When you look at the nighttime sky, how many stars do you see? When there is a meteor shower or an aurora event, are you able to see them? Our night sky has become yet another victim of pollution. We are familiar with air pollution, water pollution, and land pollution, but light is also a pollutant. According to the World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness, 80 percent of the world’s population lives under light-polluted skies, called sky glow. In the United States, 99 percent of the public can’t experience a natural night. If you can’t see the Milky Way on a clear night, you are a victim of sky glow.

A healthy watershed is more than just good water quality. It includes the health of all the inhabitants in the watershed – birds, insects, fish, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. And humans! Light pollution harms human health and well-being by disrupting circadian rhythms, decreasing melatonin production, and impairing our nighttime vision with excessive glare. It also impacts migratory birds, nocturnal wildlife (including insects and bats), sea turtles, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton. An estimated 30 percent of all outdoor lighting in the U.S. is wasted, mostly due to unshielded or excessively bright lights. This adds up to $3.3 billion dollars wasted and 21 million tons of carbon dioxide emitted annually. The city of Tucson converted its nearly 20,000 streetlights from high-pressure sodium to energy-efficient LEDs with adaptive controls. The annual savings in energy costs are more than $2 million!

DarkSky International works to restore the nighttime environment and protect communities from the harmful effects of light pollution through outreach, advocacy, and conservation. There are more than 65 chapters around the world, including chapters in Maryland, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, Virginia, NOVA (northern Virginia), Bolivar-Harpers Ferry (West Virginia), and New York. DarkSky Maryland was successful in getting Governor Wes Moore to sign a proclamation recognizing International Dark Sky Week last year. DarkSky Maryland asked IPC to join the growing list of organizations in supporting their request for Governor Moore to once again recognize April 13-20, 2026, as International Dark Sky Week. 

Please join IPC in celebrating International Dark Sky Week to enhance our efforts to create a healthy environment for all creatures who call the Chesapeake watershed home.  More information and lots of great resources are available at https://darksky.org/. Information on DarkSky Maryland, including Governor Moore’s proclamation, can be found at https://www.darkskymd.org/.