Nighttime lighting has expanded much faster than has the population. By one estimate, it has quadrupled in intensity every decade since the 1960s. A considerable amount of it is waste lighting, flooding uselessly upward and (among other things) destroying our heritage of nature’s star-filled night. Overall, the current state of night lighting has culturally altered human perception of the night in profound ways.

Terence Dickinson

Astronomer Terence Dickinson is Canada’s leading author of astronomy books for both adults and children with more than one million copies of his books in print. He is the editor of SkyNews, Canada’s national popular astronomy magazine, a weekly columnist for the Toronto Star and a regular commentator for the Discovery Channel and CBC radio. In 1995, he was appointed by the Governor General to the Order of Canada.