Granite Geek: LEDs Efficient, But Cause More Light Pollution

When a city replaces its old-fashioned streetlights with efficient LED lights, it can save a bundle of money on its electricity bills. But it can also dramatically increase light pollution, which is really unpleasant for astronomers and those among of us who like to do a little star-gazing on cloudless nights. The kind of light these LEDs emit can cloud our view of constellations. Granite Geek David Brooks throws some light—so to speak—on the unintended consequences of this efficiency measure in his column this week in The Concord Monitor, and he joined NHPR’s Peter Biello to discuss his findings.