Posted on 07/19/2002 5:20:42 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK
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 July, in Loudoun County, Virginia 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's 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 State's 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 PM 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.
I have no problem with this.
WRONG!
It's the idiots in this Country who keep putting these numb-skull politicians in office. Go ahead right down their names for reference. All of them will get re-elected by the same Numbskull constituents.
This Country deserves everything it gets. Because of the liberal Numbskulls and the do nothing, ass kissing, no enemies, No Borders, politically correct but, don't tell anyone, Conservative republicans. They are disgusting.
Pass Laws that's all they do. "Both parties"
For GODS sake say what's on you mind. Tell these fruit cakes you don't want their vote and to go and pound sand up op their ass.
TELL THEM "JUST ONCE"
LOUD SO US REAL REPUBLICANS CAN HEAR IT.
I drive 45 minutes up north to Ward Pound Ridge park and go to a park surrounded by hills. I can see pollution on the periphery (sp?) but for most part the sky is nice. I can see hudreds of stars with the naked eye.
This difference is staggering, especially during meteor showers. Where I live, meteors look like a streak of light. Go to Ward Pound Ridge and the meteors look like dazzling sparklers. There is no comparison.
Now I think there needs to be some common sense. Cities need to use different street lighting. This costs money, so just replace burn out bulbs with newer sky friendly bulbs. This might take years, but eventually this light pollution will be cut down.
I suggest making light reduction mandatory for business, depending on what type of business it is. 24 hour store? No problem. But billboards need *toning* down. The spotlights lighting up tall buildings need to be reduced or changed to filterable light.
I suggest making it voluntary for residences. Wanna have a barbacue at 10:00 pm? No problem, odds are you aren't the problem. Christmas lights? No problem, holidays periods are exempt.
Residences are not the problem, in my opinion. From my perspective, it's street lighting, billboards, spotlights, and city lighting.
Maybe a once a month mandatory light reduction night? Is it too much to require once a month that businesses and cities tone down the lights? Is it too much to ask the county to replace burnt out streetlights with reduced light levels?
Obviously, there has to be exceptions: high crime areas, high density residences, etc. But there are things we can do to reduce this pollution.
It's a reasonable idea. I'm not sure if IDSA is being reasonable or not, but I suggest that there are reasonable solutions.
Likewise. I am an amateur astronomer and what's being advocated is directing light where it's needed (to the ground, not to the sky) and, where possible, the use of the types of lights that have spectral peaks that can be filtered out by the astronomer. For the most part it's just using proper shielding techniques (pretty much free of any incremental cost). Of course, enviro-wackos can seize on any reasonable effort and pervert it to ends that were never intended.
However, they should use caution as when they are laying on their backs looking at the stars as the coyotes might eat them.
Well then if your bag is looking at stars maybe you shouldn't do it near a city.
I am sick to death of all this idiotic regulation. Civilization is a GOOD thing. The hippies who want to wear rags made from plant fiber and live in grass huts in the woods are welcome to do just that. But they should damn well leave the rest of us alone.
Thanks to the advances of civilization I can put my kids to bed tonight and not worry about the weather, starvation, predators and parasites. We are the luckiest generation that ever lived. I wish the luddite weirdos would just shut up and go away.
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