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Robert Dick M.Eng., P.Eng. P.O. Box 79 Rideau Ferry, Ontario K0G 1W0 CANADA
| Contributions: | Parks Canada Facilities Guidelines for Outdoor Lighting (GOL) RASC Outdoor Lighting Protocol Promotion of Scotobiology (public talks, articles, papers and interviews) Promotion of less intrusive urban lighting Development of the CSbG Luminaires Review of Environmental Impact Studies (outdoor lighting) |
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I should begin by defining scotobiology. It is the study of the biological need for periods of darkness.
It will be a surprise to most people that light is not always good! The studies and data supporting this point of view had been with us since the days of natural philosophy in the 19th century. But then, as now, daylight was believed to be always good, and night was a period through which life had to endure. Recent reviews of this data have found a general trend that life needs periods of darkness. We don't seem to need complete darkness. Most life has evolved to accommodate starlight. It also accommodates bright moonlight for about a week every month. But it needs the remaining three weeks to recover from the bright Moon. Animals are most sensitive to artificial light and display changes in their behaviour when ther eis more light at night. Behaviours can be changed within a generation or so, but our biochemistry cannot. The term scotobiology was coined by Dr. R. Bidwell a botanist at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario (now retired). The term has become more widely known with the support and promotion of Dr. D. Welch of Parks Canada (now retired) and Peter Goering of the Muskoka Heritage Foundation (now retired). (This seems to be a subject for old people!) And, Robert Dick of the Royal astronomical Society of Canada.
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Our interest in scotobiology began at the Ecology of the Night Conference in the Muskoka District north of the Toronto in 2003. We began as sceptics. Although we knew outdoor lighting could be a nuisance, we did not believe that something as ubiquitous as outdoor lighting could have a profound impact on health. This new knowledge motivated us to redirect the Light Pollution Abatement Program of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) to include environmental protection, wildlife, and human health as the chief motivation for reducting of light pollution.
Support for scotobiology is based on an extensive literature review undertaken by many people. The best survey publication I have read is The Ecological Consequences of Artificial Outdoor Lighting by Rich and Longcore and published by Island Press in 2006 (ISBN 1559631295). We believe the connection between artificial light at night (ALAN) and human health is due to its effect on our body's perception of the time of day and night. If readers doubt the importance of scheduling biochemical processes in our bodies, they may peruse an overview on the subject by W. L. Koukkari and R. B. Sothern (Introducing Biological Rhythms, Springer Science, 2006, ISBN 978-1-4020-3691-0). A definitive definition for lighting that has low-ecological impact has been published in the Lighting Research and Technology Journal here. |