Under the slogan “Lights out – for a whole night”, members of the public, businesses and organisations are also being called upon to switch off or dim non-essential outdoor lighting once it gets dark, or by 10 pm at the latest. Lighting required for safety reasons is exempt from this.
Artificial light can be particularly harmful to insects, birds and other nocturnal animals. Furthermore, unnecessary lighting consumes energy and outshines the natural night sky.
Unlike Earth Hour (during which the lights are switched off for one hour in the evening every March), Earth Night is about switching off or dimming the lights from nightfall onwards for the whole of the night.
Earth Night aims to draw attention to the problem of ever-increasing light pollution caused by the unchecked use of artificial light. The campaign was initiated by the ‘Paten der Nacht’ (Godparents of the Night), a non-profit, non-partisan organisation dedicated to curbing light pollution.
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