Abstract
Durmus 1 recently argued that the word artificial in ‘artificial night lighting’ or ‘artificial light at night’ should be replaced with the word anthropogenic because this different term ‘explicitly attributes the source of light generation to human activities.’ Durmus’s assertion that anthropogenic is more ‘accurate’ or ‘precise’ than the word artificial is itself inaccurate; a common definition of artificial is ‘made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally, especially as a copy of something natural’ 2 and indeed being created by humans is the fundamental distinguishing characteristic of artificiality. The term ‘artificial light at night’ has been used in English scientific communication without undue confusion since at least 1859. 3
Durmus goes on to suggest that ‘electric lighting’ could be an alternative because other lighting sources are obsolete. I respectfully suggest that this is not the case, and that combustion, especially burning gas associated with oil drilling, is an important source of artificial light over large areas of the planet.4,5
We had considered but rejected the use of anthropogenic when organizing the conference that resulted in the edited book Ecological Consequences of Artificial Night Lighting. 6 We used artificial because it was plain language that the public would understand. Our effectiveness as scientists relies on being understood, and unnecessary use of more complicated words does not help. Artificial occurs at a rate of about 20 per million words in written English, 7 whereas anthropogenic occurs at 0.7 times per million. 8
I am the corresponding author of a paper that Durmus describes as championing the use of the term anthropogenic applied to light and sound, 9 so I am not opposed to the term. In that paper, however, we did not opine on the use of the term but rather used it as being appropriate for an audience of specialists and in a technical venue.
For these reasons, and with respect and appreciation for Dr. Durmus’s desire for effective communication and coexistence in the nocturnal environment, I will not be universally replacing ‘artificial light’ with ‘anthropogenic light’, especially in communication with the public. Our limitations here are not unrefined language, but the political will to understand and act, and those require plain talk.
