Chloé Valerie Harmsworth explores the dark reality of light pollution

Spring has arrived at last and, along with the blossom and warmer weather, we will also get brighter and longer days. It’s time to pull out the eye mask to stop the sun from waking you in the early hours of the morning. Yet, it isn’t just the sun that disturbs your much-needed sleep - it’s also the artificial light of the streetlamps, traffic lights, security lights, cars and neighbouring buildings coming through your window. These are all perpetrators of a not-often-talked about type of pollution - light pollution.

Few of us, unless we live in the countryside, regularly see the stars in the night sky. By that I mean really taking your time to look at them. It was on a holiday in rural France that I realised quite how many we should be spotting on a cloudless night. Lying on the ground in the middle of a field of cows, my friends and I marvelled at the thousands - no millions - of stars above us. We spent hours visually exploring the multiple clusters of galaxies and the huge hazy strip of the Milky Way. Constellations we had heard of but never seen were revealed to us that night. And if this wasn’t enough, meteors regularly flashed across the great expanse, as if celebrating our unforgettable evening. How wonderful it would be, we agreed, if we could experience this on clear nights back in our urban city.

Centuries ago, this magical experience would have been available to all. Yet, as we’ve developed as a species, with both our population and its settlements expanding beyond belief, we’ve filled almost all our empty spaces and - with the invention of electricity - pulled a curtain over this precious view. Or perhaps more accurately, a thick mist of electric light. On overcast nights this is even brighter, as the light reflects and bounces across the clouds. According to research scientist, Christopher Kyba, cloudy skies near cities are “hundreds, or even thousands of times brighter than they were 200 years ago.” Artificial light has outshone the universe’s natural illuminations. Not only is it a great shame that we’re missing this awe-inspiring view from our everyday lives, but it’s also becoming obvious that it’s not good for us, physically or mentally.