Copyright 1999, Environmental News
Network
By Philip Bourjaily
December 25, 1999
While the night sky fills us with wonder, we instinctively fear the dark. After all, things that go bump in the night used to eat us. Since the discovery of fire, humans have tried to hold the night at bay. The modern equivalent of casting out the shadows is lighting up the landscape.
But we may have gone too far.
It is estimated that only 10 percent of Americans now see the night sky in its "natural state," meaning a clear view of the stars and the heavens beyond.
The rest of us have our view partially obscured by man-made ground lights. The eyesore is called "light pollution."
The promise of a night under a pristine sky draws thousands visitors to our national parks annually. Yet a report titled "Vanishing Night Skies," published in March by the National Parks and Conservation Association, makes clear that light pollution is degrading our park's night skies. Lights from within the parks themselves, from nearby "gateway communities" and from cities up to 100 miles away brighten the skies over many of our national parks.
"Nothing can match the inspiration of holding a child's hand and looking up at the night sky," says "Night Skies" author David Simon, southwest regional director of the NPCA. "If you can't do that in our national parks, it's a sad commentary on what we've done to this continent."
"We're at the point with light pollution in the '90s that we were with air pollution in the '50s," Simon continues. We're just now beginning to realize the scope of the problem."
The problem is large indeed: 94 percent of overnight parks — where camping is permitted — surveyed for "Vanishing Night Skies" deemed the night sky an important park resource. Sixty-two percent of national park units conduct night-sky interpretive programs ranging from star-gazing to bat-watching to "Hallowed Ground" programs at Civil War battlefields. Two-thirds of the parks rated light pollution a resource problem.
At Florida's Gulf Islands National Seashore, newly hatched sea turtles that instinctively home in on the starlight reflected off the ocean instead wander onshore to die, confused by beach lighting. In Hawaii's Haleakala National Park, an endangered bird, the dark-rumped petrel, is fatally attracted to streetlights. Bright lights disrupt the circadian rhythms of trees, causing them to drop their leaves too late in the year.
Economically, inappropriate exterior lighting costs the U.S. $1.5 billion annually according to "Vanishing Night Skies." That figure is based on a conservative estimate that 30 percent of all exterior lighting is directed upward, where it serves no functional purpose, according to Bob Gent of the International Dark Sky Association (IDA).
The report recommends that the Park Service reduce pollution within parks. Also, gateway communities should have light ordinances; Congress should bolster the EPA's "Green Lights" program; and light pollution in the Midwest, Pacific and intermountain regions should be addressed before it becomes more serious.
"We needn't live in the dark to reduce light pollution," says Simon. "There are win-win solutions that will improve quality of life and save money. It's a question of using technology we have now."
Sports complexes, billboards, 24-hour gas stations and malls are some of the worst light polluters.
Bright lights don't necessarily equal safety. Simon points out that glaring bright lights also create dark shadows. More moderate, better planned lighting creates safer, more evenly lit parking lots and city streets while saving money and reducing glare. Light shields can direct street lighting down, where it's needed, without brightening the sky. The cost of the transition to more efficient lighting is offset by energy savings of up to 50 percent.
Other, higher-tech solutions may soon be feasible. Simon envisions motion sensors on remote stretches of road, turning on lights only when a car approaches.
"Vanishing Night Skies" urges the Park Service to assume a leadership role in the fight against light pollution. By expanding night sky programs, parks can increase public awareness of light pollution. "We can solve this problem without sacrifice," concludes Simon. "Our biggest obstacle is ignorance of the problem and its solutions."