Light Pollution

While Seoul is enthusiastic in illuminting their buildings and structures, urban light is increasingly viewed as one threatening public health and ecosystem. According to US News & World Report, "a study released last month finding that breast cancer is nearly twice as common in brightly lit communities as in dark ones only added to a growing body of evidence that artificial light threatens not just stargazing but also public health, wildlife, and possibly even safety. Those findings are all the more troubling considering that an estimated 30 percent of outdoor lighting—plus even some indoor lighting—is wasted. Ill-conceived, ineffective, and inefficient lighting costs the nation about $10.4 billion a year, according to Bob Gent of the International Dark-Sky Association, a nonprofit that aims to curtail light pollution, and it generates 38 million tons of carbon dioxide a year." Now we encounter an interesting new concept, LIGHT POLLUTION. This US News & World Report article carrys an intersting NASA satellite image that shows light pollution is more evident in most industrialized and populous area of the world such as Western Europe, USA, Eastern China, India, South Korea and Japan. (What a coincidence - see Tokyo's night scene below in this blog)