Lighting is important. With the invention of LED lights, it is now possible to easily and cheaply light in a way that is detrimental to everyone and everything. Brightness does not equal good lighting. Bright-white LED lights cause glare because the blue-spectrum light has a shorter wavelength that bounces around inside your eye. Bright-white LED lights provoke a disturbing emotional response inside of us. We need to eliminate all outdoor lighting that is over 2700K color temperature, and this includes vehicle headlights.
Instead, we need outdoor lighting to be in the amber or yellow spectrum, something under 2700K color temperature. Color temperatures below 2700K produce a soft color that enables us to see, does not cause glare, and does not cause emotional agitation. Our job is now to convince governmental leaders to enact laws and policies that remove 4000K and 5000K lights from our planet and to instead install 2200K to 2700K lights that improve our lives.
2 thoughts on “How to Light”
Kudos for creating this website and bringing attention to this issue. I believe a critical part of the problem involves the light pollution that is created by LED lighting and its impact on how well we can observe the night sky. I live in north San Diego County, home of the world famous Palomar Observatory and its 200-inch reflecting telescope. I also do some amateur observations using a small telescope and binoculars from my roof. I’ve noticed a slight downward trend in quality of observation over the 20 years I’ve lived here. Dark skies are worth protecting.
Thank you for your comments, Eric. We encourage you to spread the word!
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