Not only is light pollution increasingly limiting our ability to see the stars, a study out of Germany has concluded it’s also contributing to climate change.

Christopher Kybah, with the German Centre for Geophysical Science, has run a tracking project for the past 12 years.

He’s concluded that the dimming sky brightness is a visual demonstration of waste.  He says we’re producing more light in cities than is necessary and the energy to keep the lights on is often the result of burning coal which adds to global warming.

Kybah estimates the amount of light pollution increased at a rate of about 10% in each year of the study.