Light pollution

Vedd Hedd

Is anyone else tired of orange skies at night?

Is anyone else tired of walking outside around midnight and having it look like its the other 12:00?

Does anyone think that our power bills would be a lot cheaper if our cities would shut off half of the street lights in our neighborhoods.

Both my and my neighbor have extra shaeds on our windows, in addition to our blinds, because the light from the street lamp is too damn bright.

But to top it all off, sitting in my backyard on a semi-cloudy night feels like Im living on Mars.


How much less do you think our electric bills would be if many of the street lights were turned off?

I could understand having them on for big intersections, some parking lots, like hospitals, airports, etc.

but every street in America?

Brez

I live on Cape Cod and it is dark when it is supposed to be dark (a plus I guess?). But when I visit my relatives in White Plains, NY I can never get over how it never gets dark! You can never see a star in the sky, just an orange haze!

I really couldn't comment on the electricity bills being lowered but I know that there would be wayyy less oil burned to create the electricty that powers the street lights (global warming is what I'm getting at).

Brain of J.Lo

Vedd Hedd wrote:

Is anyone else tired of orange skies at night?

Is anyone else tired of walking outside around midnight and having it look like its the other 12:00?

Does anyone think that our power bills would be a lot cheaper if our cities would shut off half of the street lights in our neighborhoods.

Both my and my neighbor have extra shaeds on our windows, in addition to our blinds, because the light from the street lamp is too damn bright.

But to top it all off, sitting in my backyard on a semi-cloudy night feels like Im living on Mars.


How much less do you think our electric bills would be if many of the street lights were turned off?

I could understand having them on for big intersections, some parking lots, like hospitals, airports, etc.

but every street in America?

lol about living on Mars. The orange sky really creeps me out too. I'm so close to Philly, and to top it off, my back yard butts up against a very well-lit school yard. It is still darker here than it was living in Wrigleyville, though. In that old apartment, you could almost read with the lights off. I'm not exaggerating. It was ridiculous.

AndyManderson

I agree with you, but the minute they start turning off street lights in people's neighborhoods or in parking lots and there's crime they're going to blame it on there not being enough light to deter the criminals.

GraySaturday

I talk about this a lot. There are many many nights here in the city of Chicago where it looks like daylight. I remember living in New Mexico and the sky there was just amazing at night. I've never seen so many stars in my life. But living here in the city, its rare that I see the stars. Its sad, really.

_Crazy_Mary_

Wow, I had no idea about an orange haze.
I live in Northern California and when I go outside at night all I see are stars and darkness. All I can hear are crickets....

Brain of J.Lo

I actually heard about a study recently that found that women who were exposed to higher amounts of light at night had an increased risk for breast cancer.

Since it was a small study, it wasn't necessarily conclusive of anything...but, they had a number of different theories for what these findings meant. One of the ideas was that the increased amount of light inhibited the production of melatonin, which is a chemical that might fight the production of cancerous cells. It was really fascinating.

Vedd Hedd

google Images

chicago light pollution


just look at the first row....6th picture from the left.....drives me nuts

Vedd Hedd

here....

http://static.flickr.com/61/212916043_7895484234.jpg

Vedd Hedd

Ok, this person is probably more obsessed with it than I am. But these pics are crazy!

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://static.flickr.com/101/285102672_4203221326.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/groups/lightpollution/discuss/72057594090820425/&h=375&w=500&sz=219&hl=en&start=5&tbnid=Wmv9cAjhZDXKzM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dchicago%2Bskyline%2Blight%2Bpollution%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den

And lights are no deterrent in my neighborhood. Most crimes happen indoors anyway.

Hartydog

I grew up in Maine so this bothers me big time. Makes you wish LEDs would catch on in a huge way. probably wouldn't solve the problem but would help out

AmentsChick

Vedd Hedd wrote:

here....

http://static.flickr.com/61/212916043_7895484234.jpg

Ok, I get it now. But, still if you turned off all the street lights there would be an increase in crime.

Brez

Vedd Hedd wrote:

Ok, this person is probably more obsessed with it than I am. But these pics are crazy!

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://static.flickr.com/101/285102672_4203221326.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/groups/lightpollution/discuss/72057594090820425/&h=375&w=500&sz=219&hl=en&start=5&tbnid=Wmv9cAjhZDXKzM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dchicago%2Bskyline%2Blight%2Bpollution%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den

And lights are no deterrent in my neighborhood. Most crimes happen indoors anyway.

Haha that guy reallly has a problem with this. Anyone else agree that pollution to our atmosphere is a little more important than not being able to see stars?

RolandTD20Kdrummer

Yeah it's sucks beyond words. Get yourself to a dark sky reserve....much,much better.

Vedd Hedd

Brez wrote:

Haha that guy reallly has a problem with this. Anyone else agree that pollution to our atmosphere is a little more important than not being able to see stars?

I agree. Being an asmatic, I think the abilty to breathe is more important than seeing stars.

but its not just about seeing stars.....all these lights, which are on all through the night require power....typically power from coal fired power plants....which pollutes the atmosphere....so if you cut down on one, you cut down on the other.

And Im not talking about cutting off all street lights. But like I said, there is going to be crime, and most crime occurs INDOORS, with people that know each other.

If I was to leave my house for the weekend, and somebody wanted to break in to steal my stuff, they would do it regardless of streetlights. Criminals figure out a way to do that.

So I think we could probably cut HALF of these lights, allow night to look like night, cut pollution, decrease power needs, and still be able to deter crime.

I dont think the solution to stopping crime is to make night look like day. Crime happens in broad daylight too.

Pauk

Brain of J.Lo wrote:

I actually heard about a study recently that found that women who were exposed to higher amounts of light at night had an increased risk for breast cancer.

Since it was a small study, it wasn't necessarily conclusive of anything...but, they had a number of different theories for what these findings meant. One of the ideas was that the increased amount of light inhibited the production of melatonin, which is a chemical that might fight the production of cancerous cells. It was really fascinating.

I really don't see how light can have that big an effect. Science studies always find a way of making their findings sound more significant than they really are, and although I haven't read this paper I expect this is one of them.

I can see the environmental issues, and possibly ecological issues (animal behavioural patterns and so forth), but I really can't see how light pollution can effect an individuals health to a significant degree.

binauralsounds

Vedd Hedd wrote:

Is anyone else tired of orange skies at night?

Is anyone else tired of walking outside around midnight and having it look like its the other 12:00?

We get tired of it most of the damn year!

signed,
Alaska

harmless_little_f***

binauralsounds wrote:

We get tired of it most of the damn year!

signed,
Alaska

LOL

chadwick

Vedd Hedd wrote:

Is anyone else tired of orange skies at night?

Is anyone else tired of walking outside around midnight and having it look like its the other 12:00?

Does anyone think that our power bills would be a lot cheaper if our cities would shut off half of the street lights in our neighborhoods.

Both my and my neighbor have extra shaeds on our windows, in addition to our blinds, because the light from the street lamp is too damn bright.

But to top it all off, sitting in my backyard on a semi-cloudy night feels like Im living on Mars.


How much less do you think our electric bills would be if many of the street lights were turned off?

I could understand having them on for big intersections, some parking lots, like hospitals, airports, etc.

but every street in America?

lights @ night time are causing huge problems for the lightning bug/fire fly.
what a thrill it is to experience these lil boogers.
where i orginaly am from has lightning bugs up the ass.
at night time in rural Iowa it is black, black, and black.
perfect for star gazing, firefly happenings big time.
aswell as chasing round hot ass country girls.
alfalfa fields at night time are riddled with fireflies down low and stars up top


many ppl have never saw a lightning bug aka fire fly.
they are not out here on the west coast.
how far inland does one have to go before finding these insects?
salt air fucks bugs up.

wtih population growth comes lights.
anyhow, turn off the fucking lights.

although trying to find an address in pitch black
in the middle of some huge ass city is not very pleasant.

we can't win, we are fucking ourselves..

human advancement fucks shit up on this earth.

ever insects can tell humans are fucking shit up.

when fire flies/lightning bugs can't blink in the trillions
across the land like lil bitty magical stars then i think their is a problem.

(don't forget the chemicals/pesticides sprayed on the land...
people blow...lightning bugs rock...
i am officially a flying insect with a light bulb wedged up my ass...i fucking rock..."ding" "light")...

libragirl

It's pretty dark on my street. The street lights aren't very bright at all in my development.