Saving the Dark | Documentary | Light Pollution [HD]

80% of the world’s population live under light polluted skies. What do we lose when we lose sight of the stars? Excessive and improper lighting robs us of our night skies, disrupts our sleep patterns and endangers nocturnal habitats. The current advances in LED technology have enabled several cities to safely light their streets and save energy without disrupting the nighttime environment. Saving the Dark explores the need to preserve night skies and what we can do to combat light pollution.

Created in association with the International Dark-Sky Association.

[ethereal]

Seeing the stars, observing the cosmos isn't just a fun & pretty pastime.
It's a vital part of the human experience.

[vampante]

the fact that if we didn't pollute the sky we could see the milky way from every part of the world at night instead of just the desert is heartbreaking

[abhijeetkamble]

Ohh wow ...just wow ...no matter how much troubled ur in ur life right now ...just gazing at these stars gives u a sense of belief and stength to go out and fight it out and do the best possible . These stars just give u a sense of hope and how amazing life is . Wow

[Riema]

In the beginning of the documentary you think that the talking about seeing stars is just a hopeless romantic thing so people can "enjoy the stars" but as I kept watching how it's hurting the ecology and other animals it was heartbreakibg .. especially the birds 💔💔💔
May we always have dark skies illuminated with stars above our heads 🙏

[songoftherainbow]

Thank you for this great documentary :”) I live in Singapore, the most light-polluted city in the world, but I’m also an avid stargazer. I first noticed that stars existed when I looked up at the pre-dawn sky from my school bus window many years ago, and saw a few blurry dots of light in the sky that didn’t zoom past like airplanes. On good, clear days I can count almost 20+ stars in the night sky, but most of the time I can really only see maybe 5-10 of them. From where I live, I always have to raise my hand to block out artificial city light from my vision while looking up at the night sky. How I wish that we can all enjoy dark skies and see the Milky Way! 💛

[kektendo]

This is a fantastic documentary! I'm using this as a source for a school project on light pollution as a source, and it's such a great resource!

[PhilJonesIII]

I live in a part of France that has reasonably dark skies. When I show people some of the timelapse videos I've done, I get asked if they are fake because of the number of stars.

And it's also true, in places with zero to low light pollution, you cast a shadow from the Milky Way. It takes 15-20 mins to get used to the dark. After an hour you get to see shadows. It's actually a little disturbing at first but quick to get used to.

[bradknoll]

This is so true. The brightness of today’s lights produce so much glare it can be difficult to see while driving at night. Less light would be better

[jaysson]

I wish New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and all the towns in the greater New Orleans area would get onboard to reduce light pollution.

[Nova-vocn]

I’ll never get tired of this documentary💚 thank you for posting it

[TallyRocky]

I'm in Southern AZ and can see the Milky Way most nights (unless the moon is so bright that you can practically read by it). Thank goodness for almost no light pollution.

[pains]

a lot of light is AWUFUL much better dimmer warm light enough to see where u walk..you wont be reading on a gas stations..theylook AWFUL

[ayjanu]

Thank you for putting this documentary together, sir (and thanks to the International Dark-Sky Association, as well). It touched upon basically all of the key points as to why light pollution is such a problem, and the scourge certainly lit a fire under me, a few years ago. This is what most people don't realize - that it's not just about "seeing dark skies"....that the consequences of light out of place have far-reaching effects for the entire ecosystem. I for one will not rest until the IDA's mission is either complete, or it becomes clear that their objective will end in victory. I believe that we CAN have the lights on, so that everybody can win, and yet save our planet from this curse that we have created. I will turn my rage into activism, my anger into love, and positivity. We need to educate the populace on how easy it is to fix the problem, and how little the alternative will affect our way of life, but the benefits will be outstanding. Change must come to this inevitably, change will one that we will never recover from. There's still time to set things right.

[WiwatChang]

This is great, Sriram. Would you be so kind as to enable subtitle translation? I am a professional English-Thai translator and dark-sky advocate who founded Dark-Sky Thailand Facebook page. Thanks

[guesswhatthisisnotmyrealna]

1:54 I had a moment like this when I went to Northern Michigan for my birthday in the middle of January. I was walking in the woods in the snow with my dad because we were going to climb a hill that is normaly covered in brush during the summer. We weren't useing any flashlights because the moon was so bright, and I had a moment were my eyes just strayed up to the sky as we were walking and I was struck by how amazingly beautiful it was, I had been in the area before and seen the stars but never in the winter when it got darker earlier. It was an incredible moment, just standing in the woods with snow on the ground on a cool night, and just falling in love with that night sky. I will remember that moment for the rest of my life. This video reminded me of that.

[Peac]

I am fortunate enough to live in corner of the globe with clear night sky without much artificial light pollution. But after watching this, I have started turning off my balcony lighting at night 😂. My neighbour is safe anyway. Unnecessary lighting is unnecessary wastage of energy which was produced by polluting our environment directly or indirectly..I love this video

[mountaingoat]

our world would be a better place with darker skies. I strongly believe it would make many people more peaceful.

[keerthi-kiran]

Amazing documentary. Kudos to the makers 🙏

[johnb]

The 12th of April 2020:
Now the Sky's are clear, and I can see the Milky Way once more. Less light reflection of the Water content that was building up in our atmosphere.

[darkmorning]

Light pollution is a serious issue thats not fair i cant see stars at night cause i live in the center of a city