Where have all the Stars gone?

I mentioned in a recent post that I was on holiday in West Wales recently. One thing really struck me while I was there. Llangranog is a tiny hamlet in an idyllic cove. There are some houses, two pubs and a cafe. As I mentioned we stayed in one of the pubs right next to the beach. Each night we were there I would wander out on to the beach just before going to bed to have a smoke. I remember looking up and seeing a clear sky with lots of bright stars. Where I live on the edge of Bristol you can look up on a clear night and see just a few of the brightest of stars.
I got to thinking: Is this a result of global warming? Is it atmospheric pollution? After all when I was a kid (was it really half a century ago?) I lived pretty well in the heart of Bristol. We all burned dirty coal fires to keep warm. There was still plenty of heavy industry in the area pumping out more fumes and pollution. The Clean Air Act hadn't even been thought of. And yet, if you looked up on a clear night you could see thousands of stars - the bright, the not-so-bright and many hundreds of small dim specks in the sky.
Then the real reason dawned on me.
Light pollution.
We are obsessed with light. We more or less floodlight our streets and motorways. People light up their gardens for "ambiance". We have security lights, advertising lights all blazing away all night. Car lights are much more powerful nowadays and there are so many more vehicles on the roads. I sometimes feel we even have lights to light up our lights!
I can't talk. The company I work for sells all sorts of lights including the ubiquitous security lights and garden lighting. Everything from a 0.2 watt LED garden lamp to a 500 watt security floodlight. Now many of these devices have some advice in their instructions for use about using lights responsibly in order to reduce the impact of light pollution. But who reads the instructions? I suspect very few. Thus many security lights invade their neighbours' privacy and many light up as much sky as garden.
If only we could have a special night designated "No Lights Night". If it happened people would look up and be astounded at how much light Mother Nature provided and how much of it we are drowning with our own brash and ugly floods of misdirected light.
Think of the stars we could see.
Think of the carbon emissions which could be saved.
But then, think of the rich pickings for all the burglars . . .