Artificial lights at night brightened up planet Earth by 16% between 2014 and 2022, a new study using satellite images has revealed.
But some areas, including those struck by war and natural disasters, or those in countries with effective light pollution and energy-saving policies in place, are bucking the trend.
From space, Earth at night is a magnificent sight — a darkened sphere lined and dotted by blueish and golden lights revealing outlines of countries and continents. It has not always looked like that. For our ancestors, that twinkling ball would have been completely dark. Artificial lights at night reveal the progress of civilization as new settlements spring up and electric grids expand, bringing the comforts of modern life. But constant artificial light has also become a problem, affecting sleep quality, disrupting plant and animal biorhythms and obstructing our views of the cosmos.
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