The Impact of Light Pollution on Ecosystems and their Services: Understanding and Communicating the Value of Dark Skies

Abstract

Light pollution is increasingly recognised as a threat to human health and wellbeing as well as a threat to many ecosystem functions and services. Light pollution is increasing by over 2% per year. This is despite (and occasionally because of) new technology aimed at reducing light pollution (e.g. LEDs). Natural night skies (natural darkness) is the natural resource affected by light pollution. Effective stewardship of natural night skies is a challenging problem at the nexus of science, policy, communication, coalition building, monitoring, and enforcement. This work builds on the existing body of literature documenting these problems by developing solutions that effectively communicate the value and importance of natural night skies through valuation, community engagement, and educational interventions to enhance the appreciation of natural night skies. Natural night skies are a characteristic of functioning ecosystems, and thus contribute to how well ecosystem's function and the ecosystem services they provide. This research will address three major questions: (1) Can night sky quality be effectively incorporated into existing global ecosystem service valuations? (2) What are the incentives and barriers to engaging local communities in natural night sky support? (3) Can educational interventions on natural night skies improve ecological literacy and change attitudes about nature via natural night skies? The results presented in this thesis suggest that light pollution degrades the value of ecosystem services by roughly $3.4 Trillion per year globally. I also found that protecting the night skies is supported by the public for many reasons including the following: save money, protect human health, preserve ecosystem function, protect wildlife, provide important cultural and aesthetic experiences including fostering a sense of awe. This public support makes possible the implementation of public policy aimed at preserving the night skies. Education and experiential interventions show the potential for increasing ecological literacy related the nocturnal environment and human connection with nature. This research explored global, local, and individual values of natural night skies. It includes economic valuation, studies of community engagement in protecting natural night skies, and educational interventions, all aimed at better understanding natural night skies at different scales and with different approaches.