EcoBliss: Why Light Pollution Isn't A Bright Idea

By Marcy Hall

Listening to: Arabic pop with a view of the moon.

Bliss: After three days of delightful, steady rain, the sun is back out. Things are green again and the temperatures say "fall!" We've missed the first two nights of the Harvest Moon (due to the weather), but I have great hopes for tonight.

Though I don't care for how dark it can be when we get up in the morning in the winter -- I mean, it is just easier to wake when it's with the sun! -- I do, however, love the fact that it gets darker sooner at night. Because then it's time for:

Candle lit evenings with jazz and wine and talking. Candle lit baths before bed. Star gazing at an earlier hour. Orion high in the sky.

I sleep better when it's time for candles. That natural form of light seems to make for a better transition to rest.

And there is something to this since it has become fairly well accepted that with the advent of the lightbulb, we have changed physiologically.

Girls enter puberty at earlier and earlier ages, for instance. Artificial lighting which unnaturally extend our days is partially to blame for this (and probably the artificial hormones in conventional meat and dairy, but I digress...).

So many people have difficulty sleeping and then suffer from depression. I wonder how much of this is due to our unnatural lightscape.

And there is growing evidence that overexposure to unnatural lighting changes our cells -- and you know what that leads to.

I think about growing seedlings in the spring and how if you forget to turn off their light source, they grow all leggy and never amount to much.

Overlighting the inside of your house is not very good for you or for the environment, considering the resources it takes to do this, but overlighting the outside of your house is a very public and rude form of those same problems.

We live in a small city. People seem to think that all things evil and scary will stay away from them if they have enough lights turned on. Or if the city puts up enough street lights. There actually isn't any evidence to support lighting as a crime deterrent.

For a whole summer, the street light in front of our house was out. The neighbor across the street was so annoyed that we wouldn't call it in but we liked it that way. Now, to save money, the city turns those lights off every couple of minutes, so there are these moments of bliss when it's completely dark in our front yard.

Our backyard does not butt up against our back neighbors; there's an alley in between us and so many people back there put up security lights. Luckily most of them are motion sensitive. We got rid of a horrendous light that totally interfered with our telescope usage, but it took a lot of effort on our friend's part, convincing the guy that things would be okay without it.

Here's the thing: a garage got vandalized recently in that alley. In broad daylight.

How much does paranoia and fear have to encroach of every aspect of the beauty of nature? How much does paranoia and fear contribute to our diseased bodies?

There are lights that don't light pollute; they aim all their light downward. Here are some.

And for more information on all the related health and community aspects of light pollution, there's this amazing organization working to darken our nights. (In their resources tab, there are some excellent articles.)

And just as an FYI, here's that picture of how much we are lighting up our planet. It seems I might have to visit the poles to get a really good look at the constellations.