42 images Created 18 Jan 2014
Light Pollution
Already the lights are going out in the heavens.
The night sky, that glorious black richness where the Gods of old lived amid the sparkling stars and the wandering planets, is fading from our lives. Fading not into dimness, but awash in light, the unanticipated legacy of Edison's wonder, the light bulb. Barely a century on, the electric lighting has wiped out much the once-vast skyscape of our ancestors. Perhaps eighty percent of the world, or put another way, four out of five of the children born today, may never see the Milky Way again.
If this loss is profound, it is also curable. Great swaths of this storied darkness can be reclaimed, by simple means, with huge savings of resources, and with far-reaching benefits for our climate as well as our heritage.
These images are from The End of Night, published in National Geographic Magazine.
The night sky, that glorious black richness where the Gods of old lived amid the sparkling stars and the wandering planets, is fading from our lives. Fading not into dimness, but awash in light, the unanticipated legacy of Edison's wonder, the light bulb. Barely a century on, the electric lighting has wiped out much the once-vast skyscape of our ancestors. Perhaps eighty percent of the world, or put another way, four out of five of the children born today, may never see the Milky Way again.
If this loss is profound, it is also curable. Great swaths of this storied darkness can be reclaimed, by simple means, with huge savings of resources, and with far-reaching benefits for our climate as well as our heritage.
These images are from The End of Night, published in National Geographic Magazine.
