By Dan Price, Louisville Audubon Society Board
Connections form the structure of our lives. Connections between people define us as humans, shaping our frames of reference and our worldviews. Connections between fundamental forces—such as gravity—bind our universe and its building blocks together, allowing us to exist on the most basic physical level.
Connections with the natural world are equally critical. They sustain us physically, offering us sources of food and water, as well as emotionally—even spiritually—as they help us see and understand our place in the chain of creation.
These deeper connections to the natural world are fragile and easily severed, however. For example, light pollution—environmental destruction caused by artificial lights at night—is driving an ever-larger wedge between humanity and the natural world.
We have only ourselves to blame for our lost connection to the natural world. And we’re the only ones who can fix the problem and restore a connection that spans the entirety of human history.
The good news: Light pollution is a solvable problem, and many solutions are simple and easy for anyone to undertake.
The problem: How light pollution disconnects us from nature
As the Earth’s population has increased, we’ve clear-cut more natural areas to build homes, businesses, and roadways, all of which emit lots of artificial light—day and night.
As more of us end up living in urbanized or semi-urbanized areas, our access to unpolluted night skies and green spaces diminishes. Many of us have to drive to get to places where we can see a sky full of stars, walk among native trees and flora, or hear and see birds and other wildlife in their natural habitats.
More than 80% of the world’s population now lives under light-polluted skies, including 99% of Americans. That means most people have never seen the Milky Way or experienced the dazzling beauty of a night sky awash in glittering stars—which makes it harder for us to comprehend our Earth’s infinitesimal place in the vastness of the universe.
Other research based on a study conducted in 2024 found almost half (49%) of Americans had “never” or had “seldom” visited a park or green space in the previous year. Whether that’s due to lack of access or personal choice, the end-result is the same: disconnection from nature. That makes it harder for us to feel any sense of responsibility to be good stewards of the Earth—and a lot easier to be short-sighted when it comes to the future, and apathetic when it comes to taking action to protect the natural world.
The deadly impacts of light pollution on birds
The negative effects of light pollution extend far beyond human beings. Many other species are negatively impacted by light pollution, including thousands of different kinds of birds. During most bird species’ migration seasons in the fall and spring, the effects of light pollution on animals become more pronounced—in the worst way possible.
About 70% of all the bird species that migrate fly at night, and artificial light at night attracts them. That means migratory birds fly toward—and often into—brightly lit homes, buildings, and other human-made structures.
The result? A staggering number of bird fatalities. Collisions with buildings and windows kill more than 1 billion birds each year in the U.S. alone, and perhaps as many as 5 billion birds.
These building strikes don’t only occur because of skyscrapers in cityscapes. Although buildings of 12 stories and higher cause a disproportionate number of bird fatalities per building, because of their height and size, they are responsible for less than 1% of annual bird deaths total. More than four in 10 birds die when they collide with buildings that are one to three stories high—that is, most residential homes and many businesses.
Artificial light also distracts and disorients migratory birds, causing them to veer off course and circle artificially lit areas instead of continuing their migratory journeys. All that circling is exhausting for birds. They end up expending the energy they need to fly the hundreds—even thousands—of miles to and from their breeding and wintering grounds, becoming more vulnerable to predators in the air—including other bird species such as raptors—or on the ground: cats, rats, opossums, and other mammals that eat birds.
Any bird death caused by light pollution is a needless death. And light pollution harms not only individual birds, but also threatens the survival of their species—and ultimately our own.
That’s because birds play an important role in the web of life. They act as pollinators for trees and flowers; cultivate the natural landscape by dispersing seeds they either cache or expel in their droppings; and help control insect populations. Even if you don’t care about birds themselves, it’s hard to argue with their usefulness as a species for us humans.
Be part of the solution to light pollution
The good news: There are simple solutions for reducing light pollution that will help us prevent bird fatalities—measures that you, as an individual, can take with minimal effort. These easy-to-implement action actions taken at the individual level add up—and they go a long way toward reducing the negative impacts of light pollution on migrating birds.
You can help by:
- Turning off interior lights when no one is in a room
- Drawing window coverings (blinds, shades, curtains) after dark
- Turning off decorative outdoor lighting, or limit lighting to ground level
- Using timers or motion sensors for essential outdoor lighting where possible
- Adding “down-shields” to outdoor lighting to point light toward the ground versus at the sky
- Choosing warmer-toned bulbs (less than 2700 Kelvin) for outdoor lighting
It’s especially important to reduce outdoor lighting during peak spring and fall bird migration periods—in Kentucky, that’s April through May, and September through October.
A chance to reconnect—and make a real difference
Fighting light pollution offers us a way to reforge our lost connection with nature. By reducing the artificial light that homes and businesses emit at night, we can have a tangible positive impact on the natural world—immediately‚ and every day.
Think about it: Say you have just one bird strike every two weeks at your residence during migration seasons. If you take measures to reduce your light pollution, that means you save eight birds a year. What if you talk to a neighbor? Or two neighbors? Or the church or local business down the road? It adds up quickly, turning individual actions into a collective effort—and into monumental change.
We all have the chance to make a difference. You can join the Lights Out Louisville program at no cost to you and in less than a minute—simply fill out a form pledging you’ll do your best to reduce artificial light at night. You’ll become part of a growing movement of like-minded folks interested in repairing humanity’s fractured relationship with the natural world.
Let’s reconnect.
Image caption: The Milky Way and zodiacal light over the Atacama desert in Chile. Image credit: ESO/B. Tafreshi
No responses yet