Lighting is still in the Dark Age

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Lighting is still in the Dark Age

Even though this is some greeny-weenie column in the BBC, and even though I don't think that there is a fundamental "right to enjoy the beauty of the night sky," this is still worth some thought.

Any of us that live in or have visited a large city undoutably have noticed the lack of stars in the sky, even if it appears good and black to our eyes. This is caused by the amount of ambient light not allowing the relatively dim light of the stars to show through. There are all kinds of innitiatives and special interest groups trying to perserve a "dark sky," but just as many home owners and civic leaders that believe that brighter lighs are better.

Neither side is completely correct. Everyone needs artificial lighting for a multitide of tasks, but too much is not only ugly, it's distracting and dangerous. Unfortunately and predicatably, this article does not give any suggestions to fix the problem, even on a personal scale. It only preaches what we are all doing wrong.