Light Pollution Reflection / Refraction Number 16
Posted July 13, 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.
The Tale of Two Conventions: ALCON and ICCI
ALCON 2008:
The Astronomical League (AL) is holding it's annual midsummer (ALCON 2008) meeting in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, astronomical hub of the western world, on July 18-19. Wow, only 35 miles south of where I live! Are you attending the meeting?
As a longtime, but silent member of the AL, I've attended a few ALCONS, but not this summer. And as a longtime supporter of the AL, it is with some sorrow, sadness and regret I write this Reflection and Refraction; but the issue at hand is light pollution and dark skies, and as you might have noticed, I'm no longer going to sit silently whilst the night sky is stolen by inconsiderate nonastronomers-- Satans of Brightness (SOBs)--and inactive, invertebrate astronomers who've not yet evolved a spine and who seem unwilling to stand up and fight the SOBs!
Point blank: if you are an astronomer but are NOT actively fighting the SOBs, you ARE an SOB! The Astronomical League isn't doing nearly enough to fight light pollution. It has access to a HUGE bully pulpit when it comes to dark skies! Why in the hell aren't you astronomers using it??
Some IDA members have already made it clear I clam up, but it ain't a-gonna happen, Bubbas! And some Astronomical League folks, too, wish I'd just go away, but...
If you are attending ALCON 2008, do you plan to flood the DMoines community with dark sky activities and actions? Most likely not. No, you'll likely be gently, quietly, and soothingly sedated, schmoozed and distracted by the same old boring dark sky blather we've all heard so many times before. Just hit the snooze button.
I feel deep anguish that astronomers in charge of the dark sky movement(?) have become so hopelessly leaden, so fossilized, so petrified. My god, they've become as useless as boobs on a boar, a phrase Iowans are very familiar with!
Where are all the dark sky activists? Are there any in the AL?
ICCI 2008:
Whilst you're attending ALCON at the Downtown DM Marriott (part of a huge chain!), I'll be a few blocks away attending the annual ICCI (Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement) convention with hundreds of lively and spirited activists. ICCI is one of my favorite orgs because we get things done! Indeed, our motto is "We Talk! We Act! We Get It Done!" We may be a little local Iowa org with ONLY 4,000 members...er, activists, but we GET THINGS DONE!!
At ICCI 2008 we'll get straight to the focal point on several issues that impact Iowans. One issue we'll focus on will impact all astronomers: CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations), aka those filthy food factories scattered across Iowa and elsewhere that "grow" the meat--pork, beef, chicken, etc.--most astronomers eat!
Surely, the corporate news(?) media showed you the damage done in DMoines and Cedar Rapids by the floods of 2008. But, as usual, the corporate media missed an important part of the story, the zillions of gallons of hog manure stored in hundreds of fetid, camoflauged manure lagoons across rural Iowa. Did any of the sludge get into nearby creeks, streams, rivers and lakes? Hey, the hog hockey from these HUGE hog factories had to go somewhere during the flooding! And guess where that contaminated water ends up? In the Mississhitti River flowing south to the "dead zone"! Where is Mark Twain when we need him most!?
Unlike the serious, solemn, sedate, civil "spectator" AL meetings, ICCI's action-oriented, "participant" meetings at the downtown Hotel Fort Des Moines (local, not chain), will be full of fun, action and energizing activity! We'll be singing songs, chanting chants, cheering cheers, shouting shouts; you name it, we'll be engaged! In fact you might even hear us having fun!
And we'll likely escape the hotel at least once as a group to engage someone(s) in an up close and personal ACTION, some activity that even the local corporate media won't be able to ignore! Past ACTIONS have shined the spotlight on the agribusiness and Farm Bureau SOBS (Satans of BS) who create, promote and maintain these sleazy meat factories! Believe me, like cockroaches, the Satans of BS don't like to have a spotlight shined on 'em and their disasterous activities! Did you know that the exalted Farm Bureau has VERY little to do with farming? Want to know who and what the REAL Farm Bureau is all about? Read Amber Waves of Gain.
ALCON 2008:
Hmm, how shall I characterize the dark sky doings at ALCON 2008? Ah, yes, lots of weary buttocks as astronomers sit silently listening to the same old boring tedious tiresome drudging droning fatiguing lackluster IDA hog hockey about how to craft a lighting law OR describe a meeting, a Congressional Briefing, with republicans and democrats (they're both the same, you know) in Washington, D. C., and who couldn't care less about the issue of dark skies and light pollution!
Oh, and don't give me the same old "green-washed" hog hockey about LED streetlights and other outdoor nighttime lighting applications. I'm already writing a future R and R about the fallacy of LED technology and light pollution.
In other words, your dark sky doings will be more of the same--exceptions, excuses and compromises! Excitement runs high!
Again: what ACTION does the IDA, the AL, or the local astronomy club, the Des Moines Astronomical Society (DMAS) have planned to dim DMoines' light pollution? The DMoines light pollution dome 35 miles to the south of my observatory continues to get worse and worse and...
Here's an idea for the AL bureacracy to chew on: Hold at least one DARK SKY ACTION every year in the community hosting the ALCON, not just another boring "invisible" meeting where astronomers sit about yammering on the same old topics. How about having real workshops where local astronomers are taught to create and spread creative NEW ways to fight light pollution in their own communities and outlying communities around their states!
ICCI 2008:
Meanwhile, back at the ICCI 2008 meeting we'll be attending lively workshops where we'll be learning new ways to spread our messages throughout the state! And to show our commitment to our message on CAFOs (e-coli, salmonella, etc.), we'll be enjoying meals featuring fresh food grown right here in Iowa by Iowans who care about good food, real food, food that is free of chemicals, food that's grown free of hog manure lagoons and other contaminants, food that's grown free range and fresh, and most of all, food that just plain tastes good! Do you even know what free range meat is??
Indeed, some of the meat for these meals was grown on our own chemical-free, free-range family farm in northern Iowa!
Just look at those happy hogs hanging around Paul, a REAL family farmer who knows and tends to each one personally! You can drive to our farm and Paul's farm and see Paul's pigs running about outside, playing, enjoying their lives. And if you can corral Paul long enough whist he tends to the pigs personally you can even talk with him personally!
ALCON 2008:
What's the provenance of your food at ALCON 2008? The meat specifically? Will it come from a factory farm or a real farm where real people and real animals live and play?
If it's pork on your platter, this image (which the factory farmers don't want you to see) is how it was likely raised. Mmm, tasty, right? But you don't see the real hog hockey in this image! Hey, do ya think the "owners" know any of these pigs personally? Who and where are the "owners" anyway? Well, they're probably somewhere else (another state) counting all their corporate loot and caring not one whit what the pigs are suffering or how their foul food factories color Iowa dark brown with hog manure! Go ahead, just try to step onto this property or try to talk to the "owner" of one of these hog holocausts!
More importantly, astronomers: if you believe in and are even slightly committed to dark skies, then as an individual and as a national astronomical organization, why don't you show it? What you are currently doing --essentially nothing-- is incredibly hypocritical, kind of like if we ICCI'ers ate phony CAFO food at our convention whilst preaching the gospel of real food!
What are you astronomers going to do about your so-called commitment to dark skies?
Oh, and by the way: Any word yet on that national Salmonella outbreak in corporate tomatoes and peppers? Just wondering. July 17th, 4 PM. This just in: The PTBs (Powers-That-Be) have just announced that tomatoes currently on the market are safe! Alas, There's still some concern about some peppers. No answers yet as to why!
But hey, astronomers: this R and R's not about food or the sleazy Farm Bureau. It's about the near total lack of attention to and action on the light pollution issue--YOUR lack of commitment to the dark sky issue--that WILL eliminate our passion of astronomy!! So, what do you plan to do about it?
What has the IDA, the AL, or any other astronomy org or you as an individual done about light pollution since ALCON 2007 in Portland, OR? What will you, an individual or "you" an AL member or YOU the AL itself do to make dark skies happen between ALCON 2008 and ALCON 2009? Shouldn't every single astronomical org and astronomer be doing more than is currently being done about light pollution and dark skies? Well, shouldn't you??
ICCI 2008:
For example: During this year (2008) alone, more than a thousand ICCI members rallied inside and outside the Iowa State Capitol building-- yeah, that building blazing in "gold"en nighttime light up there on the high hill above DMoines...Oh, we gotta keep those elite politicians beholden to the corporate goons on a higher level, you know!
We ICCI members have met with Iowa's governor, senators, representatives, etc. We've made it abundantly and repeatedly clear that CAFOs aren't the best way to grow animals and feed Americans, and we won't stop till the last CAFO dies a stinking death! Not the poor animals--we cherish them--the corporate human sleazeballs (Farm Bureau, et al.) who create and promote these foul and filthy food factories!
And unlike spineless astronomers and their orgs, we are NOT a quiet little group! We are vocal and persistent! More importantly, we get things done! Again, our slogan: We talk! We act! We get It done! We STOP these corporate sleazebags who build these awful, torturous, hog factories dead in their tracks from building their hog holocausts! Indeed, as I write this, some sluglike factory farm outfit is trying to build a 7000 head hog factory west of DMoines, and we'll be fighting them every inch of the way! We work tirelessly, assiduously, relentlessly, intensely, unflinchingly...
Astronomers: What's your excuse, exception, compromise, for not fighting the SOBs?
It's too bad a bunch of you can't "come on down" to our ICCI meeting to see how real activism is done and how we have fun at the same time! Too bad you can't go along with us on an ACTION against the Powers-That-Be who now control most of YOUR food supply and can do whatever they want with it and with YOU! Salmonella-ed tomatoes or peppers, anyone?
ALCON 2008:
How many times has the IDA or the AL or SKY & TELESCOPE or ASTRONOMY led you in a rally? An action? A demonstration? A protest? How many times have your astroglossy editors (to whom you pay nearly $100 of subscription money every year) gotten off their ass-tros and spoken out for dark skies beyond the same old silly sidebars and cut and paste "articles"! How many times have they asked you for anything other than money--dues and subscriptions! Oops, guess that would just be too... too... well, TOO revolutionary!
DSI 2008:
Perhaps, because I'm not the light pollution authority, not a "member of the inside gang or one of the elite astrobuddies" I wasn't invited to bring my radical (revolutionary?) rantings about light pollution to ALCON 2008 in DMoines this year--no doubt I'm a tad too radical for the likes of most astronomers' sensibilities. Whatever. I'll just have to keep pluggin' along at doing what I do until the astro-orgs (AL?), the light pollution orgs like the IDA and the astroglossies like S & T and ASTRONOMY finally reach the reality that what they are doing isn't working and they call someone in to clean up their mess!
Hey, maybe next July, after yet another 365 days (and nights!) of runaway nighttime lighting pass by and a few more stars are hidden from view. I wonder what light polluted city will be "honored" by the ALCON 2009's foofaraw and gala (with real food?). By ALCON 2009, even more floodplains will be flooded with even more light pollution, as 'Merica's developers and the growth industry zealots continue developing floodplains with ever more development (read light pollution)!
I don't ask you for money, folks! I ask, no, I demand your attention and action! Damn it, do something! Start the *~^!`+- dark sky revolution where you live tonight!
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NO EXCUSES! NO COMPROMISES! NO EXCEPTIONS!© Jack Troeger, Dark Sky Initiative. troegerj@raccoon.com