Light Pollution Reflection / Refraction Number 6

Posted on November 30, 2007

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. So, if you are thin-skinned proceed accordingly--take your hand off the mouse and back away from the computer.

Activist Astronomers and Glossy Astronomy Magazines

Astronomers are not known for activism, and the walls of hallowed halls memorializing astronomical activists are mostly blank--few names, fewer photos.

Why aren't we more aggressive and less compromising activists?

All across America, there are thousands of not-for-profit groups using successful and aggressive tactics and strategies on hundreds of issues much more challenging than light pollution! And most nonprofits don't have glossy magazines with 100,000 subscribers each month to educate, motivate, and activate them, to sustain their fire and drive.

Hey, I wonder what the newly revised, remodeled, renovated and improved(?) IDeAs website will look like when it pops up? Care to guess? I hope it's not more of the same old cluttered claptrap about lighting laws and star-friendly light fixtures, but...

How many rallies, demonstrations, protests, activities, etc., concerning light pollution have astronomers organized and executed in the last 20 years? How many times have you been involved in a local activity to press your point on light pollution?

ACTIVISM: Applying and wielding vigorous action and involvement to achieve a goal, sometimes by demonstrations, protests, rallies, activities, etc. The use of direct, confrontational action, such as a demonstration or strike in opposition to, or support of, a cause. Using militant action to achieve a political or social goal.

ACTIVIST: an especially active advocate of a cause; vigorously advocating or opposing a cause or issue. A proponent of activism. A militant reformer.

For years I've listened to astronomers talk about light pollution, but whenever I question them about why they aren't more aggressive, I get the same blank stare, and the same compromised retort... "Weeelll, ya know, it's like, ah, well...I send my annual dues to the IDeAs and, well, I drive a few hundred miles to a dark part of the country where lights don't shine...and besides, I tried, but the people in my city just laughed at me...and, well, you know..."

The same old story over and over and over--excuses, exceptions, and compromises! Astronomers are like cockroaches fleeing to the few dark corners of the country whenever lights switch on! Why the Hell should we have to flee to darkness? Starlight is our right! When are we going to start fighting for it?

I never imagined life without starlight, but after cataract surgery on my observing eye five years ago, the one I'd trained for 40 years, I suddenly "saw" the future. In seconds my observing life washed over me like a cataract of dark water and, poof! my observing eye was gone! Not the eye doc's fault, just the luck of the draw. Just when I had the time to observe full time (retirement), POOF!...my observing eye was gone! No more stars! No more nebulas! No more galaxies, star clusters, moons, comets or planets, just unrecognizably bleak blurs!

That's why I became an angry activist, that's why I'm no longer going to sit quietly whilst the editors of the glossy astronomy magazines, whilst the dark sky organization bureaucracies, whilst thousands of other astronomers bellyache about light pollution but do little about it!

Having attended numerous star parties, astronomy conventions and conferences here, there, and elsewhere for 35 years, I've seen and heard painfully little that translates into real activism amongst astronomers. I'm now so frustrated by astronomers bellyaching about light pollution but doing so little about it, I stopped attending gatherings of astronomers and became a seclusive sky watcher.

Have you ever iced a light? I've never snuffed, dusted, waxed, wasted or whacked a light in any sort of violent manner (though I've been sorely tempted), nor do I know any astronomer who has.

I do not now or have I ever advocated violence or violent methods. Still... Nah, nah, nah! Soprano-ing lights wouldn't really do any good because the offending SOBs (Satans of Brightness) would quickly replace 'em with brighter and multiple fixtures. IJNE!

But what frosts my eye-balls on the issue of light pollution most is that the glossy astronomy magazines don't encourage, endorse, or support activism beyond what clearly has not, is not, and will not work. Why not? Gotta keep the advertisers and subscribers happy? Well, here's one--but not the only one--very unhappy subscriber!

One thing is as clear as a night sky over Mauna Kea (Hawaii): if we don't conquer light pollution by 2020, there'll be nothing left to observe from our backyards and no reason for the glossy astronomy magazines to exist!

I used to hope that the astro-glossies might step up and use their bully-pulpit positions to provide a vision, a map to follow, a path to pursue, a trail to travel, that would lead to light pollution abatement and reduction.

But all we get are the few annual, obligatory, cut-and-paste, IDeAs articles or the few boring, dry-as-the-moon, sidebar boxes. We pay their subscription costs, don't we? Shouldn't they press forward with all possible dispatch to dispatch light pollution, creating creative, cutting edge, trailblazing, innovative, progressive, focused, magnified solutions? Shouldn't the astromags be out front on this issue?

Point blank: if there are no stars visible, there'll be nothing left to observe and there'll be...wait for it...NO MORE GLOSSY ASTRONOMY MAGAZINES and far fewer telescope adverts!

I've been fighting light pollution for 20 years, mostly in my own community, but the SOBs control the city government, while the business community and the realtors just keep building more and more structures and adding more and more lighting. They seem stubborn, ignorant, oblivious to the fact they could save huge stacks of money with proper lighting!

The only way we astronomers will ever have substantial success conquering light pollution is to become much more active, much more aggressive--we must become active activists! Sending dues to an impotent organization and then sitting back expecting them to do the work is bogus thinking! It has not worked in the past, it is not working now, and it will not work in the future! And the glossy astronomy magazines must step up and fight for the night!

The only solution to light pollution is in your own head and heart! Nothing will change until you personally step up and battle the SOBs in your community.

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NO EXCUSES! NO EXCEPTIONS! NO COMPROMISES!