I live in a small city (to most city-dwellers, we're just a town...). On the few nights that I'm out (after Lace Guild, for example...) I drive home through streets that have "sodium vapor" lights every "so many" feet. They give off a hideous "pink" (to my eyes) glow, and if my car did not have headlights, it wouldn't matter, because I could drive the entire distance using the street lights alone... (although I would get a ticket for improper equipment). I HATE those awful streetlights! As I drive along, I see NO pedestrians, and VERY few other cars. WHY are there so many lights? WHAT are we protecting?(and at what cost, monetary and ecological).
My DH is an electrical engineer. I asked him once why, when municipal and state budgets are so severely pinched, we couldn't turn off some of these infernal lights and save some money. His immediate answer was that, in the short run, we wouldn't save any money. Because our governments have long-term contracts with the energy providers, and will have to pay for the energy used to burn those lights whether they are on or not... So why not leave them on? Well - that's a politician's response, but the answer is... because even if the contract required that we PAY for it, doesn't mean we have to USE it, and when time for the contract renewal comes up, the energy provider has had a good long time to get used to the reduced revenue.... which is more than we can say for our local and state governments during the rough times of the last year or two. I'd love to see the stars overhead at night. I'd love to hear the nocternal birds and animals at night. I'd love to be able to sleep without using a block-out shade on my bedroom window - at night! Light pollution is a serious problem - and one which could be solved relatively easily - and in fact save money rather than the other way around. Clay - who doesn't often get on a soapbox in public! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joy Beeson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 7:41 PM Subject: [lace-chat] Re: Power cuts > At 01:20 AM 8/20/03 -0400, Tamara P. Duvall wrote: > > >So, OK; we agree to get rid of the pesky lights which obstruct our > >daily view of the stars. In trade, we give up: the electricity. With > >all it entails -- light to read by late at night; radio; TV and > >peripherals (video); coooking (for many people); travel (except "per > >pedes"); Arachne (and all puter-related activities)... Just to begin > >with :) > > Stuff, nonsense and piffle. You don't have to give up electricity to give > up the nasty habit of glare-lighting everything that would be in sight if > you could stop squinting. (Many is the night I trampled the rhubarb because > I was blinded by the incontinent lights of the school next door.) > > You don't even have to give up street lights. Just design the [deleted] > things to shine light where it's wanted, instead of trying to light up the > whole universe. > > And properly-designed lights are cheaper, too. > > -- > Joy Beeson > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://home.earthlink.net/~joybeeson/ > http://home.earthlink.net/~beeson_n3f/ > west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A. > where it is bright and sunny -- all night long. > > To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: > unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
