This is a really interesting journey into how darkness and it's opposite light affect both animal and human life. How there may be more extinction of organisms from the ever increasing amounts of kight in every day (and night( life.

it is difficult to say much more as non-fiction it is what it is a well balanced review of our increasing lack of true darkness

This is a book that examines how light pollution is threatening the ancient rhythms of life on planet Earth. It is at heart a passionate appeal for us to cherish natural darkness for the sake of the environment, our own wellbeing, and indeed all life on earth. The author also discusses the impact of light pollution on the environment, including the disruption of ecosystems and the loss of biodiversity.

Having read the book, I was delighted to find someone who is even more passionate about the amount of light pollution that we have inflicted on the planet. The author, Johan Eklöf concludes the book by calling for action to reduce light pollution. He suggests a number of ways that we can do this, including using more efficient lighting, turning off lights when they are not needed, and supporting organizations that are working to reduce light pollution.

I highly recommend reading "The Darkness Manifesto". It is an important book that raises awareness of a serious environmental problem.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very accessible read about the changes to our night skies. Light pollution is a problem for all sorts of reasons. Mr Eklöf says:-

"Only one in five people in Europe can see the Milky Way on a daily basis, and in North America and Europe, nearly everyone, ninety nine percent, lives under a sky affected by artificial light. Few people know real darkness or what a starry sky looks like."

99% is a huge amount of people in a large part of the world, but we aren’t even necessarily aware of what we’re missing. We learn the impact that this has on our health, our creativity, and our planet. The author is obviously very learned but this book could be read by anyone. I have minimal knowledge of science or astronomy but this all made such sense. I would like to sit outside quietly at night and wait the required time till my eyes adjust to darkness and see what is visible up there. And maybe I will when the weather improves…

Regardless this is a manifesto we should all be aware of and try to get behind. Do we really need all those external lights on buildings?

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley

My thanks to Random House U.K. Vintage Bodley Head for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Darkness Manifesto’ by Johan Eklöf. Originally published in Sweden, it was translated from the Swedish by Elizabeth DeNoma.

Johan Eklöf is a Swedish bat scientist and in this work he examines how light pollution is threatening the ancient rhythms of life on planet Earth. It is at heart a passionate appeal for us to cherish natural darkness for the sake of the environment, our own wellbeing, and indeed all life on earth.

I found this a well written, accessible read and that Johan Eklöf made a strong case for natural darkness. As expected from a bat scientist there is a wealth of information about these fascinating creatures.

Following the main text there are a list of resources for additional reading and listening, sources, and an index.

An insightful, well researched and fascinating read. The perfect balance between the wonders of the night, the risks they’re under and what we must collectively do to ensure their survival. A passionate plea to not fear the dark and to do all we can to save it’s inhabitants. I’ve loved it so much I’ve bought the hardback as gifts too!

The Darkness Manifesto is a well-researched book on the effects of our ever-increasing love of artificial light on our world. I was aware of the effect of light pollution on our night skies and have seen several studies on the need for humans to maintain their circadian rhythms but I had no idea about the implications for wildlife. Even basic information that bats and moths are important pollinators was new to me.

The author is a bat scientist and there is a heavy emphasis on bats during the book but also on birds and other creatures such as coral . I found the book to be extremely informative and it certainly made me aware of issues that I had not previously thought of. It was probably especially apt to read this over the Christmas and New Year period when our towns and homes are all illuminated even more than usual.

The book is very research heavy and at times, I found it to be quite disjointed and lacking a strong narrative flow. There were several times when he cited a specific incident or piece of research and then just moved straight onto something else when I expected that he would make a further point.

I did enjoy reading this and certainly learned a lot from it. I liked the final part which is his Darkness Manifesto, a series of simple actions that anyone can do.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A call to action for humans to reclaim our night sky, and an ode to the forgotten pleasures of darkness. This book carries an urgency as well, a warning that if we refuse to act, to give the night back to those creatues who rely on it, we may lose them altogether.

Until I read this book all I knew about light pollution was its effect on the night sky, how artificial light impairs our view of the sky, the stars and the planets. But I hadn’t realised just how much it adversely affects our environment, wildlife and our own health. This book is full of fascinating facts about the impact that darkness and the night have on all living creatures, including ourselves.

Artificial lighting today makes up a tenth of our total energy usage but most of it is of little benefit to us, spilling out into the sky. Animals cannot distinguish between artificial light and natural daylight which means their circadian rhythms are disrupted, sending body clocks awry, disrupting our sleep.

There is, of course, the need for safety and security, and Eklöf cites several examples of places around the world that have projects that promote darkness, and have established light pollution laws, such as France where there are regulations to limit how much light, and what kind of light, can be emitted into the atmosphere. The light needs to be adapted to suit the needs of both animals and humans.

Eklöf ends his book with his Darkness Manifesto, urging us to become aware of the darkness, to protect and preserve it individually by turning off lights when not in a room, and letting your garden rest in darkness at night; to discover nocturnal life; to observe the different phases of twilight and how the sun gives way to the moon and stars; and to learn more about the darkness and its importance for the survival of animals and plants. He also asks us to inform local authorities about the dangers of light pollution. To my mind the current energy crisis is another reason to reduce our use of lighting and electricity.

My thanks to the publishers for a review copy via NetGalley.

This is a beautifully written book however for me it was a little too basic, I think it's more aimed at people with less of an ecology or related background.
The chapters are kept short which is great when learning about new topics and the author adding his own experiences was nice to read and I'd have liked more of this.

What a totally fascinating and readable Manifesto this is and so worth the time to read. Most folk take light availability as their right: street, home, car, decor. What we seldom think about and even less often do anything about is the light pollution that we generate and expect to be generated on our behalf and the effect that it has had, does have and will have on the living things that share this planet with us.

Do please read this book and encourage your family and friends to read it too. With a little bit of focus, a little bit of change and a little bit of word spreading, I would like to think that we can help nature return to a more helpful environment.

This is an interesting and thought provoking book about light pollution. i think that plenty of people don't know what the sky looks like if you are in the country or far from a town.
it's a marvellous sight and we are losing it.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

This book really makes you think about light pollution. We take light for granted. but don't consider the effect it has on our wellbeing and the disruption it causes to our wildlife. It is apparent from the author's meticulous research that things are getting worse.
There appears to be a lot of unnecessary illumination these days. Possibly people feel less secure concerning darkness. Crime perhaps being part of the issue. Of more concern are disrupted sleep patterns caused by small screen and ambient street lights.
You don't imagine that you cannot see the galaxy so clearly unless you are in a dark sky area. The book is thought-provoking and yet again , we as a species are to blame. The author suggests various ways that we can all employ to reduce the effect of the problems of light pollution..
A very interesting read.

I have lived in London all of my life, and if you ask me what colour the night sky is, I would say dirty brown. The sodium orange glow of London streetlights (which have slowly changed in my lifetime) shines just under one million lights in the sky. It's a wonder it gets dark at all. The countryside on the other hand is weird. It has a dark sky. Then loads and loads of these little twinkly things come out - just as your eyes get used to the dark. It is frankly a little disconcerting. So I came into The Darkness Manifesto, a campaign against light pollution, with plenty of views on the subject. All of which are neatly summarised in the first chapter. Ourselves, and the natural world, are biologically cued to light and darkness, and constant light shining everywhere is knocking us out of kilter. And then chapter two gave a few more examples. And chapter three. And...

The Darkness Manifesto is not really a manifesto. It is far too reasonable a book to use to take to the streets. Eklöf studies bats so he's well aware that his love of darkness might be a peculiar quirk of his own. I think he doesn't need to argue too much, certainly not at the expense of perhaps coming up with a plan. There is a point when I shouted alright already at the book when he was telling me about certain moths which were not sexually active, they were one of hundreds of case studies he eludes to, alongside the effect on humans. And yet when he gets near the end he equivocates - he knows the streetlights are good for safety,,,

The Darkness Manifesto is a good summary of the effects of artificial light in our world. But as he gets to the end he starts to consider the midground of ultra-cheap, low power, directional, electromagnetic spectrum-limited LED's and any suggestion that he will be gluing his face to a Van Gogh to get lightbulbs turned off dissipates. He's far too reasonable to be a rabble-rouser, and whilst this is interesting as a collection of scientific tidbits, he ends up coming up with a wishy-washy set of ideas, and compromises which aren't really given enough space to feel fully formed.

I have reviewed The Darkness Manifesto for LoveReading.co.uk, choosing it as both a LoveReading Star Book and Liz Pick of the Month. Please see LoveReading site for the full review.

A lot has been said of light pollution and how it has stolen the delight of seeing the stars from us. In <i>The Darkness Manifesto, </i> Eklöf brings to attention its more sinister implications towards our world. Speaking from expertise as a bat scientist, he addressed how the dying darkness affects life on earth by disrupting our circadian rhythm—be it bats, moths, and other insects and pollinators, birds, turtles, tigers, whales, or human beings, we are all significantly, worryingly endangered by the postmodern era's burst of artificial illumination. Having explored the reason for pushing the darkness, he advocates for dwelling in a balance with the light, and leads readers towards considering a future where we embrace the night and its gift of shadows.

Though well-intentioned and informative, I found the book somewhat lacking in terms of narrative. The research, albeit deserving of attention, is often presented in a disjointed, jerky fashion that does not suit the purpose of the volume; the impact of light pollution being left to float on the page rather than being driven home does not flatter the nature of this book as a manifesto. Still, Eklöf here manages to make a significant amount of scientific study fairly accessible, and successfully invites the reader to contend with our relationship with sight, with light, and with the night. With the right editor and a different narrative approach, this could be a 5 star read.

This is an excellent book, full of interesting evidence, arguments, and food for thought. The writer has an engaging style, although he does tend to jump about from one subject to another. It may be Kindle run-on formatting to a certain extent. Eklöf covers a huge amount of material, all of it of interest to me, from bats his specialism) to LEDs. He covers evolution of sight: I’ve not considered how we got from primordial soup to animals with eyes and other sensory organs developed. There is plenty of delving into geological evidence, often in Sweden, in different types of geology from that I’m used to.

In many ways this was the charm of the book. It is cross-cutting in terms of its scientific disciplines, but in a way that delves further than my scope. The examination of the physics of light blends into the structure of the eye. Yes, we did this school. But what about the development of sight in other ways, and the adaptations of human eyesight to low levels?

We are still speculating about the exact form of sight in other mammals. All we can guess is that their ability to see infrared somehow ‘looks’ like our IR cameras. But we only know they see things differently at night. It made me think more about my own pets, not only what they see, but the light conditions that they need for health. In the Darkness Manifesto, the author devotes a large section to the physical need for changing light. Not just light intensity but hue, for a period of natural darkness. This leads into how light pollution disrupts whole ecologies. The food chain will collapse if we don’t act fast.

Whether it was the translation or something else, there were several phrases that didn’t make sense to me. Some were funny, others just left me wondering what the author meant. ‘Undecayed animals’ in a rock formation confused me. The statue of a scientist where ‘you’ll see a small box with a bat on one knee’ amused me. Is the bat kneeling on the box? Has the box got a knee? Just one thing that could be phrased better.

I made plenty of notes because I would like to follow them up. This book did not have references in the text, and I really wanted them. I would love to send the relevant research links to our highways department, who recently consulted us on street lighting plans. There is a Reference section at the back, in alphabetical order, but no hint in the text to help you find the one you want. Paper titles are not necessarily obvious. The references and further reading take 10% of the book. A nice chunk.

Usability details aside, this is an important book. It covers the many aspects of light pollution in a pragmatic way, as well as re-examining the human relationship with the dark. And finishes with great examples of countries that are making a difference.

This is a passionate, research-based book that is also very accessible to the layman and sets out both the problems that our light drenched world faces and a way forward that can benefit all life on earth, including ourselves. It is an argument that will undoubtedly face opposition, most obviously around questions of safety, but it is surely also something that we need to be discussing because there is a balance to be struck.

Whenever a conversation strikes up about the environment and human impacts upon it, there is a tendency to de-camp into opposing sides of all or nothing (in fact that is the case with many topics in the public sphere) but the reality is that solutions can be matched to local situations that suit both the human and non-human life that shares each space. It may be lighting at certain times and not at others, or a change in the lighting colour or direction to provide different types of light to suit the natural cycle.

We need to stop seeing the way that we live within the limits of the planet and alongside all other life as a battle between right and wrong, but rather as a dance in which all life is able to participate and flourish. Johan Eklöf achieves this in his Darkness Manifesto not by waging war on light but by working through the ways in which it helps and hinders us all, understanding the benefits of both light and dark on our wellbeing, and offering balance where we currently have excess. It is a model we could apply much more actively in our debates and actions.

The tagline to the book is “How light pollution threatens the ancient rhythms of life” and it can feel sometimes like human life is under attack from all angles, but in reality it is the case that we have simply allowed many aspects of the way we live to get out of hand. Our demand to be free of limits means that we have overstretched ourselves and we need to re-learn how freedom flows from limits rather than being restrained by them.

The chapters are small, presenting a series of essays on different aspects of the topic, and the language is straightforward to get along with. Eklöf works through the science behind his arguments but does not create a barrier with it and he closes with some simple ideas to consider in your personal journey. Coincidently, just last night, I was at a meeting of a local group of people interested in living more sustainably and the topic of streetlights was raised by a member of the group. It is clearly something that is on people’s minds and it was great to immediately be able to offer some supporting arguments from this book.

I’m also about to go on holiday and will be taking part in a dark walk on Exmoor, which is soon to celebrate its annual Dark Skies Festival, and feel all the more inspired to participate in the event and take that experience of darkness into my day-to-day life. The Darkness Manifesto is an engaging and timely book with a strong and positive message. I shall be recommending it widely and introducing its themes into both the conversations I have locally and my own personal experiments in trying to live more sustainably and in tune with the natural rhythms of the world.

I was invited to read The Darkness Manifesto by Penguin Random House, via #NetGalley.

Of course, I was aware that light pollution was a problem, but I guess I’d thought of it more as an aesthetic issue than an environmental issue.

Nope.

Johan Eklöf, a Swedish bat researcher, takes a look at the importance of darkness, and the changes light pollution brings, covering everything- biology, ecology, history, physics, architecture… - and so much more! We explore how the land, sea and sky are all affected, understand the scale of insect decline, hear about Chengdu’s plan for an artificial moon, and how pollution is being reduced or mitigated in (admittedly) small areas across the globe.

The approach is broad rather than deep - you will want to go away and find out more for yourself, but there’s an extensive bibliography to help you with that. However, I had a ‘what, really?!’ moment almost every chapter. Quite fascinating, and incredibly eye-opening, and it will make me much more aware of tiny changes I can make.

UK publication 3rd November.

I will preface this review with the caveat that I am probably not the best kind of reader for this book. This book is, to me, a little more basic than I'm used to - aimed at people who are not ecologists (or members of related disciplines) by training.

That said, this is a beautiful and lovingly written exploration of the importance of night to ecosystems, species, and human society. I found the ultra-short chapter style not quite to my taste, but I imagine this will suit many other readers well, especially those who might find themselves absorbing a lot of new information. I particularly appreciated the sections when Eklöf wove his own personal and family experiences into the narrative - I would have liked even more of this!

A digestible, accessible, and engagingly-written ode to life in the darkness.

(With thanks to Random House and NetGalley for this ebook in exchange for an honest review)