LighT PolluTiON

NOTES
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- Meadowlark:
o mistook the lights of Rapid City at 2 AM = rising sun
o sing out too late to attract a mate
- Improper lighting + over illumination (residential neighbourhoods, business signage,
lights) -> brighten the sky -> orange hue
- 100 years ago: spectacular night sky
Now: 8/10 children never see the Milky Way
- Light pollution affects:
o View of the universe
o Environment
o Individual health
o Energy consumption
- 3 main components:
o Sky glow
o Glare
o Light trespass
- Glare: excessive brightness -> visual discomfort
- Often illuminate areas to increase safety
- Lights has no impact on traffic collisions/crime
- Properly shielded lights -> able to see what was there
 Brighter ≠ safer
- Light trespass: light un(needed/ intended/ wanted) from another source≠ your own
- Inner city: few stars
City limits: orange zone on the map (8/10 Americans live) + local observatory -> can’t see
the Milky Way
- Black Hills National Forest: sky glow
- Naturally dark sky = 2 hours north to Slim Buttes:
o Class 1 sky (= natural lit sky)
- Rapid City (Class 9 Sky): light pollution is 100-200 times brighter than natural darkness
- Light pollutions plagues every modern city and town
- Easiest problem to solve: just by a flip of a switch
- We need to protect stargazing opportunies + nocturnal habitats/ plants/ animals like:
o In Black Hills: a moon flower blooming only in dark night
o Owl (nocturnal life)
 See 5 times birhgter than humans because of light-detecting rods (1 million
rods/ mm2)
- Able to see artificial lights ≠ healthy
o Lights go to a tract of nucleus cluster of thousands of cells -> send messages to
glands that secrete melatonin (which has great antioxidant qualities -> radicals
causing damage to brain and body)
o Exposure to artificial lights:  Alzheimer’s, breast cancer, obesity, depression
- Tonight’s dark skies ~ the map of 2025
- 8 years -> 8 dark sky places remain in the US
- Colour Kelvin chart:
o Rate colours by temperature
o Colours < 3000K -> dark sky friendly (not impair night vision)
- Address fixtures because dark sky ≠ dark ground: point lights down (intended lights)
- All outdoor lighting waste 30% light going outward/ upward -> wasting money + carbon
emissions
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 - Eg: changing front porch light -> full cut off fixture
Street lights pointing out/up ward -> downward
- Paris (city of lights): enact a lights-out curfew of 1 AM or 1 hour past last employee’s
departure time.

QUESTION TEMPLATE
1. What is the major topic? What is the video about?
The video discuss the issue of light pollution in cities and its effects on our health, as well as
some nocturnal lives. Moreover, Diane Knutson, the presentator, sheds lights on why we
should reduce light pollution and simple ways that all of us are able to take actions.

2. How is the information organised? (How many parts is the recording divided into? What
are they?)
The video is divided into parts as following:
- Part 1: Diane Knutson begins her talk with the story about a meadowlark singing its mating
song at 2 A.M. to lead the audience to the light pollution problem.
- Part 2: She presents three components that cause light pollution, including: skyglow, glare and
light trespass.
- Part 3: Diane then shows the reality of light pollution in the Rapid City: it is so bright in the city
that you must drive two hours north to see the Milky Way and also points out that: every modern
city and town is suffering from the problem.
- Part 4: This part is mainly about light pollution’s negative impacts on nocturnal animals, plants,
and especially on human-beings to explain why we have to take action solving the problem.
- Part 5: Ways we are able to do to solve the problem.

3. What is the attitude of the speaker to the issue mentioned? Support it with relevant clues
in the listening source.
When Diane Knutson talks about the problem, she has a disapproving attitude. She states that
as children, we flip on the switch in order to feel safe, and then as adults, we do that on a larger
scale, but in truth, “Bright does not mean safer”. The way she put stress on words and phrases
such as “(we do that on a) much grander scale” and “(light has) no impact on” really does imply
how disagreeing she is about the overuse of lights. When she mentions the fact that eight out
of ten children will never see the Milky Way from where they live at the introduction of the
presentation, her tone is bitter and sad. This tone is even clearer when she analyses the reality.
She asks everyone to envision themselves going stargazing; and raises her voice each time
the person packs up their belongings, ready to go, then low down the voice each time the
person looks up and see no stars. Her voice gets deeper when she points out how severe the
issue is. When mentioning the fact that light pollution is literally able to be solved overnight,
Diane expresses a optimistic attitude; telling jokes like asking neighbours to turn off their lights
if the lights disturb them seeing a TEDx presentation or calling Batman. But this humorous tone

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 is shut off immediately after that, and once again, Diane’s attitude is serious to talk about the
effects of light pollution. Her serious attitude is shown by how she gives information without
smiling, emphasises some words like: all, need, great; and how she stops a little bit before
continuing her presentation.The contrast between these two tones really makes the
presentation much more deeper.
In conclusion, the speaker’s attitude in the whole video is earnest, a little bitter and sad, but
also humorous.
4. How does the information relate to your background knowledge?
Before listening, I had no general knowledge about light pollution. Being born and growing up
in Hanoi, I was so used to the sky without stars that I have never questioned it. I thought that
it was natural for the night sky to look like that, to be so bright that you can even see the clouds
and the Milky Way is meant to be looked outer space, not at your house. Furthermore, I had
never tried researching about this problem, despite the fact that I have heard about it once.
Therefore, when I first watched the video, I was really amazed finding out the truth: it was totally
opposite to what I have thought. Furthermore, I had no idea that exposure to lights at night has
various negative effects on us.
After listening, I felt an urge to look up for more information relating to this problem in order to
be certain that the reason why there is no stars in Hanoi sky is because of light pollution. I
found that light pollution is not the only reason (it is also due to smog/air pollution), but it does
have a major impact on the night sky. Therefore, the information in the presentation is totally
relatable. I also found a scale that measures the night sky’s brightness of a particular location
called Bortle scale. While Rapid City, where the presentation was located, was mentioned by
Diane Knutson in the video to have the Class 9 sky, Hanoi’s sky is Class 7, where the Milky
Way is nearly or totally invisible.

(Light pollution level map)

As Hanoi is also suffering from this problem, the solutions mentioned in the speech could be
applied in our city because they are not difficult to do. However, it requires consensus among
citizens and the government in order to solve the issue thoroughly.
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 After having researched, I found the listening source reliable, and it certainly has broadened
my knowledge about the world.

5. Create a glossary of theme-based vocabulary from the listening source.

glare to shine with a very bright unpleasant light

/ɡleə(r)/ (v)
chiếu sáng chói lọi

glare intense and blinding light that reduces visibility or creates visual
/ɡleə(r)/ (n) discomfort
sự chiếu sáng quá mức

light trespass light falling where it is not wanted or needed from another source
/laɪt ˈtrespəs/ (n) originating somewhere other than one’s own
ánh sáng xâm nhập

sky glow the diffuse luminance of the night sky, apart from discrete light
/skaɪ ɡləʊ/ (n) sources such as the Moon and visible individual stars
ánh sáng chiếm dụng bầu trời

fixture The assembly that holds the lamp in a lighting system. It includes
/ˈfɪkstʃə(r)/ (n) the elements designed to give light output control, such as a
reflector (mirror) or refractor (lens), the ballast, housing, and the
attachment parts.
bộ phận cố định của đèn

over-illumination the presence of lighting intensity higher than that which is

/ˈəʊvə(r) appropriate for a specific activity.
ɪˌluːmɪˈneɪʃn/ (n)
lạm dụng ánh sáng

6. Which skills have been improved? (Listening skills and others)

By working on this assignment, I personally feel that a lot of my skills have been improved.

 Listening skills:
Firstly, I have improved my listening for main ideas as I have to figure out the outline and the
organisation of the speech.
The second one is listening for details. I have to notice important details in order to see if this
talk is relatable and manageable for me or not. At first, it wasn’t easy because I rarely practice
my listening skills, but at the end, I still got all the details.
My note-taking skills also advanced as I had to note down key words instead of all the eleven-
minute video. Moreover, to do the assignment, I had to take notes twice, one is just information,
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 one is about the speaker’s tone and the evidences to support that. Now, I know how to write
faster and how to use symbols.
 Searching skills:
I spent a lot of time searching on the Internet to learn more about the topic “Urban Challenge”
as I do not want to choose a wrong listening document. Then I had to be sure that my source
is trustworthy, therefore; once again I had to search information about that problem. As a result,
I am able to choose the right key words to find the most relevant links for my works.
 Critical thinking:
I have enhanced my analysing skills as I had to infer from the talk the attitude of the speaker.
To do that, I had to noted how she talked, what facial expressions she was making, why she
talked about this certain thing. Then, I had to arrange what I noticed to make it logical and easy
to understand. Not only that, I understand more about how the ideas are connected to each
other (as I have to know the organisation of the speech)
 Writing skills: Because the assignment requires me to express my ideas, I had to find the
closest English word or phrase of a Vietnamese one. Moreover, I had to make sure that my
grammar was correct and the structure was okay.

SELF-EVALUATION
This is the first time I have ever done an assignment like this, so I encountered various
difficulties. At first, I did not really understand the term “urban challenge” and I had to do

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research and reread the book numerous time to be certain. It took me a week considering what
to choose and whether it is the right topic or not. The second one is time management problem.
Beside this assignment, I had a lot of other presentations as well as exercises. It was really
hard to manage all of them in such a short period of time and I had to reduce my leisure time
in order to finish everything in time. Thirdly, when I did the assignment, I faced a lot of different
issues. I found it quite tough to explain my idea concisely and I had to think and rewrite a lot
until I found the best way to express it. Furthermore, the part asking what the speaker’s attitude
is is truly rough because I had to support it with clues, which are hard to point out and present
it clearly.
However, after having confronted these difficulties, I gained a great deal of experience in
managing time, doing research, listening, analysing data, thinking critically, etc. I think this
assignment really does have a good influence on me and on my lifestyle.

REFERENCES

https://www.darksky.org/our-work/grassroots-advocacy/resources/glossary/

https://darksitefinder.com/maps/world#2/19.2/94.9

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MAIN LINK

https://www.ted.com/talks/diane_knutson_why_we_need_darkness

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