In this month’s lead post for the Climate Change Collective, Jamie from JamieAdStories suggests we shift away from talking about climate change and instead focus on the environmental impact of pollution. Jamie’s post addresses air and water pollution, so my response considers the impact of light pollution and noise pollution on human health and wildlife.
The environmental impact of pollution
Having been on the receiving end of anger and insults from climate deniers, Jamie proposes we shift our conversations from climate change to pollution—something that is more difficult for most people to ignore.
In his post, Jamie discusses the environmental impact of air pollution, water pollution, and pollution from fossil fuel burning.
Anyone can deny climate change but pollution (which is in fact the main driver of temperature rises) is difficult to ignore. If some people are unwilling to read or consider anything labelled climate change, then perhaps they might take notice of the dangers of pollution instead.
Jamie Adams, JamieAdStories
Let’s Talk About Pollution Rather than Climate Change
Although light pollution and noise pollution are less obvious than air and water pollution, they do have an impact on human health and the environment.
It’s hard to escape the light and noise of modern life
When was the last time you were outdoors and experienced complete silence or darkness? If you live in an urban area, I’ll bet it has been a while…if ever. Often overlooked in conversations about the environment, light pollution and noise pollution have serious implications for humans and wildlife.
Light pollution
If you go outside at night and look up, you may see stars. But if you live in a heavily-populated area, light pollution prevents you from really seeing the stars even in rural areas.
The first time I gave light pollution any thought was during a vacation in Prince Edward Island over 25 years ago. My husband and I were staying in a small cottage near Cavendish. The cottage was in a quiet area overlooking the ocean. On the first night of our stay, I went outdoors and looked up. I was blown away by what I saw. Never in my life had I had seen such a spectacular night sky. I commented to my husband, “I never knew there were so many stars in the sky”.
National Geographic defines light pollution as the excessive or inappropriate use of outdoor artificial light. If you look around, you’ll notice that most commercial buildings, and many houses, are lit up like the Las Vegas strip. Energy-saving LED bulbs presented an excellent opportunity for energy savings, but we didn’t realize their environmental benefits—we just used more of them.
Beyond the energy implications, though, artificial light impacts our circadian rhythms and the production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin. Dark Sky International reports exposure to artificial light at night increases our risk of sleep disorders, depression, obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
For wildlife, light pollution can be deadly. The National Wildlife Federation indicates light pollution disorients animals, exposing many of them to dangers from predators, along with exhaustion and starvation. And artificial light creates barriers that fragment the habitats of many species, reducing their ability to access food or to find mates to reproduce.
And many of the issues related to light pollution apply equally to noise pollution.
Noise pollution
We live in a noisy world. When we visited a remote park during our recent vacation in British Columbia, we commented on the silence. It was a rare treat.
Living in a heavily-populated area of the country, we rarely experience true silence. When I sit out on our deck on the “quiet” street where we live, I hear noise from air conditioners, cars, planes, lawn mowers, construction equipment, and distant trains. My husband grew up on a farm, but even country life doesn’t provide an escape from the noise of cars, farm equipment and planes flying overhead.
But how noisy is too noisy? Encyclopaedia Britannica defines noise pollution as unwanted or excessive sound that can have harmful effects on human health, wildlife, and environmental quality.
For humans, noise pollution is linked to a number of health concerns. National Geographic indicates exposure to noise can cause high blood pressure, heart disease, sleep disturbances, and stress. And children who live near noisy airports or streets often suffer from stress and impairments in memory, attention level, and reading skill.
For wildlife, noise pollution creates similar concerns as light pollution. Animals rely on sound to navigate, find food, attract mates, and avoid predators. Noise pollution means it’s more difficult to accomplish these tasks, ultimately affecting their ability to survive. And this isn’t just a problem on land—increased noise from shipping traffic and other human activity threatens marine life as well.
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How you can help
As individuals, there’s not a lot we can do about the larger problems of light and noise pollution. But our personal choices do matter. Here are a few practical suggestions to reduce the impacts of light and noise in your world.
- Opt for greener transportation options, like walking, cycling, or electric vehicles.
- Choose quieter electric garden equipment like lawnmowers, snowblowers and garden trimmers.
- Maintain your vehicle properly.
- Plant some trees—they are terrific buffers against both light and noise.
- Avoid unnecessary lighting in and around your home and use the right kind of lighting. Dark Sky International has an excellent checklist to help you assess your home’s outdoor lighting.
- Use motion sensors or timers on outdoor lighting rather than having them on all the time.
- Install blinds and curtains to block sound and light. Close them at night to reduce the impact on wildlife.
In addition to reducing the environmental impact of pollution, many of these solutions will cut your energy use and save you money!
About the Climate Change Collective
The Climate Change Collective started after I left a comment on a blog post by Jamie Ad Stories. Jamie and I wanted to find a way to keep the climate change message top of mind for everyone, so I put out a tweet to see what kind of interest there would be in a climate-change-related blogging collaboration. The Climate Change Collective was born!
The members of the collective take turns writing a monthly blog post sharing their unique perspective about climate change. After the post is published, the rest of the group keeps the conversation going by sharing a link to the post on their blogs along with their thoughts and ideas.
If you’re a like-minded blogger and would like to join our collective, please get in touch. More voices joining the conversation means more attention to the problems plaguing our planet!
More Climate Change Collective posts
The Climate Change Collective series has been going strong for over two years. See Two years of the Climate Change Collective series for a recap of the posts we published in the first two years.
Recent posts in the series
- Is Climate Change Overlooked in Schools? – Jamie Ad Stories
- Highlighting Useful Ways to be Sustainable This Winter – Transatlantic Notes
- Carrot or stick? Which works better to reduce our environmental footprint? – Boomer Eco Crusader
- Why Food Waste is a Big Deal and How to Prevent It – A Sustainably Simple Life
- Global Warming: What Surpassing 1.5°C Means for the Planet – Transatlantic Notes
- Tips for productive climate conversations – Boomer Eco Crusader
- 3 significant climate agreements and their impact – A Sustainably Simple Life
Thanks to Jamie for being part of our Climate Change Collective and for starting the conversation on how we can reduce the environmental impact of pollution. Please drop by Jamie’s blog to read his full post.
How have you felt the environmental impact of pollution in your life? Drop a comment below to tell me your experiences.
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