| INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW: | | | | STAR standards, and expand education about light |
| Dark Sky: $1.7 billion program | | | | pollution. |
| Government Secret Ops Program? | | | | - July 25, 2008 - The Wall Street Journal publishes "It's |
| LEARN THE SHOCKING DETAILS INSIDE: | | | | All About the Lighting: City Lights Are Obscuring Our |
| WARNING: The following involves a private | | | | Starry Nights" |
| organization steamrolling their agenda with the support | | | | - June 20, 2008 -- IDA and fellow endorsing |
| of congressional members, a very revealing and | | | | organizations host a congressional briefing, showing the |
| detailed graphic image, and may not be suitable for | | | | U.S. government that light pollution is a national (and |
| young children. We suggest you also secure your pets | | | | international) issue that should be considered at the |
| and lock your front door. | | | | federal level. IDA highlighted the consequences |
| Program Objectives: Helpful or Sinister? | | | | associated with improper night lighting. |
| Dark Sky is the project codename of The International | | | | - June 12, 2008 - The Daily Star, a newspaper serving |
| Dark Sky Association (IDA), a 501(c)3 nonprofit | | | | "the Heartland of New York", publishes a health-related |
| corporation whose mission is to "preserve and protect | | | | article, "Doctor speaks out on artificial light" |
| the nighttime environment and our heritage of dark | | | | - March 14, 2008 - US News and World Report |
| skies through quality outdoor lighting." | | | | publishes, "Turning Out the Lights" |
| Sounds sinister. But wait, it gets scarier. Read on: | | | | - August 20, 2007 - The New Yorker publishes "The |
| The IDA is no nerdy high school astronomy club trying | | | | Dark Side" |
| to get better views of the Milky Way. With offices in | | | | The White House and the Pentagon aren't directly |
| Tucson, Belgium, and Australia, and 11,000 members in | | | | involved yet. (The White House is connected, since |
| 79 countries paying up to $10,000 each, a robust | | | | ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the Department |
| educational initiative, and a public relations machine that | | | | of Environmental Protection and the Department of |
| has national media spotlighting them and congressional | | | | Energy. Their department heads report to the |
| members writing letters to support them, IDA has been | | | | President.) |
| a rising star in responsible and energy-efficient lighting. | | | | But with a bit of creative thinking backed by research, I |
| True, all the IDA wants is to return nighttime skies to | | | | feel confident the IDA can find ways to make light |
| their natural state for the sake of astronomy buffs and | | | | pollution reduction very appealing to military and |
| moonlit lovers. They have found a number of ways to | | | | strategic national interests. |
| appeal to a wider audience through environmental | | | | Is There Anything You Can You Do To Shrink This |
| benefits (reducing 1.2 million tons of carbon dioxide | | | | Waste? |
| from 6 million tons of coal or 23 million tons of oil, and | | | | Yes. The IDA offer this overall suggestion: |
| more robust animal populations) and financial benefits | | | | "Do the best possible professional lighting design for |
| ($1.7 billion of wasted money can be reclaimed through | | | | the task. Include all relevant factors such as glare, light |
| efficiency). And through their well-orchestrated public | | | | trespass, and light pollution." |
| relations momentum, we may get 2009 ENERGY | | | | Specifically, they give four solutions minimize light |
| STAR specifications for outdoor lighting. | | | | pollution without compromising in any way nighttime |
| They certainly sound like a private sector fancy, fat | | | | safety, security, or utility: |
| cat, pork-barreling special interest group manipulating | | | | |
| everyone through public relations in order to serve five | | | | 1. Use night lighting only when necessary. Turn off lights |
| or ten core members at the expense of the rest to us. | | | | when they are not needed. Timers can be very |
| Except we are all served by their efforts; there is no | | | | effective. Use the correct amount of light for the need; |
| "rest of us." | | | | more is not better. |
| Who's Funding The $1.7 Billion To Light Up the United | | | | 2. Direct the light downward, where it is needed. The |
| States Sky? | | | | use and effective placement of well-designed fixtures |
| The answer is you and me. This is IDA's estimate of | | | | will achieve excellent lighting control. When possible, |
| the cost of the lighting that goes directly into the U.S. | | | | retrofit or replace all existing fixtures of poor quality. In |
| nighttime sky. Add billions of dollars more to get the | | | | all cases, the goal is to use fixtures that control the light |
| global total. | | | | well, minimizing glare, light trespass, light pollution, and |
| Revealing NASA Photo Catches Everyone in the Act | | | | energy usage. |
| A NASA composite photo of the entire Earth shows | | | | 3. Use low pressure sodium (LPS) light sources |
| lights visible from space, including the global hotspots | | | | whenever possible. This is the best possible light |
| such as the United States ($1.7 billion wasted to | | | | source to minimize adverse effects on astronomical |
| generate US lights), Western Europe, Japan, and | | | | activities. LPS lamps are also the most energy-efficient |
| Western China. | | | | light sources that exist. Areas where LPS is especially |
| The White House, Pentagon, and Congress . . . | | | | good include street lighting, parking lot lighting, security |
| IDA is becoming an unstoppable juggernaut, and | | | | lighting, and any application where color rendering is not |
| increasingly successful in gaining wider media | | | | critical. |
| coverage and federal government support. | | | | 4. Avoid development near existing observatories, and |
| Study and learn from this sequence carefully - it | | | | apply rigid controls on outdoor lighting when |
| shows a well-orchestrated public relations strategy to | | | | development is unavoidable. Such controls do not |
| get changes enacted at the national level. (I omitted a | | | | compromise safety, security, or utility. Outdoor lighting |
| lot of their local and regional media coverage and their | | | | ordinances and codes have been enacted by many |
| successes in penetrating scientific communities and | | | | communities to enforce quality and effective nighttime |
| professional and trade organizations. You can see | | | | lighting. |
| more on their home page.) | | | | You can see these are practical solutions. |
| And whatever you do, we strongly warn you to not | | | | Dark Sky: "Come Over to The Dark Side"? |
| get in their way. | | | | Being a mission-driven, membership-based organization, |
| Some recent events and coverage: | | | | it seems unlikely. But we were not able to penetrate |
| - August 30, 2008 - The New York Times publishes | | | | the well-protected Inner Sanctum of the smoke-filled |
| an essay, "Helping the Stars Take Back the Night" | | | | back room where morals typically drop like stones in |
| - August 20, 2008 - ENERGY STAR releases pending | | | | order to get the real deals made. |
| 2009 guidelines for specifications calling for full shielding | | | | Let us just hope that the IDA does not go over to The |
| of solid state lighting (LED) luminaire street lights. | | | | Dark Side. For now, the artificially bright night sky has a |
| - August 4, 2008 - Eleven members of Congress | | | | dim future. |
| write a letter to the EPA, requesting it to begin to | | | | Get links to the NASA image and the news stories |
| define light pollution; list its effects on health, safety, and | | | | referenced above. |
| the environment; incorporate these into ENERGY | | | | |