Saving the Night: How Light Pollution is Harming Life on Earth

Stephen Aitken is on a crusade, and, with this one sentence, he has inspired me to join his crusade.

This caption, under a picture of a starless sky in Brisbane, Australia, in Saving the Night: How Light Pollution is Harming Life on Earth, made me instantly aware of what my children and grandchildren have lost.

At one time, on this same planet that we currently share, Shakespeare and Van Gogh and countless other artists and writers have looked up and been inspired by the night sky. Today, we are fascinated with images from the sky through the James Webb Space Telescope. Take that Shakespeare and Van Gogh! But what have we lost when we can only see stars through a telescope?

Author Stephen Aitken addresses that question in a book that is both personal crusade and scientific research. Densely packed with photographs and text, Saving the Night: How Light Pollution is Harming Life on Earth is divided into four chapters: “Night and Day in the Natural World”, “Artificial Lights on Land”, “Lighting the Oceans, Lakes and Rivers”, and a final chapter, “Guardians of the Night”, which is a call to action.

But the good news is that we can help — one porch light, one streetlight, one building, one community at a time. Switch off lights that have no purpose. Shield light fixtures so the light goes where it’s needed. Switch light bulbs to warmer colors (red and yellow). We have to remove the extra stress of light pollution on threatened plant and animal habitats. (p. 34)

A biologist as well as a writer, Aitken’s style is both personal and poetic.

I was afraid of the dark until I was seven years old. The basement in our new house terrified me. But slowly the night sky outside promised more riches than fright. I grew to love the night — the thrill of standing alone in a field of chirping crickets, the haunting hoots of owls resonating through the trees of the forests nearby. (p. 7)

Saving the Night presents a large amount of information on how plants and animals evolved to live in the natural world before artificial light, and how light pollution is impacting ecosystems and threatening the existence of plants and animals, including humans, everywhere.

Melatonin plays a role in stopping the growth of tumors, and lack of darkness suppresses melatonin output. The International Agency for Research on cancer concludes that shift work is probably carcinogenic. (p. 27)

The Advance Reading Copy of Saving the Night: How Light Pollution is Harming Life on Earth that I used for this review includes a “Contents” page listing the four chapter titles and 42 subheadings. As students seem to be becoming less adept at using an alphabetical index, this listing of subheadings will be helpful to locate the information in this fact-packed book.

A list of print and on-line resources is included, plus a glossary, acknowledgments, and space for an index to be added in the final printing.

My only criticism is that the size of many of the photos, charts and illustrations doesn’t do justice to the images.

Saving the Night: How Light Pollution is Harming Life on Earth provides a very comprehensive look at the role of light in the natural world and the effect of light pollution on all living organisms.

This book deserves to be available and promoted in schools and libraries. Saving the night for all of us is worth it.