2016-05-17 · people
A third of humanity cannot see the Milky Way
Artificial light at night washes out stars — and disrupts wildlife and sleep.
Planetary boundaries love waffle charts — one cell is a fixed sip of the whole resource. This grid divides world population (2016 snapshot) into colored bands — Sky too bright for Milky Way and Darker night skies — using equal squares so you compare shares, not country size on a map.
1 cell = 8.2 million people (0.1% of world population) · 1,000 cells
Context
The 2016 figures from Science Advances — light pollution put Darker night skies at 67% of world population and Sky too bright for Milky Way at 33% — roughly 8.2 billion people in this edition's rounding.
Science Advances 2016: ~83% world population lives under light-polluted skies; ~33% cannot see Milky Way.
Falchi et al. Science Advances 2016: ~83% world population lives under light-polluted skies; ~33% cannot see Milky Way.
Share and export
Credit this grid as Inagrid — https://inagrid.com/e/2016-05-17-light-pollution