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cannot see the Milky Way Galaxy. Specifically, 80% of humans cannot see it in North America, 60% in Europe, and 98% in places such as Israel, Kuwait, Malta, and Qatar. Meanwhile, in Boston, Washington DC, London, Beijing, and Hong Kong, no one can see it at all.

of all people in the world are living under light polluted skies. Additionally, a study from 2017 suggests that worldwide, light pollution increases by roughly two percent a year between 2012 and 2016. Although it does not seem like much right now, percentages compound.

The amount of energy used every year for outdoor lighting as in parking lots, street lights, etc, which, in comparison, is only about 13% of electricity used by homes. A third of this energy is wasted, and leads to an estimated $3.3 billion annual waste (International Dark Sky Association).

One terrawatt is equivalent to one billion kilowatts.

recorded power outages affected 36.7 million people in 2017. While the number of outages is a decrease from 2016, the number of people affected is more than twice the 17.9 million that were affected in 2016. The average power outage in 2017 lasted approximately 81 minutes. In 2014, the United State’s electric grid was losing power more often than any other developing nation. Those in Japan averaged 4 minutes of downtime every year, while those in the Pacific Northwest averaged about 214 minutes of downtime.

In the case of England, for example, the current production of artificial light is estimated to be at least 350,000 times greater than that of the late sixteenth century. The total consumption of lighting from the 18th century to today increased more than 100,000-fold over these three centuries in the UK.