When looking for ways to reduce our environmental impact, some of the lowest hanging fruit comes in the form of wasteful outdoor lighting.  Currently Edmonton is doubling lighting levels -- often in spite of citizen requests to leave them alone -- in established communities through its Neighbourhood Renewal program.   A local professional engineer (with 40 years of experience in lighting and construction) calculated the costs of continuing this program, based on some rough assumptions.  The total costs, just for the increased lighting, are projected at around $ 2.5 million per year.  That's not to mention direct impacts of excess night-time lighting on human health, environmental health (a huge amount of research here), and quality of life (stress, view of the night sky, etc.).  There are also substantial indirect effects from the power production necessary to create light pollution:  expanded carbon footprint, air & water pollution (NOx, SOx, mercury, lead, etc.), wasted national resources.

Fortunately, several communities in Western Canada have shown the way to save money and reduce the negative impact of light pollution.  Calgary is a great example.  They completed a program to replace their old sag-lens street lights with more efficient flat-lens fixtures.  Less energy wasted on light into bedroom windows and the night sky means lower watage bulbs can deliver adequate street lighting.  The energy savings in Calgary paid for the new lights and is delivering the city $1.7 million per year in ongoing energy savings.  The stars are easier to see.  Migratory birds, pollinating insects, frogs and other creatures are less stressed by the light pollution.  Why don't we do that!