Our ability to see the stars in the night sky is eroding very quickly due to the widespread use of artificial light at night. Prof Brian Espey, Associate Professor of Physics at TCD and chairman of Dark Sky Ireland joined the Drivetime show on RTÉ Radio 1 to talk about this issue.
While we are seeing a 10% decrease each year in the number of stars which are visible, Espey says "the amount of light we see from satellites is not increasing at the same rate. It looks like the impact may be due to the increasing use of LEDs, which tend to produce light that's a little bit bluer than the light we've been used to and it's quite a strong effect."
He believes it's something we need to be aware of for numerous reasons. "I think we're realising more and more that we need to find a way of actually working in favour of nature. We have got two great parks here, one at Dark Sky Reserve in Kerry and one at Dark Sky Park in Mayo, and there are a number of other areas which are equally good, and we could actually protect and this will also bring in tourists
Click here to listen to the full recording.