Darkness is also necessary for life

reference fund

According to a study conducted by the International Dark Sky Association in Chicago, USA, artificial lighting at night by humans is proving to be extremely fatal for birds. According to the study, due to the burning of lights in the windows of tall buildings, birds flying at night get confused. They crash into windows while flying at high speed, then die from serious injuries.

Man must have ever looked to the moon and the sun for light. Sometimes in the dark nights, you must have been filled with curiosity when the firefly shines. In the course of evolution, he made an important discovery of the world and that was ‘fire’. He soon learned that light could be used, along with many other uses for fire. But he could not stay here either. He kept climbing the ladder of development of civilization and kept searching for other better means of lighting. Although it took him centuries, but one day he invented the electric bulb. Man had made this big leap in the field of light. It was natural to take pride in his ability to turn night into day.

However, then no one thought that nature has taken care of all the arrangements. As much as light is necessary for life, equally important is deep darkness. But man also filled the nights with excessive artificial light. Far from the residential area, the gleaming light of electricity dazzled even the eyes of the forests. In this way, along with many pollutions, light pollution on the earth is also becoming a serious problem.

According to a study conducted by the International Dark Sky Association in Chicago, USA, artificial lighting at night by humans is proving to be extremely fatal for birds. According to the study, due to the burning of lights in the windows of tall buildings, birds flying at night get confused. They collide with windows while flying at high speed, then die due to grievous injuries.

In October 2020, thousands of migratory birds also died in Philadelphia after hitting the lighted windows of tall buildings. This pollution is very harmful for the migratory birds in India. The confusion of birds must have started from the early days of artificial light. It was also observed in the Mississippi Valley in 1884, when Pozarna carolina, a migratory water bird, died after hitting a light tower. Only then the future seers knew that excessive lighting done at night will also have a negative effect on the life of the living beings on the earth.

When excessive and improper use of artificial light starts having a negative effect on nature and organisms, then this light becomes pollution. This negative effect can come in many ways. In a place where man’s work can be carried out by a single light, he also creates an atmosphere of dazzle by putting many lights, due to which the eyes of the living beings are blinded and they deviate from their normal life process.
The globe-like circle of light that appears on the sky of cities at night is called the urban sky glow or urban sky glow.

The city sky appears brighter than usual due to the bright lights on the roads and the lights of vehicles or the bright lights in high altars. A dome of light is formed on the sky and stars are not visible in the sky, galaxies are also not visible, due to which space related or astronomical research and research is also badly affected. Light lit up in the direction of the open sky is called uplight. It is the biggest cause of light pollution. Uplight is the most deadly for night-flying birds.

The natural cycle of darkness and light normalizes the sleep of all living beings including humans. Excessive artificial light reduces the secretion of the hormone melatonin in humans. This hormone plays an important role in human sleep. When melatonin secretion is low, the sleep-wake process in humans is disrupted. A state of insomnia arises, which disrupts the normal process of reproduction. Lack of sleep or untimely sleep can badly affect the efficiency of a person. Artificial light also affects the human circadian rhythm or biological clock, causing depression, annoyance, restlessness, anxiety, irritability and sleeplessness. Due to this there is a fear of diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and gastro-antinal etc.

Light pollution has a bad effect on humans as well as plants. This negatively affects the photoperiod or luminescence of plants. Photo period is the stage when the plant completes the process of flowering after receiving natural light. For this he needs a balance of day and night i.e. light and darkness. It also hinders pollination of night blooming plants.

Artificial and excessive light can also interfere with the reproductive activity of organisms that are silent during the day and active in the morning and evening or at night. Some animals, especially turtles, reproduce only at night on the beaches of India. Excessive artificial light prevents them from going to the beaches, which affects their reproduction rate. Fish are also affected by this. It reduces the population of insects. Pollination if not insects, on which about a third of the world’s food production depends.

The stars of the galaxies and the light of the moon also guide the animals, but excessive artificial light has affected the animals’ ability to see. The report of the Royal Commission of Environmental Pollution states that many organisms maintain their life processes by fluctuations in natural light, but excessive light disrupts their activities such as hibernation and reproduction, which upsets the balance of nature.

The use of excessive artificial light should be prohibited in places where artificial light affects the Earth’s ecosystem. France has done this too. He has banned Sky Beam. In many places the timing of lighting the lights is fixed. Especially on the roads passing through forest areas etc., lighting should be arranged in such a way that it spreads only at the required place. Humans should avoid spreading light in places where artificial light is not required. Also, instead of bright lights, light lights can be installed.

If light pollution is reduced, then carbon emissions will also decrease and the loss of biodiversity will stop. In many places of the world, eighty percent of the population does not even see the dark sky. In 1994, due to the earthquake in Los Angeles, the power system came to a standstill, then after many years, the sky was visible due to darkness. Light pollution is a problem in almost every country. But this problem is not there in war-affected countries like Syria, because in those countries all light sources are turned off at night for fear of enemy attack. Even if darkness is associated with ignorance, but darkness is also necessary for all the creatures and microorganism of the earth.