Tribune. With more than 11 million points of light for public lighting and 3.5 million advertising signs irradiating the French sky with a thousand lights, the new “century of lights” is about to extinguish the night and its shimmering lights. astronomical. With his feet on the ground and his head in the stars, man has always been attracted by this nocturnal mystery made not only of stars and planets, but also of the volutes of the Milky Way, of alignments and suggestive conjunctions and shooting stars. The dark night and the stars which inhabit it, sources of wonder, disappear without striking a blow and in deafening silence.
This explosion of artificial lights, which has grown by 84% over the past twenty years in France, induces light pollution which does not seem to be about to be contained. However, this fireworks display has concrete consequences on biodiversity, the climate, our health and observation of the sky.
With the destruction of environments and the spreading of pesticides, light pollution is a major cause of the collapse of insect populations and of biodiversity as a whole. Remember that 28% of vertebrates and 64% of invertebrates are exclusively or partially nocturnal and therefore directly exposed to artificial lighting. The finding is overwhelming: 38% of bats have disappeared in hexagonal France over the past ten years. A British journal study Science Advances August 25 shows the impact of public lighting on caterpillars at night, which are less numerous in lighted hedges and grasses. Another showed that meadows subject to light pollution recorded a 62% drop in pollinator visits compared to an unlit meadow.
Street lighting and illuminated advertising
In addition, a very large part of nocturnal animals usually locate themselves with the stars and lose their reference points. Artificial light substantially modifies the biological cycles of living things, the interactions and behavior of species. It removes and fragments natural habitats at night, justifying the installation of black frames to be preserved and restored.
At the same time, repeated calls for climate citizenship seem to carefully avoid addressing greenhouse gas emissions linked to street lighting and illuminated advertising. However, the electricity required for this lighting represents 41% of the consumption of local authorities.
In addition, a recent report from the National Academy of Medicine proposes to classify exposure to light at night in the category of endocrine disruptors, having regard to the health effects associated with a biological cycle disturbed by artificial light.
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