it really isn't practical, which can seem systematically destructive or even self destructive.

One of my most memorable experiences occurred in a dark part of the Northeast United States on a cold summer night with a telescope. I saw 4 moons of Jupiter. I don't think my children have seen a black night sky, however.

Reminds me of a quote with a cyberpunk aftertaste: "The sky above [the port] was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel". When William Gibson wrote Neuromancer, he was probably not referring to astronomy but it does portray what city dwellers see (or rather don't see) in the night sky. I dare you to go out into an area where light is absent at night, you will not understand how bright our solar system is unless you find such a dark spot.

"Losing touch with our place in the cosmos" is something I can relate to. I know I've seen the night sky in places relatively unaffected by light pollution, many years ago, and there is a sense of wonderment and awe.

I live in New Zealand and even though there is definitely light pollution it was no where near as bad as other places. I went to LA once, and it was night time and the plane was landing in the airport. I just remember looking how the window and being amazed at how YELLOW the sky in Los Angeles was. Just crazy. Never seen anything like it.

I'm sorry but how does light pollution cause obesity? I'm serious, can someone link me a study that supports this?

It’s very disconcerting to see cities implementing obnoxiously blue 4000K and 5000K temperature LED street lighting. It’s jarring, bright and invasive, far worse than the old 2200K orange glow sodium lamps.

We took out grand daughter out to death valley. We listened to her whine about having no signal all the way there. When she saw the Milky Way in near pitch darkness she grew quiet and then started crying tears of joy. It was a wonderful moment!

As an Astrophotographer I'm sick and tired of Light Pollution. All I do is fight it.

Not the best explanation but the main point for humans is it effects our body clocks. Humans weren’t engineered to be up all night with bright lights flashing in our face. We should be resting allowing our bodies to heal and regenerate for the next day. It causes obesity because we go out late and eat in well lit places as opposed to in the past we eat when we can see what we’re eating which was usually lit by sun light. Then we don’t sleep long enough for our food to digest before we eat breakfast

So much great information that Kelsey shares here. We don't even realize what we are missing each night. It's so important that we take the time to use these tips to fix the light pollution but also to travel somewhere where you can truly see the stars shine.

Pessimistic rant: I live in a major city where the sky at night, especially with low clouds like the ones we have pretty much throughout all of autumn and winter, looks like the 'pea soup' fogs that London had back in the coal era. I was aware of how detrimental it is to the quality of my sleep (not to mention that seeing sky the colour of baby barf isn't that exciting), but Ms Johnson's remarks about the diseases that it causes and how much it gets in the way of smart people doing their jobs was still a bit of an eyeopener. And then ta-dah! A luxury wine outlet moved in across the street, with a banner so huge, white and bright it floods my 6th floor bedroom like two full moons. So guess what? When I went to see the manager and ask her if the store could turn the sign off during closing time, she dismissed my request saying that a) the banner was made in accordance with city laws b) yes, it is going to be left on 24 hours a day, even in months when we get approximately 6 hours of daylight c) if I can't sleep and won't put up blackout curtains it's my problem d) if I care that much about light pollution, how about I go ask all the stores in the street to turn their signs off as well e) basically could I please go fudge myself. This merry story goes on to show that massive action from the government and the scientific community in order to get something going in this respect. But when scientists have been shouting from the rooftops about climate change and the disappearance of species due to pollution and, generally, human activity but in most countries governments and enterprises only care about making a killing, that seems implausible.

“Go out on a clear night and look up. Your destiny is there. Your difficulties are there. Your opportunities are there. Your redemption is there.” Greater Community Spirituality: Chapter 15: Who Serves Humanity?

So thankful for no ads 🙏

These aren't actually effective ways to get rid of the problem. You said highways are the biggest source of this and yet none of your "5" solutions impact it whatsoever. And just like regular polution, the problem isn't individuals, its large government/corporations. So yea, its another problem without a solution (cuz we need streetlights)

That was brilliant. Simple, dumb down, nitty-gritty and super informative discussion on ALAN. Thanks Dr!

Well said!

I am lucky enough to be living as an adult on the same rural property I grew up on. As a child I can recall clearly spending nights lying on the trampoline looking at the constellations and making up names for them. You could also see the milky way most nights very easily. Now though a big industrial estate and rapid growth of the nearby town has meant all you can see now are satellites and the brightest planets. It's sad.

I would love to have a conversation with her

11:56 The solutions begin here

This might be a radical idea but how about some blinders?

I'm only doing this for the snail's.. Writing a letter to my HOA and City to make this better

This Tedtalks is helping out with my light pollution artwork HeptoBokeh, thank you Kelsey Johnson. I hear ya’ all the way in The Bronx!

A phenomenal talk, I'm glad I got to experience it early before it (hopefully) reaches a much wider audience

Another example of "straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel." 🙄 Really? Making a plea to "individuals" using lamps that are covered inside their home and not even going up into space is ridiculous. Doesn't take a scientist to know federal and city leaders and private industry are the real culprits. Cities use lights as entertainment, complete overkill. The first time I ever saw Times Square in NYC and also the Vegas strip, I was appalled. Not to mention the theme parks and even new, wealthy planned communities with their "brighter than the sun" street lights blaring into my bedroom window! Go after the main players with the money and power instead of kicking cans at the little guy.

Any links to peer reviewed studies to backup some of these claims? Links?

Night shifts exists Scientists: light pollution cause cancer

Vega is like a blue diamond. Incredible in a telescope. Thanks Kelsey :)

She's right about the satellites. When I sit out in the unpolluted darkness of the Romney Marsh, the main activity in the sky is satellites!:-(

I learned a lot from this short video.... Thank u

In the summer when is very hot i open the windows in the night to get some fresh air. Unfortunately is is quite bright

That's a great talk!

list starts at 11:58

It is ironic that the automatically attached advertisement is for LED solar lights to "make your house the brightest house on the block."

2:51 6:32 11:36

you tell em. im to mad to.

in my community they installed energy saving blueish led street light. LED are so efficient compared to old lamps that you can let them shine for the whole night.

02:43 06:24 11:28

greatly

amazing mam

wow

Wait if NY is in the bottom right, then how is DC even visible?

sorry, but this could have been broken down to like 2-3 minutes... miss seeing lots of stars though :/

Myyyyy gush... And where was I when you were looking at Minnesota's dark sky on summer nights?! Must admit, a lot of what you say, is all I lived. Still, my fun of every night is to for eg, get out, cloud permitting, and look at the summer triangle (And not only your Vega but added Altair and Deneb), my favorite of the three being Deneb and all the rest Cygnus has to offer... in the way of lullaby! And must admit though my sky from LA's yard is also in the red/grey/WHITE zone of the LP map, I do see a handful of more stars from this side of the pond than your NY view. So terribly sorry about that. But long story short and I found my soulmate here! So first of all, let me say how much I love you and enjoyed this presentation. Then, besides those 5 points you mentioned, and a simple request to all that made a connection here with each other today, let's aim it for TONIGHT and in addition to all the 5 points, let's turn off one extra light (One that actually might be needed!) at our home, only for this night to see if we can survive the night. And if so, whether this is something we can do more often and ask our close friends to follow the same path. May be while listening to John Lenon's "Imagine"! As a hobbyist astrophotographer, can't tell you how much I suffer, first from that extra, unneeded light you talk about, then all those pile & tangle of wires that are scaring all the sky, in every direction, under the name: "Power lines", when they could run a lot safer underground. And to top it all, and when actually that image of deep (So-called dark) sky is taken, ... the tracers of airliners that are an inevitable part of every sky, even from remotest Hawaiian islands! Now as if this wasn't enough, add the showing up of those ugly, ugly space junks that scratch no ruin almost every night's long term worth of data acquisition, no matter where on earth you are located... And we call the human race, the "Smart life form"...

Once Starlink is global, it'll make a different nightscape for everyone.

Damm, I didn't know that I hate space... All lights in my house are daylight

Before watching this video I was staring at vega and just wondering about it and taking everything in

Oke I get that light polution is bad but the "facts" she is spitting around 7:30 don't make sense to me. I don't believe that the cancer and tumors and obesity chances increase because of the light polution. I think that is the case because where there is a lot of light polution you mean big city's. And the things that causes these horrible things are the gasses and particles in the air that are in major city's. So yes of course you have a bigger chance to get a horrible decease in major city's then in rural areas but that is not because of the light. That there is more light there is merely a consequence of the bad air and more people living closer to eachother.

Yes there is a lot of light pollution because the lights are not designed well or installed correctly. But there will always be light pollution from the light reflected off what we are lighting.

It's a stupid thing that we can't just have the answers of the title , and then , got explications if needed !

This was always an important topic to me, but I'm confused. It sounds like she's trying to appeal to individuals only, but shouldn't we try and address the bigger sources of light and the authorities that place them there? Like street lamps, neon lights, big buildings and such. What would changing our personal habits do if all that light is still out there? 🤔

Lets hear an easy fix for being sprayed with aluminum, barium and strontium particles every day...

Whilst it is the case that having a blue light in one's bedroom whilst sleeping (even a small, "not bright" light) can negatively impact one's health studies have shown that "warm light" lighting whilst one is awake and active causes/aggravates depression. Blue/daylight lighting is best when one is awake and active.

The most amazing thing I learned growing marijuana indoors is you can keep a plant in its vegetative growth cycle by keeping the light on for 18 hours or more. Vegetative growth is all about stems and leaves as opposed to flowering which is about flowers, of course, and fruit or bud growth in marijuana. If the amount of light can alter a plants growth cycle, what is it doing to insects? How is light effecting the microbial world both outside and inside your body. My main concern is that light may be keeping organisms at every level awake longer and this may be generating unnatural heat. It might have something to do with ocean acidification, it might be a large contributor to Climate Change. I would love to hear responses from scientists who can link to some studies.

Wait til you hear her secret! Moths hate her!

A theory I have on light pollution is as follows, in a nutshell if you can't see just how vast and beautiful our galaxy and the Universe is, and thus just how humongous it is compared to us, what will that do to the human mind? It ties into where I believe religion came from, religion came about back when our species had no idea what this array of lights and colours in the sky was, and to put it into small enough amount of words for this comment, we invented religion to try to explain it, as well as the rest of the world we didn't understand. But now we have science, and maths, and other tools to help us understand the cosmos in which we live. And this age of humanity is about coming out of childhood and facing reality, its also about accepting we are *not* alone in this world. We have evidence for a nuclear massacre on Mars for peats sake. In summary, stopping the masses seeing the Galaxy and vast majority of stars does a lot for making people stay within their own little bubbles and stopping us from realizing this planet is WAY smaller than we think and uniting to better survive and thrive in this Universe, which would include stopping using fossil fuels, abolishing currency to enable a new age of prosperity for all, and removing the greedy power-hungry narcissistic traitors who currently run the society we are trapped in.

সত্য সুন্দর প্রকৃতির সুন্দর সুযোগ সধ্যান সৃষ্টির সেরা জীব বৈচিত্র্য সত্য প্রকাশে স্বাধীনতা ইতিহাস সৃষ্টি কারিগর।

Stars I see: 19-20-29-27-16 Milky Way Views I got: 0 (😭) Light Pollution Level I got: 6-7-8 (😭) Light Pollution Zone I'm In: Red (😭)

The car pollution is the much bigger problem.

She is perfecet!😍

I hate warm lights at night. Moonlight isn't yellow. I just want to be in moonlight...

Saya melihat video ini sambil tiduran menikmati bulan purnama,,bersama anak saya 01.22 am oct 28 2023

❤

Plastic pollution, light pollution, noise pollution (because of cars) - POLLUTION!!!

Light pollution isn't going to matter with Starlink coming in and absolutely destroying the night sky.

Lighten up

Репост (repost )

Who is watching this on your phone lol

I'm from Pakistan,and I can easy tell you that, we have light pollution problem.

Maan car pass card change nal

Living is dangerous to your health.

Liz Cheney continues to surprise me lately

Right, get natural light LED. Got it!

Anyone come here from Dante and Ari?

Is The Onion Talks becoming a reality

Who dislikes this stuff

I bet she's the kind to move to the country then complain about farming going on.....

Personal sob story from 0-11:58 The clickbait answer you where looking (is so simple is just 1s) 11:59 12:00-13:28 unknown (to me). This is not a school report, don't "fill pages" just to reach to the 10 minute mark and cash the ads. Provide content please.

,💓💓👍👍

Why everything has to be ‘evolved’ ? Have you seen a Tesla ‘adapt’ all by itself?

I'm surprised that TED would allow such a pseudo-scientific, nonsense talk. - the speaker is a relatively unknown astrophysicist, with seemingly no relevant experience (or publications) in biology, medicine or psychology - there are a handful of studies showing a flimsy **association** between light pollution and obesity and some of the other mentioned effects, but no definitely no causation. There are a lot of other factors that could make this disappear easily. Ergo: This talk is unproven guesswork, TED should know better.

I still do not know what is light!!!!!!!

She basically just said... “I like to see the sky so imma compare Montana in the 70s to one of the most populated places in the world.”

Lol.

she rambles on and on and her solution is turning off lights that are inside my house under my roof lmao

5:05 - watch the guys who don´t laugh.

*"It's not a tumor"*

Way too long to make this point.

I thought, "She probably has no good solutions for getting rid of light pollution." But then I thought, "Why not give it a try?" And...no, these are not ridiculously easy solutions. They are maybe a few early steps forward, on one of the roads toward solution, nothing more. And then the figure of $3 billion in wasted light that could - in a totally unexplained way - be recovered...

05:06 The guy on the right is absolutely shcked, no time for jokes woman!!

Heheheeh I’m so happy I’m the first comment

Guys hmu let's play R6

國防報告

Holidium is the easy way to stop pollution use your cell phone