Light Pollution Reflection / Refraction Number 25
Posted October 11, 2008
WARNING:
I guarantee my reflections and refractions will create controversy and confrontation; and quite likely I'll step on many toes, but it's time to be brutally honest.
LIGHT POLLUTION IS NOT THE PROBLEM!
Yes, you read that correctly.
Light pollution is simply a symptom.
A symptom of a worldwide contagion, a plague, virus, infection. A light blight!
Natural light--sunlight, moonlight, starlight--used to be about the only light we humans and most other species recognized. But now we humans, Homo sapiens, we ‘sap’s, the so-called intelligent ones, are addicted to artificial light, imitation light, synthetic light. Indeed, it now defines us as a species, especially at night.
One glance at the World At Night image affirms our addiction to nighttime lighting. The daylight side of Earth does not betray our existence, but the nighttime view exposes our presence, and perhaps worse, our ignorance and arrogance to the whole universe!
Out-of-control nighttime lighting is like a pain in a joint, neck, head, foot, or back; like an ache in the tummy or tushie; a bump on the belly; a tingle in the toes; a bruise on the brain… All symptoms of a disease or disorder.
What lies at the crux of the symptoms and the disease?
MONEY! Everything we ‘sap’s do is based on money! Go ahead try to think of something that isn’t firmly connected to money. Even religion is based on money…Come on, be honest! I challenge any religion to survive long without it in today’s climate! Our species’ whole lifestyle is based on money. Not civilization...syphilization! As ‘sap’s we eat Earth and steal starlight!
And we are saps! We’ve become gullible fools, Sheeple, believing the endless adverts calling us to eat more Earth, all the while obliterating the night sky with more and more light to secure all the possessions we collect but will soon sell at a garage / yard / rummage sale or more likely, just toss into the landfill or ocean!
And the politicians and corporate thugs and business bastions continue to call us out to consume more. More! MORE! Gotta keep the corps. alive, you know, even if it means the death of heaven, the extinction of the Milky Way!
So, what will you do to change the system and save starlight? What will you do to turn off lights across the country, across the planet? What will you do to make the Earth at Night image dark and beautiful, the way Nature intended night to appear?
Sunny Days and Milky Way Nights.
JOIN THE DISCUSSION with your own reflections and refractions. Just click on my e-mail address below and have at it! I will not sell or give your e-mail address to anyone. Your reflections and refractions will be placed under the link to the left labeled "Fan Mail - Hate Mail." I may edit comments I place there, but I will be careful to retain your words wherever possible.
NO EXCUSES! NO COMPROMISES! NO EXCEPTIONS!
© Jack Troeger, Dark Sky Initiative. troegerj@raccoon.com