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It's a fact that year by year, the amount of light emitted by cities around the world – urban lighting – has become excessive.

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The first effect, and I would say the most dramatic, is that it steals the sky. People no longer see the sky.

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There are many people out there who have never seen the Milky Way, who have never seen zodiacal light.

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Sometimes I ask people, "Do you know what zodiacal light is?"

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Three-quarters of them do not know, they have never even heard the word.

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It's part of something that held great significance in the past.

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It's contact with the sky. It's that feeling you get when you go outside on a beautiful starry night, Milky Way and all.

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That contact was present throughout humanity until only a few decades ago.

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It is absent now and it must be given back to the people,

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but this can only happen by continuing the growing battle against light pollution, by explaining why it is not necessary for so much lighting, that it is useless to light up the sky, that it is a waste of energy.

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Nowadays everyone is looking to reduce energy, yet we still light up the sky.

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What a complete waste!

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Another important consideration, that we are only just now realizing, is that light pollution also causes significant disturbances to plant and animal life.