Please Turn Off The Lights

When I was a child living about 40 minutes outside of New York City, it was still possible to see the Milky Way on a clear, dark night. But that view was nothing compared to when I went out to Colorado as a teenager - the sky at night was magnificent and magical. That sense of awe in seeing the stars at night is what led to my interest in astronomy. And, sadly, it is something that a majority of the US and Europe can no longer see.

Besides losing that sense of awe that shows us all how small and insignificant our world really is, recent studies have shown that the perpetual twilight that we live in at night is not only bad for human health but also throws off the rhythms of the animals around us. And, as usual, we do this primarily out of fear - fear of the dark and what might be hiding in the darkness.  In a marvelous book called The End Of Night by Paul Bogard, he shows how it doesn't have to be this way.  Flood lights actually blind us at night and create the dark spaces for criminals to hide in. Much of the light actually escapes upward toward the sky, confusing flying creatures rather than illuminating the ground. Parking lots are flooded with light all night even when all the stores are closed. Of course, it only takes a few minutes in the dark for your eyes to adjust and you'd be surprised at how easy it is to see when that happens. You can easily read a book with just the light of the full moon.

Light pollution is probably not one of the most pressing issues we face these days. But with the technological advances in lighting these days, it really would not be a huge effort to reduce it significantly. Wouldn't it be worth that effort to see the stars again - I certainly think so. With that I'll leave you with one of my favorite New Yorker cartoons: