Have you ever had a neighbor’s floodlight beam into your bedroom all night? Or been abruptly blinded while crossing a quiet street at night? Both instances, which are becoming increasingly common across our towns and cities, are caused by invasive lighting. The first example affects privacy and our health in addition to increasing energy consumption. As we can see from the second example, invasive lighting isn’t just annoying; it can easily impair our safety and that of wildlife crossing the street.
The good news? Texans now have a way to report it!
What Is Invasive Lighting?
Invasive lighting is a form of light trespass, which refers to artificial lights that spill onto another property or outside the area they are intended to illuminate.
According to the DarkSky Texas database, examples of light trespass range from mundane to extreme. For example, spillage of residential lights within a few feet of neighboring homes is a widespread issue across suburbia.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have more rural areas, where a single commercial property or an individual area light casts its so-called security illumination 2,000 or more feet away onto another property.
Check out the DarkSky Texas Database for more representative examples!
Why Invasive Lighting Matters
A simple out-of-place light beam may not seem like a big deal, but the pervasive impact of light trespass is detrimental to many facets of life.
Quality of Life
In many ways, light trespass is a matter of property rights: an obtrusive glare coming through our window can interfere with everyday enjoyment of our home, activities such as a movie night, a quick nap, or simply visiting with friends or family. Meanwhile, having someone else illuminate our backyard or pool deck, which is out of our control, can feel invasive.
In both scenarios, we see that light trespass can quickly compromise our privacy and the right to enjoy our property.
Human Health
Light trespass also subjects our bodies to an additional source of artificial light, and one that we can’t simply turn off when it’s time to sleep or enjoy the natural nighttime.
The extra light also contributes to skyglow, which is progressively making our nights less dark. However, rather than providing increased visibility, experts now suggest that this can actually negatively impact our health. According to the American Medical Association, excess exposure to artificial lights at night disrupts the human circadian rhythm. In turn, this can precipitate sleep disorders and increase a person’s risk of obesity, depression, and even heart conditions.
Ecological Impact
Humans are not the only ones who need light and dark cycles to regulate their bodies. The effect of light pollution on animals may be even more radical. Light pollution drives individual behavioral changes in living organisms as well as altering species interactions and reshaping entire communities.
Many nocturnal and crepuscular animals, from small felines to pollinators, need the night and its stars to guide their migration paths and reproductive cycles. Without darkness, they can easily get lost, fly into dangerous areas or farms, or fail to mate altogether.
For the National Wildlife Federation, the solution is simple: point your landscaping lights towards the ground, and you can help save birds, caterpillars, fireflies, and sea turtles alike. This over simplification is a start. Even landscaping lights need to follow all five principles of responsible outdoor lighting.
Economic Cost
Finally, excessive lighting wastes energy and money. After all, every time we shed light where we shouldn’t, we are wasting energy; at the end of the month, that translates to wasting money on the electricity bill.
It all adds up! It is likely that up to 30% of all outdoor lighting in the US is wasted, resulting in over $3 billion in annual losses.
What Does Invasive Lighting Look Like in Texas?
In Texas, light pollution generally follows a similar pattern to urban sprawl. Therefore, invasive lighting is nearly ubiquitous in the Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Austin to San Antonio areas. However, it is no less disruptive in less dense areas.
Our database has compiled some striking examples of outdoor lights running amok. Here, outdoor lights often have a chance to travel a longer distance and cause an accident in the process.
Solutions and Best Practices
While the impact of invasive lighting is vast, so are the actions that we can take against it. Fortunately, many of them are remarkably cost-effective.
First, your neighbor may not realize their unshielded light is trespassing on your property and causing issues. DarkSky International provides recommendations about how to approach the topic with your neighbor.
For homeowners and residential property owners, the blueprint is straightforward: simply follow the five principles of responsible outdoor lighting. These are common-sense solutions that will help us keep our lights shielded, controlled, necessary, and in warm colors. Rather than leaving us in darkness, these principles will improve visibility for humans and significantly reduce each home’s excess energy consumption.
When it comes to businesses and communities, the matter often requires balancing several competing needs. At DarkSky Texas, we are proud to offer a compelling argument that will help us move towards better lighting, reduced glare and light trespass, and brighter stars.
The Be A Star Award and BOLD Initiative offer an opportunity to inspire, educate, and reward everyone from small property owners to larger organizations who are eager to take a stance against light pollution.
Remember to take a look at your own lights from other properties and evaluate each light to ensure it follows those five principles of responsible outdoor lighting.f
Submit Your Complaint to Our Database
The impact of invasive lights can be best showcased with images, rather than a thousand words. This is why we have begun compiling a database of visual examples that illustrate the extent of the problem across our state.
And you can contribute to it! If you live in Texas, you can now report invasive lighting. Doing so will provide documentation of the issue.
Next time you see a case of light trespass, simply fill out the form HERE and provide us with the county, type of property, approximate distance from the affected property, and a photo that shows the offending light. This will be displayed on the website and shared with state officials who can help address the issue. Rest easy: your name and email will not be shared publicly.
Final Thoughts
Invasive lighting affects every facet of our quality of life: from our privacy to our health and that of our local ecosystems, and even our budgets! Please help us combat it by:
1. Submitting cases of light trespass to the DarkSky Texas database
2. Talking to your neighbors, coworkers, and friends about the problem
3. Taking the DarkSky Texas Pledge and becoming part of the solution