Light pollution is also a threat to rural areas, and it’s disrupting ecosystems that rely on natural darkness. ... “We’ve always had this two-pronged approach: addressing the problem largely where it exists, which is in the cities, while recognizing the rural areas where darkness still exists [as] a form of natural resource,” says John Barentine, the organization’s policy director. “So we are concerned about some of these places that are lighting on Tim’s map.”

"It's become very clear to us that there are rhythms that are established by light and dark that are set to natural sources like the sun," said John Barentine, who lives in Arizona and is director of public policy at the International Dark-Sky Association. "And by exposing ourselves to artificial light during those times of day when the body and the brain don't expect them to be there, it can have the effect of beginning a cascade of biological processes that might lead to certain kinds of chronic diseases.
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"We are animals that exist in a natural world and we're disrupting that natural world and that has distinct consequences."

​Astronomer John Barentine agrees this isn’t a bright idea — or actually, bright is the problem. Barentine serves as both director of conservation for the International Dark-Sky Association in Tucson, Arizona, and a member of the American Astronomical Society’s Committee on Light Pollution, Radio Interference and Space Debris. He says these space billboards could qualify as both light pollution and space debris and possibly even disrupt radio signals.

“It’s a threat to the ability to do astronomical research from the ground,” he says, noting that SpaceX’s plans to add at least another 7,500 CubeSats into low-earth orbit will also factor into the problem. “Every one of those moving blips of light in the night sky is something that can interfere with our ability to collect photons from astronomical sources.”