Click on the little picture above to see the bigger version. This image has been on Free Republic before, but it's illustrative of just how much light is generated in urban areas.
Posted on 07/18/2002 7:47:48 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
Let us begin with the understanding that there is no such thing as "light pollution," yet this idiotic notion is generating legislation to "save the night skies" from it.
It is one more example of the way environmentalists will use any bizarre excuse to secure control over our lives and our property rights. The fact that publicly elected officials would give serious consideration to such nonsense reflects the degree to which environmentalism has destroyed common sense.
Where's the connection, you ask? Consider being told it is against the law for you to put up Christmas lights as decoration or that you have used too much illumination to provide safe access to walkways and stairs leading to your home?
When you have lost the right to how much light you can use to illuminate your property you have lost an important element of your property rights. When such restrictions are applied to a commercial business, they can represent thousands of dollars in lost income.
In Loudoun County, Va., a group of "light pollution" activists have been pushing hard for a law that would plunge the citizens and businesses, as well as public facilities, into darkness by limiting the kinds and amount of light they could display.
In April, Virginia Governor Mark Warner approved a new piece of statewide legislation that requires state facilities to use shielded outdoor lighting fixtures that emit no more than two percent of their light output above a horizontal plane. By 2004, the Virginia Department of Transportation must use such fixtures. As similar bill made its way through New York State's legislature, guided all the way by dark sky advocates and other environmental groups.
Pause for a moment and consider the economic impact of such restrictions. The owner of a Loudoun County Taco Bell/Pizza Hut makes between $1,400 and $1,600 after 9 p.m. every night.
The Loudoun dark skies proposal would have a devastating impact on his business. The same holds true for the owner of a Citgo gas station on Leesburg Pike who just spent $25,000 for a new sign to enhance his 24-hour service.
Extend the restriction on outdoor lighting at night to all the other businesses in just one Virginia County and you have created an economic disaster zone.
Residents of Loudoun County would be restricted to 5,500 lumens of light per property. The typical incandescent lights around a home range from 1,650 lumens to 4,000 lumens. Forget about those Fourth of July, Halloween or Christmas decorations.
Consider now the idiotic reasons put forth for the need to control the amount of light you or anyone else can use. "Light pollution" advocates worry that "Billions of moths and other nocturnal insects are killed each year at lights" or that "Newborn sea turtles are disoriented by lights on their natal beaches and some amphibians congregate around porch lights."
"Increased night lighting associated with human civilization disrupts important behaviors and physiological processes with significant ecological consequences." Darn that human civilization! Darn that Thomas Edison with his infernal invention of the electric light bulb!
People who are more concerned about the fate of "billions of moths" or who claim that "over four million migrating birds are killed in collisions with lighted communications towers in the United States" have totally lost contact with the fact that nighttime lighting is an essential component of modern life.
Over the years, radical environmentalists have given us a long list of various forms of pollution. They have insisted that everything we breath, drink and eat is polluted and now they tell us there's "light pollution."
These lovers of darkness have an international organization that is working hard to insure that we can all see the stars at night, but not the entrances to our homes and driveways. They belong to a Tucson, Arizona organization called the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA). This group of environmental loonies exists "to preserve and protect our heritage of dark skies through quality outdoor lighting."
I'll bet you didn't even know you had this "heritage"? Who, in fact, really likes the dark? Criminals, that's who. Criminals who value being unseen as they creep around your home or business, seeking the fastest way to break in. Then there is the ever-popular darkened parking area outside of your local mall where you can be easily assaulted or have your car stolen.
In truth, the only people who really are concerned about too much light at night are amateur astronomers and lovers out for a midnight walk. The rest of us need light to get around at night. It's about safety. It's about the economic benefits that accrue from good lighting. It's about common sense.
(Tom DeWeese is the publisher/editor of The DeWeese Report and is president of the American Policy Center, headquartered in Warrenton, Va.)
Tom DeWeese
But I am also an amateur astronomer, so I am at a loss as to what witty dismissal I can make of this without being a hypocrite, I suppose.
Maybe too much light in the sky is like me jamming my neighbor's TV? Because I use my scope more hours than I watch Network!
Other than that I dunno what to say about this one.....
Time and again, it has been shown that replacing and reconfiguring the lights is cheaper than running the old ones. It is a net savings all around.
Another thing -- pointing street lights at the ground is safer because it reduces the glare in drivers' eyes. Pointing parking lot lights at the ground also helps because the eye reacts to the glare reducing the effectiveness of the lighting.
It is a win-win situation for everyone but people who insist it must be a liberal conspiracy.
Click on the little picture above to see the bigger version. This image has been on Free Republic before, but it's illustrative of just how much light is generated in urban areas.
For example, Loudoun County should first begin impacting this "light pollution problem" by turning off all street lights. The streetlights are the county's and they can turn them off it they like.
Then they can listen to the important feedback from the citizens and decide whether this light pollution stuff is worth losing their jobs over, or not.
The problem, of course, is inefficient fixtures and misdirected lighting. Light that goes up into the sky helps no-one see better, and wastes power and money.
Yes! The organization is primarily astronomers and illumination engineers. The focus of the engineers is elimination of light trespass (e.g., blasting lights into neighbors' windows all night), glare reduction (e.g., filling stations lit up like the sun that wipe out the dark adaptation of passing motorists), and energy conservation. Astronomers benefit from all of this because it means fewer megawatts into the sky.
It should be noted that environmental wackos are generally not involved in this issue.
At the last annual IDA meeting I attended, only one vocal eco-freak was present. She admitted she was there not to further our cause but to promote hers. I was impressed at the way the IDA leadership (including a world-famous astronomer who was also present) tactfully put her in her place.
I live in a sea of environmental extremists, including a city council that blocks practically everything for environmental reasons. Yet the local environmentalists (and the city council) have no interest in light pollution issues. At a recent city council meeting discussing the lighting issues for a new sports complex, the only people who showed up to express concern were a couple of amateur astronomers (myself included) and pilots who are concerned about being blinded by the glare as they land at the local airport. (The complex is at the end of the runway.)
I am a libertian "with a lower-case L" who understands that there really are some things you don't want your neighbors doing. This is not a matter of right vs. left, but simply a matter of common courtesy, awareness, and common sense.
There is a need for national and/or state codes, since most people who are responsible for designing outdoor lighting have no background in illumination engineering, are not aware of recommendations by engineering standards bodies, and can usually be counted on to do the opposite of these recommendations. Our city engineer, with whom I have spoken, is an example of this. In fact, the worst sources of light pollution and light trespass in this area are installations run by the city government and school boards, not private business.
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