City lights glowing under a night sky seen from a hill.
Quality of life

Red Initiative

A good life is more than a long one. It is clean air at night, a sky full of stars, streets that are pleasant to walk and years that stay healthy.

The Red Initiative looks at the quality of the lives we live on this planet: the darkness we have lost, the vandalism and heavy infrastructure that scar our streets and landscapes, and the growing science of how to stay healthy for longer. Each is a place where small, well-informed choices by individuals, neighbours and towns make a visible difference quickly.

The Milky Way arching across a starry sky above a dark forest and the silhouette of Devils Tower, Wyoming.
The Milky Way arching over Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming. Under a dark sky, this is what anyone can see on a clear night. Photo: Damon Joyce, US National Park Service, public domain

The questions we work on

  • The Light Initiative. Bringing back the night sky: why the stars are disappearing and how simple changes to lighting bring them back. Read about the Light Initiative.
  • Light pollution. Skyglow, glare, light trespass and clutter, and what they do to astronomy, wildlife, sleep and energy bills. Read the light pollution explainer.
  • Outdoor lighting. What to buy and what to avoid, with shielding, warm colours, timers and sensors explained. Read the outdoor lighting guide.
  • Visual pollution. Graffiti vandalism, which costs the public heavily and erodes people’s sense of safety; power lines, pylons and tangles of cables; and how well-placed signs and commissioned art can instead enrich a street. Read the visual pollution explainer.
  • Reversing ageing. The science of slowing and reversing ageing: why age drives most chronic disease, what rapamycin, senolytics, NAD+, telomerase and Yamanaka-factor reprogramming have and have not shown, what is already proven in people, and what longer healthy lives would mean for population. Every idea is labelled with the strength of its evidence. Read Reversing ageing: the science.
City lights and the Moon over the night side of Earth.
Seen from the International Space Station, the night side of Earth is lit more by cities than by the Moon. Credit: NASA
80%of people live under light-polluted skies (Falchi et al., 2016)
9.6%average yearly brightening of the night sky, 2011 to 2022 (Kyba et al., 2023)
2.1 billionpeople aged 60 or over expected by 2050 (WHO)

Quality of life is built from small things done well, repeated by many people.

How you can help

  • Switch off, shield and warm your outdoor lights, and help a neighbour do the same.
  • Organise a dark-sky evening or a star count in your area; volunteers can start one through the contribution board.
  • Ask your town for a lighting policy, fast graffiti removal, legal walls for artists, buried cables when streets are rebuilt, and walkable streets.
  • Move, sleep and connect. The habits that protect healthy ageing are the ones everyone can start today; Reversing ageing: the science sets out the evidence.