Light pollution is an environmental problem that wastes tons of energy and damages ecosystems. Estimates are that a third to a half of all lighting in Europe is wasted. Not every nook and cranny of a city needs to be lighted and we can do a lot by replacing old lighting with more efficient ones.
I noticed travelling in Europe, that in Italy we have very dense public lighting, while, for example, in Germany public streets are much darker (this can be easily seen in the map). I’m really talking about lampost/km.
At the beginning I felt a little uncomfortable, walking in darker street at night, but then I realized what a waste o energy it is to light something that nobody , or almost nobody sees
/r/peopleliveincities
This is why i would never live in Netherlands or Belgium
In Westland, the triangle between Den Haag, Rotterdam and the sea, the sky is orange/yellow at night.
The area is almost completely covered in greenhouses.
What’s going on in te middle of the North Sea?
i live in france and now they straight up turn them off after 23h
I live in North-Holland, the sky looks bright in the dark. When I lived for a moment outside the “randstad”, the sky was pitch-black.
What’s up with Belgium ?
It’s good to see that the Black Sea is indeed black for once on a map! 😉
Kinda cool how you can track main road in Russia, mainly Moscow to St Petersburg. And also Moscow through to Minsk.
What is that island of dim light in NW Russia in the Moscow–St Petersburg–Minsk triangle?
Seems like some good places for astronomy in France and Spain.
I expected more pollution south-east of Wrocław, Poland, in Siechnice town. There are greenhouses so big and illuminated so intensely at night that the glow is visible for over 20km around. There are even [memes](http://memytutaj.pl/uploads/2019/01/16/5c3f6eb44dd92.jpg) about it (reads: “Dad, what’s there?” “Siechnice, my son!”)
Light pollution in Stockholm is insane, doesn’t feel like the night time really, more like a twilight zone-esque mix between night and a massive alien ship dimly illuminating the entire night sky with a pale yellow beam
The spot in the bottom part of Denmark is due, not to being a city, but because there are greenhouses light by artificial light.
It really sucks when trying to stargaze…
oops
Why is Finland so high compared to Sweden and Norway?
Question: As a western tourist, would it be a bad idea to go to that part of northern Ukraine which seems to be dark grey?
I lived in one of the green areas, so nothing spectacular, but still at least something. Now i live in Prague … I miss the stars. Cities suck balls.
I can confirm In Warsaw there is almost no stars at night, also now I know where to go to see nice sky at night
Interesting the contrast between Ireland and the Six Counties.
Also Portugal and Spain. I wonder if that’s due to population density alone or if local regulations have something to do with it. I know that Belgium has a very high level of light pollution because all their roads are illuminated.
I consider myself lucky to be able to see the stars at night, even the galaxy it’s clearly visible when the sky is clear.
I’m interested about what’s happening in the North Sea, since there are hardly any Islands there. Is the light pollution due to shipping lanes or is there something happening on oil rigs??
Show me where the humans are?
Isn’t it sad that you basically can’t see the true night sky in the western Europe?
Not even the Alps are free from light pollution. You would have to go to Eastern Europe or the Artic do truly experience darkness.
Dark skies? What is that?
outdated map, the middle of inland south of Norway went from dark blue to yellow today. We x-mas decorated our barn, house and a couple of trees with 200+ meter of LED
Lets go santa. im ready. follow the light
“En dan denk ik aan Brabant, want daar brandt nog licht”
Now, tell me about heavy pollution!
Of course there is a lot of light in the BENE LUX area
How is that possible? As a Turkish guy, I’m living in Europe and as every other Turks agree with me European cities are fucking dark in the evenings/nights than Turkey.
WTF Belgium…
Good map! Those oil-platforms in the North Sea really isn’t trying to hide, are they.
I am not surprised with Italy. You can actually see Italy from Corfu because of the lights they have when they have non existent mountains in the horizon.
Randstad erea in The Netherlands is the worst, lol.
Oh my god they killed Wales, you bastards.
I wonder what it’s like to see more than 10 stars at once
I live in one of the black areas.
Damn I never realized hardly anyone lives along the scotland / england border
Need to start planning my move there, the nights sky must be fucking magnificent
I am happy to live in dark blue area, but this year asphalt plant was built at east of my house, and now i have sunrise illusion every night. They polluted my starry nights, and i do not like it. But now we have new roads, and this is awesome. So we trade roads for stars.
47 comments
From Rotterdam. Can confirm, it’s bad.
Light pollution is an environmental problem that wastes tons of energy and damages ecosystems. Estimates are that a third to a half of all lighting in Europe is wasted. Not every nook and cranny of a city needs to be lighted and we can do a lot by replacing old lighting with more efficient ones.
It’s bad [aesthetically](https://www.darksky.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Blackout_Todd_CarlsonTowards_Toronto_Goodwood_Ontario.jpg) as well.
Isn’t this really just a population map?
https://xkcd.com/1138/
The Westland area is clearly visible.
I noticed travelling in Europe, that in Italy we have very dense public lighting, while, for example, in Germany public streets are much darker (this can be easily seen in the map). I’m really talking about lampost/km.
At the beginning I felt a little uncomfortable, walking in darker street at night, but then I realized what a waste o energy it is to light something that nobody , or almost nobody sees
/r/peopleliveincities
This is why i would never live in Netherlands or Belgium
In Westland, the triangle between Den Haag, Rotterdam and the sea, the sky is orange/yellow at night.
The area is almost completely covered in greenhouses.
What’s going on in te middle of the North Sea?
i live in france and now they straight up turn them off after 23h
I live in North-Holland, the sky looks bright in the dark. When I lived for a moment outside the “randstad”, the sky was pitch-black.
What’s up with Belgium ?
It’s good to see that the Black Sea is indeed black for once on a map! 😉
Kinda cool how you can track main road in Russia, mainly Moscow to St Petersburg. And also Moscow through to Minsk.
What is that island of dim light in NW Russia in the Moscow–St Petersburg–Minsk triangle?
Is it just not well populated?
Probable source:
* https://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html
Surprised at how dark Austria is. Mountains?
Seems like some good places for astronomy in France and Spain.
I expected more pollution south-east of Wrocław, Poland, in Siechnice town. There are greenhouses so big and illuminated so intensely at night that the glow is visible for over 20km around. There are even [memes](http://memytutaj.pl/uploads/2019/01/16/5c3f6eb44dd92.jpg) about it (reads: “Dad, what’s there?” “Siechnice, my son!”)
Light pollution in Stockholm is insane, doesn’t feel like the night time really, more like a twilight zone-esque mix between night and a massive alien ship dimly illuminating the entire night sky with a pale yellow beam
The spot in the bottom part of Denmark is due, not to being a city, but because there are greenhouses light by artificial light.
It really sucks when trying to stargaze…
oops
Why is Finland so high compared to Sweden and Norway?
Question: As a western tourist, would it be a bad idea to go to that part of northern Ukraine which seems to be dark grey?
I lived in one of the green areas, so nothing spectacular, but still at least something. Now i live in Prague … I miss the stars. Cities suck balls.
What’s the source of the picture? Someone linked https://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html
but in that data the areas near dark are much less…
I can confirm In Warsaw there is almost no stars at night, also now I know where to go to see nice sky at night
Interesting the contrast between Ireland and the Six Counties.
Also Portugal and Spain. I wonder if that’s due to population density alone or if local regulations have something to do with it. I know that Belgium has a very high level of light pollution because all their roads are illuminated.
I consider myself lucky to be able to see the stars at night, even the galaxy it’s clearly visible when the sky is clear.
I’m interested about what’s happening in the North Sea, since there are hardly any Islands there. Is the light pollution due to shipping lanes or is there something happening on oil rigs??
Show me where the humans are?
Isn’t it sad that you basically can’t see the true night sky in the western Europe?
Not even the Alps are free from light pollution. You would have to go to Eastern Europe or the Artic do truly experience darkness.
Dark skies? What is that?
outdated map, the middle of inland south of Norway went from dark blue to yellow today. We x-mas decorated our barn, house and a couple of trees with 200+ meter of LED
Lets go santa. im ready. follow the light
“En dan denk ik aan Brabant, want daar brandt nog licht”
Now, tell me about heavy pollution!
Of course there is a lot of light in the BENE LUX area
How is that possible? As a Turkish guy, I’m living in Europe and as every other Turks agree with me European cities are fucking dark in the evenings/nights than Turkey.
WTF Belgium…
Good map! Those oil-platforms in the North Sea really isn’t trying to hide, are they.
I am not surprised with Italy. You can actually see Italy from Corfu because of the lights they have when they have non existent mountains in the horizon.
Randstad erea in The Netherlands is the worst, lol.
Oh my god they killed Wales, you bastards.
I wonder what it’s like to see more than 10 stars at once
I live in one of the black areas.
Damn I never realized hardly anyone lives along the scotland / england border
Need to start planning my move there, the nights sky must be fucking magnificent
I am happy to live in dark blue area, but this year asphalt plant was built at east of my house, and now i have sunrise illusion every night. They polluted my starry nights, and i do not like it. But now we have new roads, and this is awesome. So we trade roads for stars.