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Light Pollution: an Oxymoron

The term "light pollution" has been coined by dark sky advocates to mean artificial lights interfering with stargazing.

However, the term is an oxymoron — a contradiction in terms.

The terms "air pollution" and "water pollution" mean contamination of air and water by harmful, toxic substances. Light pollution, then, should mean the contamination of light, not that the light is the pollutant.

The authors of Dark Sky Ordinances: How to Separate the Light from the Darkness, an issue paper from the Independence Institute, a nonprofit think tank, say:

Light is a good, not a form of pollution. Night-time lighting greatly
expands human freedom of action. ...

The term “light pollution” is premised on the mistaken idea that light itself is a form of pollution, rather than a positive good, like air and water. Light helps reduce crime and has allowed people in the twenty-first century—unlike their ancestors from darker ages—to continue reading, socializing, and engaging in other activities after the sun goes down. Man-made light allows more human choices and therefore more freedom.

The Prescott, Arizona, Daily Courier, published an editorial on July 25, 2006, that points out there are certain trade-offs when an area grows:

Municipal meetings around Yavapai County are full of people that complain about increased traffic, light pollution, reduction of property values, crime, noise and the "loss of a rural atmosphere." ...

Sorry, but that's what's happening in our area, and in most of Arizona. For those who don't like it, a long line of people would love to buy their homes even in a slowing market.

Christina Blizzard of TorontoSun.com, remembers the Great Blackout of 2003, when dark sky advocates — and everyone else — truly experienced a dark sky:

It's odd how everyone gets nostalgic and has warm, fuzzy thoughts about how lovely it was back on Aug. 14, 2003, to sit and look at the stars in the inky night sky with no light pollution. Just traffic chaos. People stuck in elevators. Businesses grinding to a halt. But what the heck, we got to talk to the neighbours.

Light is good. Pollution is bad. The term "light pollution" is an oxymoron.