Big holidays change light pollution patterns on a global scale

2023-08-16 16:40:04

A research team from National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN), the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM) and the Doñaña Biological Station (EBD), all of the CSIC, has verified how large festivities of the different human societies modulate the light pollution patterns the global scale.

Thus, Christian Christmas, Muslim Ramadan, Chinese New Year or Hindu Diwali cause the intensity of night lighting vary depending on the celebration that is in progress.

The work, published in the journal People and Naturereveals the close relationship between light pollution levels and the cultural activity of our society, effects that extend beyond urban areas.

The transformation of the nocturnal landscape caused by the artificial lightcommonly known as light pollution, is an unmistakable mark of human activity on Earth, and it has serious consequences for living organisms.

Christian Christmas, Muslim Ramadan, Hindu Diwali or Chinese New Year increase the intensity of light in different areas of the planet

“Understanding how human activities influence light pollution is key to assess its impact and design possible mitigation measures”, contextualizes the ICM researcher Francisco Ramirez.

“Previous works had related the economic development of countries with their patterns of light pollution, determining that, in general, they are the richest those who pollute the most. However, this is the first time that it has been evaluated how certain sociocultural activities affect them on a global scale”, continues Ramírez.

lookout satellites

For the elaboration of the work, the team analyzed satellite images that show the intensity of light between 2014 and 2019, which allowed them to obtain data on this type of pollution on a global scale.

Analysis of the data confirms that during Christmas a is produced pollution peak light intensity in Christian countries, while in Muslim and Hindu countries, the annual peaks coincide with he Ramadan and Diwali, respectively. In the case of china and vietnamthe peak of light pollution coincides temporarily with the celebration of the New Year.

“The results show that festivities and celebrations that involve large concentrations of people and the use of night lights affect the seasonal pattern of light intensity, which can have effects on a wide variety of species,” explains the ICM researcher. Marta Coll. “This is what happens with a wide variety of species that are attracted to artificial lights, often with fatal consequences,” adds Coll.

For his part, MNCN researcher Airam Rodriguez highlights that “the variations observed in the levels of polluting light coming from the celebrations could be greater, since the sensor with which the satellite images used in our study are taken is not very sensitive to the bluish light. However, it is precisely that type of light, that is, the one emitted in the blue range, the most harmful to health and biodiversity”.

For this work, satellite images have been used in which they have analyzed the intensity of light between 2014 and 2019.

“This work provides a solid basis for developing planning and management measures to mitigate the effects of light pollution,” he says. Andre Chiaradia del Phillip Island Nature Parks de Australia.

“The data obtained reveal the need to monitor this type of pollution to understand its effect on the natural environment and to be able to develop global policies aimed at promoting the use of artificial lights that is compatible with the preservation of the natural world”, concludes Chiaradia.

This work has been financed by the national projects SOSPEN and SEASentinels, and the European project GES4SEAS.MN

Ramirez, f. et al. “Large-scale human celebrations increase  global light pollution”. People and Nature (2023)

Fuente:

National Museum of Natural Sciences (CSIC)

Rights: Creative Commons.