Library Post #2: Big Think Article

On the home page of the new page, Big Think, I found a link to an article that particularly peaked my interest: http://bigthink.com/specific-gravity/let-there-be-dark. Part of the reason is that light pollution, sometimes referred to as "the end of night," happens to be one of my favorite subjects. The impact that light pollution has on the natural world, and to a limited extent, society, is something I've become rather well-versed in. Not only does it have a major impact on the circadian rhythms of wild animals and the migratory patterns of birds, bats and whales, but it has a big impact on the way we live today. As we all found out in Hurricane Sandy, even a day or two without artificial light will cause your biological clock to revert to its natural state. Heck, if we were living in a world without artificial light, I'd be fast asleep right about now. This is something that we don't really consider right now, and it has really warped our opinion of darkness. This past spring, I went to Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, which are about as "dark" as a night can get in the eastern US. By dark, I mean that there was no light pollution - with the moonlight and starlight in the mountain nights, I could see as clearly as though it were sunset. This really brought home the point of how much a century of light bulbs has altered our part of the world's environment. It begs the question of how well we'd be able to see at night without the lights of New York to block out the stars and absorb the moon's glow.
Beyond my own personal grief about the loss of moonlight, the article brings a whole new section of this topic to light, if you'll pardon the pun. This is the idea - nay, the knowledge - that our new nocturnal lifestyle, and the sleep disorders that it directly, leads to major diseases, according to the World Health Organization. Few people I know - a figure that, until now, included myself - have really ever considered that not getting enough sleep could contribute to diseases such as Alzheimer's or various cancers. Most kids my age connect not getting enough rest to fatigue and a miserable school day, not a hospital ward and chemotherapy. The shocking reality is that it may very well come to that if this trend escalates in the future. And if kids aren't getting enough sleep in there high school years, what will become of them when they're adults, working full-time jobs?
One thing's for sure - I'm going to bed early tonight.