If only we were more like North Korea ...
I've been saying for year that they want us living in caves, eating turnips and riding donkey carts. I forgot to mention candles.
Very enlightening.
Yet 90% wouldn't know they were looking at the Milky Way even if they could see it.
“Map shows where civilization is located.”
Al Gore needs to get on this right away!
This light issue is a perfect example of the liberal problem. The forget why we have street lights to begin with. They forget why on a great many things.
If only we were more like North Korea ...
Would it not be easier and cheaper to locate astronomers where there is not any light pollution rather than try to remake civilization to fit their needs?
On a scale of 1 to 10,000 the ability for me to see the Milky Way is around zero.
Civilization advanced greatly with electric lights, I see no reason to go backward.
Again, this issue is FUBAR because both sides are full of morons that dont get it.
One side calls it “light pollution”, which it is not. Pollution denotes something that is a waste product. Not only that, they then use the issue to push nonsense like “Earth Hour” or rolling brown-outs. They dont give a crap about “preserving the night sky”, they just want to push a nutty eco agenda.
The other side acts like unsheilded lights, that prevent the light from street lamps and floodlights from uselessly going straight up into the sky, are an affront to their constitutional duty to illuminate atmospheric haze at night...because otherwise we will be living in the stone age or they might get raped by bad guys that drop out of the sky....or something.
In the end neither side can get their heads out of their ass long enough to, and those of us that enjoy the wonders of the night sky are the ones that get screwed. Generations of young people never learn about it either.
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After TSHTF, stargazing will be one of the few pleasures remaining.
Personally, I am opposed to wanton light pollution and think the blast of light to the heavens needs to be managed and moderated.
The rest area 5 miles south of the farm has light poles that loom above the hills and light up the area like an alien spaceship. The lights are almost bare bulbs and there are absolutely no kind of reflectors to discourage either sideward or upward dispersion. It is the same all along the freeways in cities. It is inefficient and unnecessary and it is, in fact pollution. No, I am not a tree hugger. I am a conservationist and don’t like to waste anything. Use what you need but need what you use.
What goes around comes around and we wring our hands until something else disturbs us. Light pollution dates from more than 40 years ago. A feeble stab was made to adopt hoods on night lights on freeways and such but that did not last long. Instead, the towers got taller and the lights got brighter. Car lots were one target for a bit but now they are lit like a factory floor. Once there was some interest in energy conservation and night lights made a slight retreat to moderation but that did not last long. People are afraid of the dark and want to see, be seen and sell junk at night so once again the landscape is lit up like day.
Once upon a time I could lie in the pasture on a cold night and stare across the Milky Way. I can’t see it at all now. It is obliterated by those damn lights at the rest stop and yard lights and the incessant glow from every small town that surrounds me.
“I can predict how severe the liberal environmental wackos will find this problem: extremely severe.
I’ve been saying for year that they want us living in caves, eating turnips and riding donkey carts. I forgot to mention candles. “
The Los Angeles basin, is bounded by hills and mountains, such that in the 50s and 60s the smog looked horrible.
Seldom do we hear that the fires of Native Americans, once looked even worse. The mild climate, fertile alluvial fan soils, sufficient water, fed a large prosperous population of Indians.
Exployers entered the basin, and noted the smoke hanging about.
LA in 1542 according to this website, which has good historic descriptions.
When the coyotes, four legged and/or two legged, come to raid there homes in the dark they just might begin to see the light.
I mourn the inability to see the night sky because it WAS the closest thing a normal person could get to the INFINITE! Prior to Mr Edison, most people KNEW that there were things far greater than themselves just from seeing that infinite vista at night. I am convinced that the Biblical “What is man that Thou art mindful of him?” came from one who had looked and looked deeply.
Now we have the vast majority who never see that infinite vista and are confined to the man-made horizon. I do not think that this is a good thing!
Edison’s fault.
According to this map, Williston ND is the brightest artifical light location in North America. Which is not possible. On the map the Williston area has the largest red area, larger than, NYC, LA....
Puzzling, any thoughts on what is causing such a large bright light in that area or is this map just bull?