News from the Dark Side: 'Saving the Night Skies'

CNSNews.com ^ | July 18, 2002 | Tom DeWeese

[spqrzilla9]

Weese is the loon. The International Darksky Association does not want to prevent you from illuminating your driveway. They want to prevent you from illuminating the sky. There is a difference. Efficient lighting that directs its light down on what should be illuminated is the key. Light that goes up into the sky does not help you see your way or discourage burglars.

[mvpel]

The city of San Jose and others in the south bay area have cooperated with the Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton to the east for decades, and have come to a very amiable and productive relationship. And even with a million and a half people living within sight of the observatory, and all the attendant street and house lighting, the Lick Observatory is leading the way in discovery of new planets, among other astronomical milestones.

The trick is the use of high-pressure sodium street lighting, the narrow yellowish spectrum of which can be easily filterd out by astronomers, as well as proper design of fixtures to direct light where it's needed, instead of wastefully scattering it in all directions.

I'll admit that the 5,500 lumen limit is a rather ridiculous proposal, as it's not the number of lumens but how they're used that makes the difference.

But this hyperbole about an "economic disaster zone" is considerably overwrought. Silicon Valley, until recently, was the economic engine of the nation, and still Lick Observatory was able to make breakthroughs in astronomical research.

[scooter2]

Well, this type of legislation will never fly in Las Vegas.

[IMRight]

That's my county.

The bad part about it is. We're pretty conservative here. Every single Republican candidate whose district includes Loudoun County won in Loudoun. All three statewide candidates all state House and Senate candidates and, of course, Bush. They all won Loudoun county handily. There is no Congressman or State representative representing our county who is not a Republican.

Yet at the county level we're swamped with liberals! This proposal is a crock.

[demlosers]

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.

I like the dark too. But not for the nut-case Environmental Wacko reasons.

[LenS]

Weese is correct. The intent here is to kill capitalism and control people. Regulating light is an excuse.

[TheOtherOne]

It is pretty clear who the loonie is.

[mvpel]

When I first moved to San Jose from Ann Arbor, Michigan, I was simply amazed at the level of detail one could percieve in the night sky in the back yard. In Ann Arbor, with wastefully-designed, broad-spectrum street-lighting, only the very brightest of stars were visible, but in San Jose, I can sit in my backyard hot tub and identify all the major constellations, and even make out the varying colors of some of the stars.

And that's in a city with about 15 times the population of Ann Arbor.

[hopespringseternal]

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.

What a disaster. This will be a boon for those criminals gifted with flight, who swoop down from the now unlighted skys above street lights on their unsuspecting victims.

Get real. Personally, I would rather my taxes be used the light the ground where I walk, not the sky.

[OBAFGKM]

"Weese is the loon. The International Darksky Association does not want to prevent you from illuminating your driveway."

Hey, give the guy a break. Being from a D.C. suburb, he thinks night sky is orange.

[mvpel]

Capitalism has nothing to do with it. If the city and county governments were capitalist, they wouldn't waste millions of dollars a year worth of electricity by using light fixtures that shoot a quarter of their energy output into the sky.

Not to mention the fact that a 175 watt mercury vapor lamp produces about the same amount of light as a 55 watt low-pressure sodium lamp -- the same lighting for about 60% less electricity.

[1rudeboy]

Funny, too. Ann Arbor has had a light-pollution ordinance since at least the late 80's. No one ever paid any attention to it . . . .

[CJ Wolf]

And light just stops when it hits the ground...? No it bounces right back up. This is a cash cow, replace all those lights yeah yeah...

[CJ Wolf]

Get real. Personally, I would rather my taxes be used the light the ground where I walk, not the sky.

I would rather my taxes not be used to replace perfectly functioning lights in order to funnel money to the BOS lighting buddy. AND IT IS MY TAXES THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT.

[1rudeboy]

This author would (apparently) argue that his property rights allow him to shine light on his neighbor's property. He is incorrect in the belief that the concept of regulating light pollution is somehow "anti-property." The determination of whether something is or is not light pollution falls under nuisance law which, as a legal concept, is practically as old as the concept of a property "right" itself.

[Saturnalia]

Now I haven't read the proposal (warning sign right there)...

The proper way to go about doing this making the requirement for NEW lighting systems and replacements for old systems.
That way, you have a gradual improvement in light pollution without replacing something that is already functional.

[SengirV]

I just moved back to Loudoun county and I can not agree more with the newlight polution laws. I grew up in Pennsylvania and I remember looking up at the sky at night and being able to see the little dipper and the Milky Way across the entire sky. Now you are lucky to see maybe 100 stars in the sky, That is simply wrong. No one is telling you that you can't illuminate your house or walkway, they are saying to possition the light so that the light shines on the ground not up in the sky. There are special exceptions when it comes to Christmas lighting, so don't get so hysterical. If you live in Loudoun county I invite you to take a drive down East Juniper Lane in Sterling this Christmas and look at the amazing light show. It will be there again this year like all the previous years. It's just that this year, the lights will have to go out at 11PM. My God the horror!!!!!

[discostu]

Geeze, we already argued this over the weekend. There is such a thing as light polution. In places that have light laws there has been no increase in crime or decrease in night commerce. And 5500 lumens is a lot. 4000 lumens is those "oh my God it's noon" uber floods. I live right next to the big Christmas light festival in Tucson (which was an early adopter of light laws at the behest of Kitt Peak) and I seriously doubt if all the houses in the neighborhood together muster up 5500 lumens (just don't see a lot of Christmas displays stacking up a bunch of uber floods). So anybody that thinks this will outlaw Christmas lights is just being silly.

[GovernmentShrinker]

How the heck is a regulation prohibiting lighting up the night sky well ABOVE the Taco Bell going to have a "devastating impact" on its business? Some anti-environmentalists are even loonier than the looniest environmentalists. Maybe DeWeese and the Taco Bell manager and their buddies should protest by climbing up the poles of soon-to-be-illegal upward-aiming lights, and refusing to come down, daring the local governments to cut down the light-poles. That way they could save the forest of inefficient lights from being turned into an "economic disaster zone". Yeah, that would make sense. And then all the local businesses could continue to waste their money competing with each other to have the tallest, brightest signs (just $25,000 for the Citgo station, and that doesn't include the electric bills to run it -- and we wonder why the price of gas is so high).