Tribute Tuesday: International Dark-Sky Association

A true look at the Milk Way from the Dinosaur National Monument. Source: NPR

If the greatest light show in the universe is taking place every night above our heads, theoretically accessible to anyone who can step outdoors, why does an image like this one below, taken by Rick Parchen in Oregon, so thoroughly blow our minds?

When's the last time you actually experienced a truly dark sky free of light pollution? And we're not just taking about life in Shanghai or NYC. Light pollution is a significant concern in almost any town in America. When we were originally designing all of this wonderful public outdoor lighting, the last thing we cared about was ensuring that we minimized light spillover from the original target. 

Post-industrialization, we're left with public lighting in most cities that is intended to deter crime and offer the opportunity for evening productivity, but those light fixtures aren't nearly as targeted or efficient as they could be. Enter IDA.

The International Dark-Sky Association is the premier nonprofit conservation expert on light pollution. They focus on conservation of Dark Sky Places, public policy and advocacy work to encourage legislation efforts that protect the Dark Sky, and they certify outdoor lighting fixtures that meet light pollution standards. 

From a post on their article about the Grand Canyon's bid for Dark Sky Place status:

"IDA established the International Dark Sky Places conservation program in 2001 to encourage communities around the world to preserve and protect dark sites through responsible lighting policies and public education. Many of the best protected night skies in the country are found within national park boundaries."

When there's famine and genocide and all sorts of practicals hells in the world, it may seem trivial to devote your life to the protection of the Dark Sky. I think that's mostly because we don't understand the magnitude of the problem and the fact that it isn't just our town or city that has an obstructed view of the stars.  There's some great info in this NPR article about just how widespread light pollution is:

"The luminous glow of light pollution prevents nearly 80 percent of people in North America from seeing the Milky Way in the night sky. That's according to a new atlas of artificial night sky brightness that found our home galaxy is now hidden from more than one-third of humanity.

While there are countries where the majority of people still live under pristine, ink-black sky conditions — places such as Chad, Central African Republic and Madagascar — more than 99 percent of the people living in the U.S. and Europe look up and see light-polluted skies."

99% of Americans can't get a clear look at the universe from their backyard? That's a whole new level of depressing.

When it comes to light pollution reform or prevention we don't need to imagine little old ladies stumbling off the curb to a broken hip at 5:00pm on a November afternoon. As everyone loves to say, if we can land a man on the moon, we can probably tackle updating our lighting infrastructure. Using IDA's certification standards means that we can actually save costs while lighting our communities efficiently and reducing light waste. 

The saddest part about light pollution is how little we notice it. We've become accustomed to never looking up on our walks home because there's only the moon or a handful of stars at most to notice. Last year, I gathered with a batch of friends on the beach for a lunar eclipse and was amazed at how many others turned out for the show. The human race has found meaning and mythology in the cosmos for thousands of years and now we're at risk of losing that connection in the course of just a few generations. 

When we think about modern cities, we often dream of energy innovations that could completely alter the way we access our natural resources and engage with the natural world around us. We have the technology available to us today to protect our climate from light pollution. And when it comes to the natural world, I can't really imagine anything more inherently romantic or thought-provoking than the stars above.