It is disheartening when artists and city officials alike are oblivious and apparently indifferent to the harm done by light pollution (A $1M public art project aims to illuminate Baltimore’s overlooked spaces, June 13, 2025).

As DarkSky International has been trying to tell people for years, light pollution (“the human-made alteration of outdoor light levels”) “disrupts wildlife, impacts human health, wastes money and energy, contributes to climate change, and blocks our view of the universe.”

Excess light harms nocturnal insects like fireflies and moths that pollinate plants, among others, and thus harms the plants and birds that feed on the insects, as well as the millions of migrating birds that are drawn off course by city lights and all too often end up running into lighted windows and dying.

In humans it contributes to sleep disorders, depression and other problems, and the lack of experience of the depth of the night sky is spiritually diminishing.

What would actually happen if the aurora borealis came to Baltimore is that no one could see it, and that is tragic. It might be argued that the grossly excessive lighting in Baltimore is so great that an artistic installation could do no more harm, but that is not true. More light, even if artfully devised and interesting, is more harm.

Light glaring out of windows, or at windows, or up at the sky, is harm. What the city needs is less total light, more focused light: downward-directed, warm-toned, and limited to the times and places where it performs a useful function.

Katharine W. Rylaarsdam, Baltimore

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