KSU: WRIT 3170
April 30, 2012
I finally saw Saturn’s rings on a crisp, clear night on the overlook of Turtle Rock at the observatory for Young Harris College. Seeing the rings took the power of a Schmidt Cassegrain telescope that is housed in a metal dome at the top of Turtle Rock. The dome could comfortably hold fifteen people. Unlike in the books that I used to read as a child, the rings didn’t have color to them. They were just wispy strands of white that encircled the large orb. Yet, even without the color it was still amazing to see the planets in real life.
James Madison University Light Pollution Map
On that mountaintop, the sky seemed to go on forever; anyone could just look up and be engulfed with the darkness of the sky. It felt like I could shake hands with both Sirius and Mars that glitter in the sky. Once I moved away from the mountains, and into the suburbs of Atlanta, I have found myself longing to see the stars that have become my close friends. The sky has a permanent glow that has created a wall between people and the night sky that cannot be broken.
Light pollution has become a problem to many because it is an endangerment to wildlife, it adds more pollution to our environment, it has become a health hazard to us, and this hazard is expensive to maintain to begin with. There are many reasons to get rid of light pollution, yet we are not as aware of it as other forms of pollution. That is, we are not aware of it until the light is shining in our face.
Dark Sky Association president Robert Wagner said that he started his dark night campaign because, “[He] finally had enough of the streetlights shining into my house and bedroom to approach the city of Kansas City about shielding the lights. During this meeting, they [the city hall of Kansas City ] said that these lights were the best and lowest polluting, nothing could be done. So [he] decided to work toward educating the city and pushing for better design and engineering standards for light trespass.”
It is not just the sleepers or stargazers that are taking up issue with all of the light pollution that our developed areas are producing. Along with losing their living space due to the deforestation that comes with development, animals are getting hurt or even killed because of light pollution. Light pollution, according to Wildlands CPR writer Tiffany Saleh, harms all animals because of, “disorientation from and attraction to artificial light, structural-related mortality due to disorientation, and effects on the light-sensitive cycles of many species.”
In his article, that was published in The Times West Virginian, Jake Stump wrote about hundreds of birds that were found dead outside of Tucker County High School in 2008. Stump’s wrote that the school administers shut down the school that day because they believed that the flock had a disease and that is why birds kept flying into the window glass. Then West Virginia Division of Natural Resources spokesperson Hoy Murphy told him that the birds were actually attracted to the lights that the school was emitting that dark, foggy morning: ‘“Migratory songbirds migrate at night and use stars to navigate,” said Hoy, “If stars are obscured by clouds or fog, they will orient to almost any elevated light source to attempt to navigate.”’ These birds died because they got lost in a fog as they were trying to migrate, so when they found a source of light they followed it like they have been conditioned to do for generations. Sadly they got the light pollution mixed up with the stars and died, like many other birds do, because of this mistake.
Not only is light pollution harmful to animals, it is also harmful to people. For smog sufferers, there has been a new study released, conducted by the Harald Stark of the NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory, that shows that night time lights are making the smog in the air worse. In her 2010 posting for Sky and Telescope magazine, Kelly Beatty wrote about the phenomenon that is changing our atmospheric chemistry:
“People who live in cities know plenty about the harmful effects of smog. They also know that the best time to get fresh air is in the early morning because there are far fewer exhaust-spewing vehicles on the road at night. Atmospheric chemists add to this by noting the cleansing cycle that the air goes through every night. Each night the nitrate radical (NO3), a compound destroyed by sunlight, builds up in the dark sky and neutralizes the nitrogen oxides (NOx). NOx build up is what leads to the ozone (O3) that created the smog. New research shows that this cleansing isn’t as effective as it could be, because the NO3 is being destroyed by the light pollution in the city. Less NO3 means dirty air.”
Basically this article is giving us the simple science behind why night time light pollution is bad for people. Sadly that is only the starter. Damn M. Smith, a writer for General Medicine, posted an article in 2009 about how “Constant Artificial Light Linked to Cancer and Other Health Issues.” Smith writes about how constant lights messes with our melatonin levels. Melatonin is a chemical that a human body processes naturally when it is time to go to sleep. The body’s natural clock goes by the light of the day; for we are beings that should be up during the day and sleep at night. Smith adds that the lowering of the melatonin chemical leads to the chance of more estrogen hormones rising. Excessive estrogen could potentially lead to a heightened risk for breast cancer. Also without a proper night’s sleep the white blood count drops, and this can open us up to illnesses.
All that talk about health leads us to the last topic of money because we have to spend money on the medicine to combat our illnesses and because we are also the ones paying for the lighting that cause these problems. The Utah Skies organization has posted some information about how much the average person spends for the light pollution that is harming us.
“While the cost to the typical homeowner might be in the $150-250 range per year, the cost to the nation is approaching $10 billion annually. This is an absurdly large amount of money to waste. Diseases could be studied, the hungry could be fed, our nations children could be better educated,” Utah Skies.
The odd thing about all our lighting problems is that we can change it and make our lighting better: “All of that bad lighting could be redone by replacing the up-pointing 300W halogen bulbs with more efficient LED lights and by pointing the LEDs down, thus cost far less for the taxpayers without causing a single change in the quality of information delivered to the traveler or to compromise their safety. Though with white light LED lights, here too, caution must be used. These lights emit high levels of bluish light that interferes with our night vision,” states a report by the Department of Physics Florida Atlantic University.
Just because there is a need to shut off our lights, there is no need to go into a full blackout every night. There are safety reasons as to why we have road and sidewalk lighting. In the final report of Safety Benefits and Other Effects of Roadway Lighting by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program have reports of car crashes that happen in the day time verses the night time: “In these studies, if the night/day crash ratio is lower in the lighted condition than in the unlighted condition, then a reduction in nighttime crash risk is presumed.” (Rea pg 3)
With all of the statics out there it is reasonable to want to feel safe when driving or traveling at night. To feel make their people feel safe cities will install high power lamps so that we can see at all times of day or night. Yet with these lamps we are still putting ourselves at risk. In our interview Professor Steve Morgan, Instructor of Astronomy and Director of the O. Wayne Rollins Planetarium, noted, “For 40% of those living in the United States their sky is so light polluted that it never gets dark enough, at night, for their eyes to go into ‘night vision’.” Basically he is saying that our eyes are so used to the light population that our natural “night vision” has been skewed and we can no longer see well at night. Granted if we were to leave the areas of light pollution we could trigger our natural night vision.
There are plenty of ways to get these lights dimmed or better directed. For starters we can examine car headlights. Headlight glare can cause other drivers to be temporarily blinded while driving, which puts them and other drivers at risk. To prevent this, there should be a rating system that helps show drivers what are the best head lights to use when out at night. In their study of the equipment that can increase traffic safety, Christopher Flanigan and Michael Flannagan wrote: “The overall effect of a rating system is expected to be an increased emphasis on the importance of seeing distance with low beams. This should result in improvements in safety, primarily in the form of fewer pedestrian collisions.” (Flannagan pg 277)
Even when out on Turtle Rock in Young Harris I could look down and see the cars on the highway and the glow from the restaurant lights. Even in a place, like Young Harris, where there isn’t a major city for miles in any direction there is still small areas that intrude on the night sky’s beauty. The constant glow and hum of the lamps make it hard for observers to see past the light’s glare.
In the suburb Kennesaw there is plenty of light pollution that spread from the capital city of Atlanta. There are many lamps that are designed to look nice yet do not like the walk ways well, many stores that glow like beacons in the night, and homes with light pouring out of the windows at all hours. This lamp post, picture taken at University Place at Kennesaw State University, is an example of nice lamps that do not get the job done. The light should be pointed downward so students can see around themselves as they are walking back from classes at night time. However the design makes it where the light shine at a more diagonal line; which makes it where we will need more lamps to light the sidewalks. With all of the lamps piling on top of one another the light pollution will mount.
Even with all of the negatives of light pollution that constantly surrounds us, there is hope. There are plenty of small steps we can take to make our homes more light pollution friendly, “One thing that we can all do at home is to have shades on any of our outdoor lighting fixtures,” says Professor Morgan. On their website Utah Skies suggests installing motion detectors that turn on lights so that we are not left without the feeling of being secure. The main objective isn’t to go into a blackout every night; that just isn’t sensible. What we should all strive for is to make better lighting choices for our homes and our towns. That way cities can save money, the nation can save energy, the lives of countless animals will be protected, and people can live healthier lives.
Overall, the management of light pollution is all about educating people about the pollution that we emit every night. Without education we all will continue to use up our electricity, shining light out, and not caring about who it affects. Just for one night, it would be nice for everyone to just take a break from everything, turn out the lights, go outside, and look up. Become inspired by what we see “…Starlight vista has been and continue[s] to be an inspiration of the mankind, and that its contemplation represents an essential element in the development of scientific thoughts in all civilizations,” says the International Conference in Defense of the Quality of Night Sky. We all have the right to see the stars—to learn from stars and appreciate them for the beauties that they are in our right.
Bibliography:
Beatty, Kelly. “Night Lights Worsen Smog.” Sky and Telescope: The Essential Magazine of Astronomy 15 Dec. 2010. Print.
“Declaration In Defense of the Night Sky and the Right to Starlight.” Welcome to the StarLight Universe. Star Light Initiative, 20 Apr. 2007. Web. 18 Apr. 2012. <http://www.starlight2007.net/index.php?option=com_content>.
Flannagan, Michael J. , and Christopher Flanigan. “Development of a Headlighting Rating System.”http://www.unece.org. N.p., 31 May 2005. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. <www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/doc/2005/wp29gre/gtr8-5e.pdf>.
“Light Pollution Impacts Animals and Environment.” Florida Atlantic University Physics Department. Florida Atlantic University Physics Department, 2009. Web. 18 Apr. 2012. <http://physics.fau.edu/observatory/lightpol-environ.html>.
“LightPollution: It’s Not Just an Astronomer’s Problem.” Web log post. Light Pollution: It’s Not Just an Astronomer’s Problem. Utah Skies Organization. Web. 18 Apr. 2012. <http://www.utahskies.org/lightpollution/NotJustAnAstronomyProblem.html>.http://dawn-m-smith.suite101.com/effects-of-light-pollution-on-human-health-a90051
Packer C, Swanson A, Ikanda D, Kushnir H (2011) Fear of Darkness, the Full Moon and the Nocturnal Ecology of African Lions. PLoS ONE 6(7):e22285. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022285
Photograph. Tumblr. Web. 18 Apr. 2012. <http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lkkaxp7Wu21qbgzv1o1_500.jpg>.
Rea, Mark S., John D. Bullough, Charles R. Fay, Jennifer A. Brons, John Van Derlofske, and Eric T. Donnell. Onlinepubs.trb.org. Rep. no. Project No. 5-19. American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, June 2009. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. <http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/docs/NCHRP05-19_LitReview.pdf>.http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/doc/2005/wp29gre/gtr8-5e.pdf>
Saleh, Tiffany. “Effects of Artificial Lighting on Wildlife.” Road RIPorter 12.2 (2007). Print.
Stump, Jake. “Hundreds of Dead Birds Found outside High School.” The Times West Virginian [Fairmont] 30 Sept. 2008. Print.