There's a bunch of light going into the sky for no reason at all - pure waste. Better reflectors and lighting design would cut that down dramatically.
Then there's a bunch of light going into the sky for sub-optimal reasons. Lighting up the exterior of buildings at night time is something that should be more expensive. See, for one example, the San Diego temple which is a bright white building with an insane amount of exterior night time lighting for very little reason. (You have to see it in person - it's a particarly egrarious waste of energy) http://sealofmelchizedek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/San-...
Re:Drowning in Light
by existencebox on Sunday September 21, 2014 @11:51AM
(#8347411)
I agree with both of your points. That being said, there's also the matter of the less low-hanging-fruit, street lighting for instance. I know in densely trafficked areas the street lighting is sufficient to completely obfuscate the sky, up to a few tens of miles away. Perhaps we can improve how we do said lighting but I see a lot of resistance in scaling it down until as I said, our capabilities are improved.
I for one would love to see far far less light pollution, but I don't think that will happen until technology enables us to make doing * in the dark as safe/easy as doing it in the light.