Light Pollution Reflection / Refraction Number 24
Posted October 2, 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.
WHY ARE YOU SO NEGATIVE?
People--astronomers and nonastronomers alike--some who's names I recognize, send me e-mails saying things like:
"Hey, you old fuddy-duddy (my term) stargeezer, why don’t you write something positive about light pollution? Something good about light pollution? Something upbeat about the dark sky effort, especially all the work light pollution / dark sky orgs are doing?
"Why don't you write something constructive about all the astronomers who are working day and night to eliminate light pollution? Why is everything you write so negative? So defeatist? So countervailing? So contradictory? Unfavorable? One-sided? Unbalanced? Don't we have enough to worry about now, what with all the problems facing America and Americans? Why must you be so obstructive?"
Good questions all!
Whenever I get these questions, I reply to them with my own questions:
"What would you have me write? What is positive about light pollution? How can I be upbeat about a subject that's causing the extinction of the universe I've known all my life? What isn't doom and gloom about light pollution? Has light pollution decreased despite all the efforts to date? Are the skies darker now than they were 20 years ago?"
I say to them pointblank: "Tell me something positive and I’ll write it!" I've added a link Kill-A-Light so you can tell me how to eliminate light pollution.
I wait and wait and wait for their replies, their responses, their suggestions, ideas, thoughts, visions, inspiring advice, proposals, light-hearted appeals, calls-to-action, recommendations, schemes, impressions, perceptions, opinions, reflections and refractions, but...
Well, I never, EVER hear from them again! I'd be over-the-top happy if even two or three astronomers and nonastronomers would tell me what to do to make light pollution disappear and restore dark skies overhead, and do it in a reasonable amount of time, not decades!
So, here's another pointblank, in-your-face, public call for your suggestions! If you can come up with something better'n what I've suggested on my website, then go for it... Turn off your own *-+~#%^ lights--permanently! And then go out into your community and persuade others to do likewise...I'll be waiting for your messages.
Sunny Days and Milky Way Nights.
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NO EXCUSES! NO COMPROMISES! NO EXCEPTIONS!
© Jack Troeger, Dark Sky Initiative. troegerj@raccoon.com