Dark Skies

While going door to door the other day, one woman asked me to address the issue of light trespass. The picture here to the right illustrates the problem. Intended to illuminate a parking lot, you can see that this light fixture is also lighting the trees and sky. Not only is this a waste of the energy, it creates glare that annoys the neighbors and sky glow that masks the stars. A fully shielded light that shines down would be far more effective and efficient.

Consider this article in the Hilton Head Island Packet, "Streets too dark for you? Be glad", which states, "it turns out that darkness might actually be making you healthier. And it's almost certainly helping the ecosystem thrive in ways it can't under the glare of big city lights. Oddly enough, it might even be making you safer."

Like it or not, the biggest industry on Cape Cod these days is tourism. Why? People come here for the beaches and boating, but also for a way of life - a quality of life - that doesn't exist where they currently live. A part of that is a rural feel that is slowly succumbing to the pressures of urbanization - including an excess of outdoor lighting.

Light pollution - defined as "Any adverse effect of artificial light including sky glow, glare, light trespass, light clutter, decreased visibility at night, and energy waste" - is evident in most cities, where only the moon and a few of the brightest stars and planets can be seen at night. Even in Falmouth you can see the sky glow at night - it's even worse when there's moisture in the air.

As light pollution overcomes Falmouth, our quaint seaside town starts to lose some of its charm. And that will affect tourism.



Go outside tonight and look up. How many stars can you see? Believe it or not, there could be more.

I'm an amateur astronomer myself (I took this picture of Comet Hale-Bopp), and this is one issue that crosses all sorts of lines. Aside from preserving dark - rural - skies, good lighting helps reduce glare - a side effect of urbanization. Like fences, it makes for good neighbors. And good lighting is good for the environment; aside from reducing energy use, some animal species get disoriented by artificial lights.

If you want to learn more, visit the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) at http://www.darksky.org/.

For my part, whether or not I win this election, I'll be talking about this issue in the months and years to come.

We CAN do better!