Every year, on July 8, at 1:15 p.m. Paris time, something exceptional happens. This is when the smallest part of the world’s population is plunged into darkness. Only 1%.
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For the past few days, astonishing information has been circulating online. We are told that this Friday, July 8, at exactly 1:15 p.m., Paris time, 99% of the world population will be somewhere still the rising and the setting of the Sun. This July 8, finally like all the others!
Each 8th of July, at 11:15 UTC, 99% of the world’s population is experiencing daylight. This day should have a name, and it should be a holiday. pic.twitter.com/4BcDS4MHKy
— The Decolonial Atlas (@decolonialatlas) July 7, 2021
But the information deserves some clarification. First of all, note that indeed, this Friday, July 8, 2022, at 1:15 p.m., almost all the most populated regions of the world will receive their share of sunshine. North America, South America, Europe, Africa and much of Asia. Eventually, only Australia, New Zealand, some parts of Southeast Asia and Antarctica will be immersed in the dark. Regions in which only about 80 million people live. That’s about 1% of the world’s population.
Between day and night, twilight
But note all the same that this does not quite mean that 99% of the population will be illuminated by the sun. A more detailed look shows that 83% of us will actually be in broad daylight. The 16% who miss to reach the figure that makes the buzz will be affected by a light more indirect. They will be immersed in a dusk.
A dusk because there are actually three phases of twilight. The darkest, what scientists call astronomical twilight, looks like night. The brightness which then arrives from a sun located between 12 and 18° below the horizon is so weak that it is not perceptibleeye human. And 3% of the world’s population will be in this situation this Friday, July 8 at 1:15 p.m.
People living in regions bathed in so-called nautical twilight — with the sun between 6 and 12° below the horizon — will only be able to tell the difference with the night if they are in non-urban areas. Far from there light pollution towns. Finally, people affected by civil twilight will be able to perceive daylight.
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