Not afraid of the dark
05/03/13 04:32
I guess I have never been afraid of the dark. I’ve been startled on occasion. I probably had the usual fears of childhood, but I can’t remember a time when I felt afraid of being out on a dark night. Of course, with the recent full moon, we have plenty of light out right now, so there isn’t much that can’t be seen. But I know that there are people who are nervous about the darkness. I don’t share their fear. We live in a neighborhood that doesn’t have streetlights. Most of us have post lights in our front yards and we have porch lights that we can turn on and off. But I prefer to have my lights off most of the time.
It is one of those things that it seems as if I have always known, but in reality I suppose someone taught me the lesson at some point. Here’s how I teach the lesson to sometimes-frightened teenagers at camp: Go outside on a very dark night with a flashlight. Take a short walk. Notice what you can see and what you cannot see. Then find a secure place and turn off the flashlight. Now wait. In a few minutes your eyes will adjust. Whereas with the flashlight turned on you were only able to see what was in the beam of the flashlight, now with the light turned off you can see things that are farther away. The shadows no longer contain unknown trip hazards because your eyes adjust. It is often easier to walk in the woods at night without a light than with one.
Still, I like to have a flashlight handy. When I spend the night out in the woods, I carry a light source with me just in case I need to read something or want to catch some detail that eludes me in the darkness.
But I love the night sky. I’m no astronomer. I don’t own a telescope and I can’t name many of the objects in the night sky. Still there are a few planets and constellations that are familiar to me and I like to watch the phases of the moon. We take for granted views of the night sky that are denied to city dwellers around the world. I recently read of a man who lives in an urban apartment who can read a newspaper in his living room at all hours of the day and night without turning on any of his own lights because there is enough light coming in his windows even at night to make the room bright.
That’s simply too much light for comfort, in my opinion. I like living in a place where it gets dark at night.
The call Paris the City of Light, but beginning this July, a new law will require not only Paris, but all of France to reduce the level of outdoor lighting. Window lighting in commercial buildings and the lights on building facades will be turned off after 1 am and interior lighting in office buildings must be turned off one hour after the employees have left. The new law boasts a reduction in carbon emissions, but more importantly, it reduces light pollution.
I don’t think we need a law, but I’d sure like to see the lights turned down. Parking lots and gas stations are now 10 times brighter than they were just 20 years ago. We have a good example of that in our neighborhood. 17 years ago when we moved to this neighborhood there were no businesses out here. Then a convenience store was built just around the hill from our home. They didn’t just build a store, they light it up to city standards all night long. There is a continual glow on the horizon that once was not there.
You can read articles about how all of this light pollution is connected to sleep disorders, cancer and even diabetes. Light pollution destroys animal habitat as surely as does a bulldozer.
Recently I have been seeing studies that back up that truth I have known for all of my light. Bright lights make people feel safer, but they do not actually increase safety. In fact it is possible that too much light decreases safety. In 2008, PG&E Corporation in San Francisco reviewed the research and found “either there is no link between lighting and crime, or that any link is too subtle or complex to have been evident in the data.” Australian Barry Clark said, “advocating lighting for crime prevention is like advocating use of a flammable liquid to try to put out a fire.”
In England, Northumberland National Park is the northernmost national park, just south of the Scottish Border to just south of Hadrian’s Wall. It is a place of rolling hills and sheltered valleys and rural landscapes. It is also the place in England where there is the least amount of light pollution. The night sky above Northumberland National Park is so spectacular that local authorities are bidding for it to become the largest Dark Sky Reserve in Europe. If successful the park will be given special protection so that stargazers can continue to observe the skies without the threat of light pollution.
I know that the city is moving out to our neighborhood. Talks about being annexed into the city are underway. I know that each year there are more houses and more businesses and more light in our neighborhood. I can’t stop progress, nor should I be able to. But I grieve the loss of the dark night skies.
Still, I know where it does get dark at night. The northwestern corner of South Dakota is a place where there aren’t too many people. You can go up highway 79 and get away from the lights of the cities. These days there is too much traffic on Highway 85, but I still know how to find the dark places. If you want to see the night sky, take a night hike in the Slim Buttes or pay a visit to Camp Crook. You might even see things that are so spectacular you’ll be tempted to turn off the lights when you get home.
I’m not afraid of the dark. But I do worry about my neighborhood becoming a place with too much light.