The US has 46 million people living in rural areas with little light pollution. Europe is more densely populated than the US and urban light pollution is probably the only type of pollution that is significantly worse here than in the US.

There are of course also hundreds of millions of people in the developing world living in rural areas but they likely have other life priorities than noticing lights in the sky.

My point is that whatever it is it is probably a global phenomenon but only Americans are both geographically and culturally inclined (Hollywood) to notice and report it.