Light pollution darkens Hong Kong residents' mood (Feature)

By Jens Kastner Mar 24, 2010, 4:02 GMT

Hong Kong - Awestruck exclamations in a dozen languages accompany a barrage of camera flashes in the Victorian funicular tram leading up to the Peak, Hong Kong's most popular tourist attraction.

Night has fallen over the former British colony and tourists from all over the world enjoy the vista of the lit-up skyline of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.

Chinese people are said to abhor darkness and solitude. The more vibrant and bright things are, the better, or so traditional wisdom says.

But for many residents, the lack of nightly darkness in Hong Kong, one of the world's most densely populated, built-up cities, might be too much of a good thing.

They complain about light pollution, as ever more artificial lights brighten up the night sky, from spotlights on high-rise buildings to the ever-present neon signs.

Authorities said that complaints about the night-time brightness have increased significantly over the past two years.

Urban lighting, which turns the night sky a glimmering white, is also illuminating bedrooms and affects the quality of sleep, officials said.

Also, Hong Kong astronomers complained that they cannot see the stars any more.

'Light is somewhere it does not belong. That's the simple definition of light pollution,' said Zhen Xi-leng of the Hong Kong chapter of Friends of the Earth, an environmentalist pressure group.

Hong Kong was a textbook example of how not to use artificial light, the environmentalist added.

The Two International Finance Centre (2ICF), Hong Kong's tallest building, is a focal point of criticism.

The top of the 412-metre landmark, which featured prominently in one of the Lara Croft movies, shines its spotlights into space, causing headaches for environmentalists and the likes of Ju Weng-hong of the Hong Kong Astronomical Society.

According to his measurements, Hong Kong's night sky immediately became five times brighter when the 2ICF's lights were turned on in 2003. On rainy nights, the cloud cover acts like a screen, the astronomer said. On those nights, the brightness is up by a factor of 40.

An alliance of environmentalists and astronomers has been urging the Hong Kong government to act. Arguments have been ongoing about when to turn the lights on and off.

If the operators of high-rise buildings and shopping malls can argue that they bring in many tourists and therefore money with their light shows, then what about restaurants and jewellery stores?

Officials have also come under scrutiny: the public road authority for excessive street lighting and the health office for allowing super-bright floodlights at municipal sports sites.

Scientists argue about the extent of light pollution's negative effects on human health. They have found, however, that in cities like Hong Kong, people's day-night rhythm changes.

According to sleep researchers, excessive artificial light can lead not only to insomnia, but also to cardiovascular problems and can affect the digestive system.

Friends of the Earth said that creative solutions to the light-pollution problem could come from specialists like Australian light designer Simon McCartney.

McCartney is one of the developers of A Symphony of Lights, a daily music performance at Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour that comes complete with a light and laser show.

According to McCartney, bad lightning angles are a main contributor to light pollution. The proper positioning of urban light sources - rather than the number of them - was the problem, he said.

'I always wonder about how Hong Kong deals with artificial light,' he said. 'In Australia, like in many other Western countries, it is simply forbidden to shine floodlights directly into the sky.'