“Stars are the heavenly bodies like the sun that are extremely hot and have light of their own.” They are not only a magnificent sight, but also an important part of our lives, for we can learn about the universe by studying the sky, and the night sky helps sustain animals. However, this natural wonder is in danger because of human activity. Light pollution is changing our view of the night.

A hundred years ago, everyone could see the stars in the night sky, maybe even up to 1500 stars. Today, only one in ten Americans can see the starry view. As the population grew, people created more light pollution. Light pollution is caused by light from human activity that is beamed into the sky. The extra light shines from houses, streetlights, and office buildings, which reflects onto the clouds, causes the sky to glow, and makes it hard to see the stars. About one third of all lighting in the United States is wasted. Wasted light costs billions dollars per year, and it also harms the environment. The International Dark Sky Association has created an experiment in China during which all residents needed to turn off all the electricity at home at a specific time. The results were stunning, as they were able to save 1,125,000,000 kilowatts in one hour.

Light pollution can harm the environment and wildlife. Travis Longcore, an ecologist with the Urban Wildlands Group said, “Animals depend on patterns of light and dark.” In According to what he said, light pollution has the worst effect on birds. Many birds migrate at night and use the stars like street signs to find their way, but the bright lights always confuse the birds. Unfortunately, lights from buildings and towers attract the birds, which causes them to fly in the wrong direction. In 1989, the percentage of birds that died due to light pollution was 0.25%, while in 2013, the percentage increased to 3.98%.

Light pollution is also bad for other wildlife like sea turtles. Female sea turtle come ashore at night and lay their eggs. However, light from places such as beach hotels make the turtles feel not threatened, so they won’t come to shore and lay their eggs. Hatchlings need a dark night sky too, so that when they crawl into the water, the starlight and moonlight shining on the water pull them toward the sea. Unfortunately, urban light leads them the wrong way; sometimes they can wander into streets and get lost or risk getting run over by cars.?Since light pollution is so harmful, we need to find a way to reduce it. According to David Crawford, the director of the International Dark Sky Association, “lights should point at the ground, not at the sky.” I think this is a really good way to reduce light pollution, because in this case, the sky will not be so bright at night. There are many other ways to stop light pollution. For example, cities need to use maps that don’t waste light. Individuals and businesses should use fewer lights, and parking lots and office buildings that are not at use should remain unlit.

Light pollution is wasteful, harmful to the environment, problematic to people’s health, and affects many other aspects of our world. We must act now. We must prevent our beautiful environment from becoming an unsustainable part of the world.