Science and Technology in NYC

I thought this article was extremely interesting. When thinking about the affects of light pollution, I’ve always thought about its affects on humans; this article brings up the affects of our unnecessary light on plants and other animals. I was also very surprised to learn that light pollution could be a carcinogen.

Hearing the way that light pollution hurts the biological processes of other animals is really sad. It changes reproductive cycles, instinct, perception and other aspects that are important for their survival. The species that I thought was saddest in the article was the sea turtles. Disorienting the newborn sea turtles, and leading sea turtles to the streets is heartbreaking. Some of our lights are unnecessarily bright and we can take measures to decrease our light pollution.

One of the lights that I think are bittersweet are street lights. Street lights seem unnecessary, but the lack of street lamps promote crime. (This is what I’ve been told by people older than me, and teachers in the past). So the lights from street lamps may seem like they are just on for the sake of electricity, but it helps with safety. However, my bed is right by a streetlamp and the light can easily disrupt my sleep. My solution to this is having really dark curtains, and it makes my room almost as dark as it would be without it.

The correlation of night time artificial light and breast cancer in women is very important information. This was shocking to me because I sometimes sleep with the lights on in my house. My parents often told me to turn them off, but I thought it was just for the sake of me getting sleep or not messing up my sleeping cycle. To learn that our body’s melatonin production is affected by our unnecessary light use is worth telling the public.

A main distinguishing factor in our contemporary civilization from others is the power to harness and extract energy. Our recent century, after the development of the light bulb and corresponding electronics, has been defined in part by the struggle for materials to satisfy our energy demands. In the effort to grow our society and technology, light pollution has emerged as a very evident consequence. Light pollution not only has significant implications and impacts on humans, but also the environment around us.

One fascinating aspect of the journal article was how a large group (100,000+) nurses were sampled in a study to analyze any health complications they have suffered from over time. What was found was that the nurses who had worked three decades and had rotated night shifts had a positive association for breast cancer. This is a chilling finding from the study. In a way, this is a grim signal that changing our “natural” habits, such as working repeatedly through the night, may have serious consequences on our individual biology.

In addition, light pollution has shown that it has negative impacts on the surrounding animals, including ourselves. The interference in the circadian rhythm is a significant impact of light pollution. For example, sleeping disorders such as insomnia may could be an inferred result of light pollution. As cities and urban areas continue to grow, so do sleeping disorders and other health complications that arise during the nighttime. From the ecological perspective, animals such as birds or other animals prevalent around urban areas could suffer from such disorders as well. It will be interesting to see over time if people or animals will adjust to the unprecedented amounts of light pollution by moving away from urban areas or learning to live with new environmental factors.

 

I found this article particularly interesting because it’s a step away from the usual sources of human development which have practically ruined our city. When we think of things that harm our city, the usual things that come to mind are pollution, urban heat island effect, using of natural resources, etc. However, we don’t think about plastic bags and how they fit into the equation of messing up the environment. New York City is a great hub of everything, which includes shopping for various things. In Beijing, 3% of the house waste is usually plastic materials which adds up to 140,000 ton each year. According to New York Magazine, New York City (as a whole) goes through 5.2 billion single use plastic bags a year. That comes out to be around 10,000 bags a minute. I didn’t think much about using plastic bags before but when you look up the statistics and look at the numbers, you can see how the numbers actually add up to a lot more than you would expect. In a lot of supermarkets, the employees usually double bag every single time even when the items don’t require a second bag. Sometimes I’ve told employees to just single bag it but they continue to double bag. One way to fix this problem of plastic bags is not to get rid of plastic bags entirely (yet). First, employees should be told about not double bagging because that just doubles the negative effects plastic bags have on our environment. Once employees have understood that, it would be a good idea to give supermarkets and stores an incentive to use paper bags instead of plastic. Bloomingdales is a big retail store known for its big brown bags. If other retail stores such as Macys or Nordstrom were to implement a change like this, there is a lot of saving that could be done. Trader Joes has brown bags but those bags lack a handle which isn’t appealing to people. However, handled brown bags are an actual thing and would help a lot if they were made to be used in all of NYC. Certain parts of Canada already has the ban on plastic bags where people are required to pay a certain fee to use a plastic bag. Because of this ban, a lot of Canadians have their reusable bags and it seems to be working out well. If implemented properly, it can work out well in NYC as well.

I like that we had to read this article on light pollution, because it is a major for of pollution that we have not discussed much in class. Most people wouldn’t call light a form of pollution, because they would not expect there to be any serious health effects or environmental consequences to artificial light. This article very clearly describes how species, including humans, are negatively impacted by artificial light. It is clearly a very relevant issue since “99% of the population of the European Union and the United

States live in areas where the night sky is brighter than the threshold for light-polluted status set by the International Astronomical Union. (A 22)” The big picture on page A 23 also shows how inefficient and unnecessary most of the artificial light is. I was shocked to read that 50% of the light is wasted and 10% produces a glare, leaving just 40% to be productive light (A 23).

One part that really interested me was when it spoke about light pollution’s impact on various species, such as sea turtles and birds. The author mentions that sea turtles get disoriented by artificial light on the beach and females become discouraged from laying their eggs. They also get lost in finding their way to the sea. Artificial light at night also confuses birds as they fly past brightly lit buildings, which must especially be an issue in NYC. I found this interesting, because normally, we all think of light as a source that gives us clarity. It makes things easier to see and prevents us from getting lost. However, the opposite is true for other species, since the birds and sea turtles actually get lost and become disoriented from the light. I was also shocked by how many nocturnal animals there are, all of which must be in danger from light pollution.

The health effects of artificial electric light are also very serious. It makes sense that light can disrupt sleep patterns. I am a very light sleeper, so if there is any light in my room, I can’t sleep. It can also disrupt circadian rhythm, which can have effects on physiological processes and can cause mood disorders, such as depression. The most shocking and most serious health consequence is that it can cause different forms of cancer. There is an association between breast cancer and exposure to artificial light at night, which can be explained by decreased melatonin levels. The article has significant evidence of this when it says, “Nurses who worked night shifts at least 3 times a month for 15 years or more had a 35% increased risk of colorectal cancer. (A 26)” A study in Israel is also quoted saying, “Women living in neighborhoods where it was bright enough to read a book outside at midnight had a 73% higher risk of developing breast cancer than those residing in areas with the least outdoor artificial lighting. (A 27)”

Towards the end of the article, it talks about how light pollution is still on the bottom of the list of environmental priorities. I think that a big reason for this is the lack of awareness on the issue. Most people have no idea that electric light can be even a little bit dangerous. If people were educated on the consequences listed in this article, limiting light pollution would become more of a priority. People would be more willing to protect themselves from light in their own homes and the government would have motivation to regulate the light outside.

I thought this was a very interesting article because it explored the idea of banning plastic bags that we previously discussed in class. I did not know that China had taken such an initiative, and I applauded them for doing so. I know that China has a particularly bad pollution problem, so it was good that they enacted this law. However, my excitement soon disappointed once I read the results of this article. They were very different from my expectations, as I thought this initiative would have had wild success.

I thought it was ridiculous that 33.3% of people still bought plastic bags. This completely defeated the purpose of the whole ban, and simply thinking from the consumer perspective, that’s such an unsustainable, money-wasting practice. I also thought it was ridiculous that there was a black market for these plastic bags. I don’t see why it would be so hard to simply not use plastic bags. Perhaps an initiative China can take is banning plastic bags altogether, or making sure that consumers have their reusable bags with them before going shopping in farmers markets or supermarkets. It seems like there’s too many loopholes in this law that people keep using to make their way around it.

I don’t know how accurate this article was, though, since it was mainly based off 163 results from questionnaires and a 30-minute observation. I thought this would have been much more effective as a study analyzing the impact this law actually had on pollution and white pollution to be specific, as that what this law is trying to take a stand against. Although looking at the issue from a consumer point of view was very revealing and definitely provided some insight, I think what could make this study be even more revealing would be the short-term and long-term effects of the ban.

Because light pollution is often not a topic of our class discussions and is a relatively newly discovered form of pollution, it was interesting to learn so much about how light pollution severely affects humans and animals, whether it be birds or sea turtles. Personally, and hopefully I’m not the only one, I’ve become so accustomed to seeing artificial lights on during the night time that when I really see how pitch-black the night time really is, I get a little startled and scared. Growing up in the city, artificial light is everywhere, not just in Manhattan (although it’s probably much worse in that borough.) Every night before I go to bed, I see how many lights are on in my building complex and neighborhood, and always wonder why no one shuts these lights off but I think it’s because we’re so used to seeing big, flashy lights, it almost reassures us.

What I liked was how the article talked in great deal about the health effects of light pollution with three main focuses; its effect on animals, the circadian cycle, and the increased risk of developing more serious cancers and diseases, mainly breast cancer. It was really saddening to read about how sea turtles get distracted by lights left on at the beach that sometimes they can’t find their way back into the ocean. Just imagine how it’d feel to see this new external phenomenon and be so confused by it that you cannot find your way back home, completely lost. Also, I thought the little tidbit on how light pollution affects reproductive abilities in frogs really illustrated the horrible impact of light pollution on animals. Moving on to humans, I can say for sure how crappy my sleep schedule and how irreparably damaged my circadian cycle is. The article reported that the circadian cycles control 10 to 15% of our genes, so any type of change may lead to a plethora of health issues. The article noted that many of the problems that may result from this disruption in circadian clock, are connected to depression, insomnia, cardiovascular disease and more. It’s kind of crazy how the way we evolved does not align with technological advancements. We forcibly have steered away from our evolutionary beginnings and this has evidently caused a host of issues!

The scariest but most fascinating part of this article was the discussion on how increasing light pollution is correlated with increasing rates of breast cancer, mainly due to the reduction of melatonin production. I know or recall that melatonin deals with regulating our biological clock but also plays a role in producing female hormones! The study remarked that light definitely decreases melatonin and reduction of melatonin levels causes a higher risk for cancer. I know many of these studies are still in the fetal stages, but it is not hard to dispute the idea that light pollution could really play a role in higher breast cancer rates. I appreciated that they referenced a study done elsewhere to corroborate this data. They also focused on how working later at night or in places with greater light pollution led to increased rates of breast cancer for woman. Overall, I think we need to be better educated and informed about light pollution.

It was saddening to read about the dangers that animals endure due to light pollution. With the UN climate change summit in Paris, people are more aware of this already present issue. However, focuses of the talks have centered around carbon emissions and coal. Society needs to shine “light” on other forms of pollution as well. Light and noise pollution has been severely underrated. Light disrupts migratory habits of birds, breeding cycles, and even habitats. Animals, insects, plants, and even humans are greatly affected by artificial nighttime light.

It would interesting to read more on the health risks based on the circadian clock. Although we do not realize the importance of this day and night cycle, it affects our brain wave patterns, hormone production, and cell regulation. I was surprised to discover that cell regulation could be affected by a disrupted circadian clock. There has also been studies relating medical disorders, such as depression, insomnia, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, to any disruptions. I was not shocked to read that sleep disorders can be an effect of excessive artificial light. I find light and noise to be such a disturbance when I am trying to fall asleep, which can quickly affect my mood. Sleep is so important for the brain and body; it is a shame that people suffer from sleeping disorders due to altered sleeping patterns and circadian clock cycles.

I thought the studies on how light affects melatonin production was very interesting. Melatonin is more often produced at night without the presence of light. With this hormonal imbalance, women who lived in areas that were light at midnight had a 73% higher risk of developing breast cancer than those who faced the least outdoor artificial lighting. It definitely makes me think twice about staying up late to read or even write a blog post… just kidding.

This study focuses on China, which is a growing concern relating to environmental pollution because of their growing population and the fact that the country hosts so many manufacturing plants. There is always mention of air pollution in China, but as we can see in this article plastic pollution is also an area of concern when discussing pollution in China. The legislation passed to reduce the use of plastic bags is definitely making some progress in China from the statistics shown in the article, and it seems that more and more people are learning about the negative effects of using plastic bags and supporting the legislation passed to reduce them. One key point that the article mentions is that people tend to consume a lot more of free items than items that need to be purchased, but it still seems that there are a lot of Chinese consumers willing to pay for plastic bags because of its convenience and relatively low cost in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps the prices for these bags should be further increased, so if somebody is consistently purchasing many plastic bags a week, he or she can feel the economic consequences and maybe consider using environmental friendly bags and refrain from using plastic bags.

The examples of illegally providing plastic bags in farmer’s markets just show that there needs to be stricter enforcement regarding the plastic bag laws. If there is even one case of harsh enforcement in these farmer’s markets, it will scare the others into ceasing their illegal activity regarding selling the bags. The fines will simply outweigh what the farmers can earn, and they will soon realize that they must cooperate with the law for their own sake even if they don’t care about the environment. Actions always speak louder than words, and it is clear in this article that the consumers say they support the plastic bag legislation, but on the other hand are just purchasing the bags for cents. We want to believe that people will stop doing damage to the environment, but we simply can’t trust them and if we want the environment to become a better place, there will need to be strict actions taken by the government and other organizations to make people save the environment.

I found this article really interesting, and light pollution wasn’t something I looked into before. I think this article did a great job describing all the aspects of light pollution ranging from its effects on humans to wildlife, despite the lack of solutions that it provided (it was really informative and made me think about solutions instead of just being presented with them). What I found most striking was the effects of light pollution on sea turtles. Never before have I noticed much lighting on beaches, but learned that it disrupts the turtles’ nesting patterns and even discourages them from laying their eggs on the beaches. Another point that was interesting and surprising was the great number of birds and their migratory patterns that are affected because of the city lights. From previous readings, I knew that birds were affected, but the statistics that this article provides are just shocking. “Each year in New York City alone, about 10,000 migratory birds are injured or killed crashing into skyscrapers and high-rise buildings…” 10,000 birds each year! And we’re only talking about one city! Thus, it’s not surprising that so many bird species are close to extinction.

The article then goes on to talk about light pollution and its effects on humans, and opens up with a rather negative statement that “exposure to light during the night can disrupt circadian and neuroendocrine physiology, thereby accelerating tumor growth.” How wonderful – accelerating tumor growth. I find that interesting because on one hand, an adult needs around 7-8 hours of sleep so if you go to bed around midnight (when it’s dark and you obviously use electricity), you’ll be well-rested by early morning. You also see many students pulling all-nighters, or even staying up late utilizing electricity. On the other hand, you have this statistic that says light exposure at night can accelerate tumor growth. Does that mean by sundown we should all go to bed (rhetorical question)?

Furthermore, there are jobs that require night shifts, or working long hours so light exposure during the night is inevitable. Although I am grateful that we have electricity, everything does come at a price. Additionally, I think some of the things that humans should consider is shortening night shifts for workers (not talking about the economic aspect of labor, but purely scientific) and cutting down work hours of certain jobs. Yes, people who work in these areas do know that they will be working during the night, but they should not have to be exposed to more light pollution that could potentially be hazardous to their health. Just as advances in our world create air pollution and water pollution adn people look for ways to find better technology to mitigate those effects, I think more research needs to be put in in finding a way to mitigate light pollution (and not just for people – wildlife as well).

The article provided an abundance of new information for me on the issue of light pollution. Before this class, I was not even aware of light as a type of pollution. The first time I had heard of light pollution was during our discussion of Urban Flyway from City at the Water’s Edge in which light at night can disturb the migration patterns of birds. Much like sound, I had experienced situations in which glare and very bright light made me annoyed. I was, however, aware of the potential health effects. One instance was with a new kitchen appliance store that had opened on the street across from my apartment. For a few weeks, the store always had very bright lights on during the night (when it was closed) that I found unnecessary. The bright lights shined on to my window and made it a bit difficult to sleep.

Despite this experience, I had not considered light to be a type of societal pollution. However, this article clearly shows otherwise. The many examples used with animals such as the birds and sea turtles clearly show that light can harmfully affect organisms. In terms specifically of humans, the article discusses how light pollution can disrupt our circadian physiology, increase our chances of cancer, cause sleep disorder, and decrease melatonin production levels. All of these health effects show that light pollution is harmful and a problem for society.

However, one aspect that is very lacking from this article are solutions. As the article acknowledges, “light pollution is still way down the list of important environmental issues needing study” (27). The big issue is money. Money is important, and the economics behind any environmental action or program is important. Outside of the common known pollutions of air and water, there is also sound, light, and many more that people might not be as aware of. Each of these problems needs money or funding to support research and programs that allow us to learn more about the problem as well as potential solutions. The important question is to how to allocate the available funding or how to expand the pool of funding available. This article, overall, made me curious about what programs addressing light pollution currently exists and how is the government responding.