One Redditor just showed the internet a blue sky in the middle of the night outside their home in Hangzhou, China.
Among all the kinds of pollution that get attention in the news, light pollution often takes a back seat. It happens when electric lights and neon signs shed extra light into the environment at night. While that might not sound like a big deal, it can affect people's sleep patterns. It also disrupts many creatures' natural behaviors, including firefly and coral reproduction. It blocks out starlight — and, frankly, bright lights like the ones on this Tesla factory are just annoying!
It's amazing that anyone can sleep with light like this Redditor has outside their window. "We get city aurora now; s***," they said.
Their photo looks out over an intersection with a city skyline visible in the distance. No stars are visible in the sky, only glittering skyscraper windows. Street lamps light up the foreground of the image like daylight. The city lights reflecting off the hazy sky above turn it a brilliant blue that one commenter compared to the "blue screen of death" seen in broken electronics.
Other users shared the original poster's pain. "In Montreal the Desjardins building alone creates a green oval in the sky that looks like the beginning of an alien invasion," said one user. "It shouldn't be legal for one building to go out of its way to create such obvious light pollution."
"There is overall an issue with light pollution in this city unfortunately (just like most if not all cities)," another user replied. "I wanted to get into astrophotography but I think it won't be worth the investment while I still live here, unless I am willing to travel a few hours away by car just to take pics. I like a nice nightly cityscape but I wish light pollution was lower."
Thankfully, some communities do regulate light pollution at night; here's a list of some of the coolest ones.
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