Light Pollution Reflection / Refraction Number 28
Posted October 31, 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.
Causes
There are thousands of causes.
Name one. Yeah, DARK SKIES... You must be an astronomer.
If you're an astronomer, DARK SKIES are likely at or near the top of your list of causes, especially if light pollution has invaded and ravaged your nighttime sky.
But for most Americans, nonastronomers, DARK SKIES are the dregs at the bottom of the bottle!
Ask ten nonastronomers if they have done anything to fight light pollution or done anything to advocate for the DARK SKY cause, and they'll likely respond, "Huh?"
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and unless you've been living on Mars all month, you've likely noticed that breast cancer is at the prime focus of national consciousness, despite all the political nonsense that'll soon end, thankfully.
This year's Susan B. Komen 5K Race for the Cure was a success, especially here in Iowa (Des Moines), where nearly 25,000 people participated, one of the biggest clusterings in the nation! Obviously, breast cancer is at the top of a lot of people's list of worthy and important causes.
Now, I doubt we'd ever get 25,000 Iowans to turn out for any kind of event to support DARK SKIES any time soon, but then, Iowa astronomers, we've never tried, have we?
Of course, we'd need a leader or two, a person(s) willing to step up, promote and organize such an activity. Light pollution is a BIG problem, even in Iowa!
What's been done nationally or in any state, for that matter, to organize and complete any sort of highly visible DARK SKY event?
To create a visible nationwide DARK SKY event, what we'd likely need is a national astronomical organization or at the very least, one person (gasp!) committed and willing to organize and promote a national activity of such consequence.
There are at least three NATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL ORGANIZATIONS capable of accomplishing such an event:
The Astronomical League (of which I'm still a member).
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and
The International Dark-Sky Association, the so-called light pollution authority!
And unlike most causes, we astronomers have 100s of local organizations, affiliates, nodes of astronomical activity scattered all over the country, capable of sharing the effort and making such a nationwide activity very visible locally!
Of course, in the current economic climate it would have to be done on a dollar or two or three...! That is, unless some national astronomical organization known to have thousands of dollars lying about in their coffers supporting the org's bureaucracy stepped up and used some of that money for a worthy cause! Hey, if astronomers don't get light pollution under control, astronomy is EXTINCT!
Or perhaps we could find one or more individuals willing to contribute part or all of the funding needed to complete such a national endeavor. . . I know of one person capable and quite likely willing to donate money to the cause, but. . .
Or, done with creativity and / or an eye for doing things on a shoestring budget (something teachers--like I was--do on a daily basis, a national dark sky activity could be created, promoted, and completed on next to nothing!
In my good old days (GODs), when I was younger and my health was not yet a major concern, I'd have done it all myself, or as I always remark...pressed forward with all possible dispatch!
Indeed, I actually tried to jump start a nationwide effort through the Astronomical League back in my GODs, but before I could get serious, my body rebelled, and, well..., let's just say at the time it failed. Of course, it didn't help that the organizational hierarchy was dominated by those whose thinking was inside-the-tube, deeply restrictive, retrograde!
It's notable to note that light pollution is increasing by mega, no, GIGA-lumens every single night and that neither the Astronomical League, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the International Dark-Sky Association (the so-called light pollution authority), nor any other national astro-org has stepped up to do anything beyond the, well, same old-fashioned, regressive, retrograde thinking, even though next year (2009) is the International Year of Astronomy.
Carl Sagan once commented, "...extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." I suggest that extraordinary situations require extraordinary actions." We need to step up and step beyond the same old tired regressive, retrograde thinking and begin thinking outside the telescope tube, or we'll never see another DARK SKY!
Incite a DARK SKY REVOLUTION where you live tonight or say bye-bye to starlight!
Sunny Days and Milky Way Nights.
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NO EXCUSES! NO COMPROMISES! NO EXCEPTIONS!
© Jack Troeger, Dark Sky Initiative. troegerj@raccoon.com