'Cities at Night' project puts citizens to work identifying images of Earth

BTW, I find it very helpful for my photography. I have taken wonderful, to my eyes at least, photos in Shanghai in the evening. Instead of the black boring sky, I get a glowing orange one.

Light pollution does cause serious problems. The issue is not new.

From Wikipedia, "Medical research on the effects of excessive light on the human body suggests that a variety of adverse health effects may be caused by light pollution or excessive light exposure...may include: increased headache incidence, worker fatigue, medically defined stress, decrease in sexual function and increase in anxiety...

"Light pollution poses a serious threat in particular to nocturnal wildlife, having negative impacts on plant and animal physiology. It can confuse animal navigation, alter competitive interactions, change predator-prey relations…deleterious impacts on animals and ecosystems because of perturbation of polarized light or artificial polarisation of light (even during the day, because direction of natural polarization of sun light and its reflexion is a source of information for a lot of animals)…Lights on tall structures can disorient migrating birds…" (who are known to use the stars)

Yes. Light pollution can make you feel like singing Barbra Streisand's songs in the shower, among other serious health issues.

The sad thought that people don't believe in light pollution problems and are joking about them here reminded me of something I read recently. There's a big scenic rock on the Oregon Coast that's a tourist attraction for the town of Cannon Beacn. When the highway went in, the town was concerned people wouldn't stop anymore so they installed bright lights on the huge rock so people could see it from the highway at night. What could go wrong, right? Well, turns out the rock is a major nesting habitat for migrating seabirds. The bright lights completely confused and alarmed the birds because they couldn't find their nests. Big deal, right?

The confused birds, who couldn't find their way back to their nests in all the glare, fled to the seacoast. Which is where the town is. The people woke up next morning to a town absolutely buried in bird crap. And it kept happening, every day, until the town took down the lights.

It appears you've posted your complaint here from a networked computer of some sort.

You may not like it, but almost all the advances in technology, such as the microprocessor, complex electronic components, the image sensor in your camera, and most of all the high tech devices we have in industry, medicine, and consumer products is a direct consequence of military and scientific programs, including the space program.