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Is light pollution killing our birds?? Read the 2 page pdf here - "Is Light Pollution Killing Our Birds?"Reepham “This will reduce our carbon footprint, reduce light pollution and further enhance the quality of life in these villages, two of which are conservation villages.”Well done Wall-E - Well done! The people will see the future? "Houston - We have A Problem?" It's Light Pollution! Antarctic ice shelf "hanging by a thread": European scientists? As planet swelters, are algae unlikely saviour? It's costing the Earth - to light the sky? NEED-LESS, reduce light pollution & save energy! Of the original 100 units of energy consumed, only about 1.2% is useful lighting that reflects off the road surface:The Environmental, Social and Medical Implications of Light Pollution? In this century. Dr. Who tonight, BBC TV 5-Jul-2008, actor Bernard Cribbins, as Wilfred Mott said "When the stars come out at night"! They don't do that today with the 24 hour day. LP (and not the Daleks) has "exterminated" them for many city dwellers? Question? - Every Simpson's episode I watch shows stars in the sky at night. Why? Future Australian climate change "like a disaster novel"! And Australia was so nice when I lived there. No end seen to reliance on oil, fossil fuels. Why not try to reduce energy demand by just turning off unnecessary lighting? At least its NOT rocket science! Even politicians can understand this simple concept or is this beyond their understanding? The destruction of flora and fauna is costing the world two trillion euros......One in four mammal species, one in eight among birds, a third of amphibian creatures and 70 percent of all plant life made the most recent endangered list issued by another UN agency, the World Conservation Union (WCU). New Tiny URL http://tiny.cc/B0hL4 BTW Colin Henshaw TOLD YOU SO in May 1994 - ironic, isn't it? Congressional Hearing On LP Thinking Harder by Ben.....................21st June 2008. Light At Night Can Kill - Long Term?????....And No-One Cares About Polar Bears Either! This from NASA - How soon will we be Reaping What We Sow? Already 8 years on! NASA warns that we are already at the last chance - The Last Chance? $5Million Wasted Nightly Exacerbating Climate Change? And this is JUST in the USA! The world is losing momentum in the battle against global warming...UN. Climate change models : "confirmed"! First Antarctic Winter Breakup?New Atlas shows effects of climate change on Africa, now 35 years down the road. G8 Warned That Climate Change Will Affect Food and Water. What a surprise? The way that our concerns about profligate energy waste causing light pollution is ignored means that the G8 will just roll on by and bye bye any sustainable future? The "substance of sustainability"?"IF WE SHOW THE WILL, NATURE WILL FIND THE WAY". BBC TV "Wild China". 17-May-2008. Can we really expect this to be true? Light Pollution: Burning Earth At Both Ends by Ben Harder. US News & World Reports. $45 Trillion Needed To Combat Global Warming? And then some! Have a look at world light pollution, LP HERE. Arctic permafrost thaw to accelerate? Peruvian "Switzerland" melting from climate change. Arctic Summit to "tap" its rich resources and speed up future failures created today? NASA study shows humans impacting on aspects of life on Earth? Gosh, what a surprise. The sky at night could become a thing of the past? The 24 hour day will kill off life first? It is already killing off species with its perpetual twilight- its permanent "jet lag"? Global Warming Worries Wealthy, Polluting Nations Least. Nothing new there then? UN sounds alarm over decline in migratory birds. Could light pollution be killing our birds? This was written to explain that if LP kills insects at the base of the food chain we could expect animals higher in that food chain to go into decline. ...GRAND DESIGN Have you flicked off for Britain? Turn off a light and make your pledge. Energy-wasting Britons rank top for failing "to see the light". Just blinded by it then? Light Pollution Can Kill? Someone else thinks so too. Add a comment of your own.. HUMAN WARMING HOBBLES OLD CLIMATE CYCLE If you click the link just below you learn that climate change is getting worse. We know that we will soon have the North West Passage to India? This will make the oil magnates happy but it will kill polar bears and seals. It will destroy Inuit culture. BUT IT WILL NOT RAISE SEA LEVELS. What IS raising sea level is the melting of glaciers in New Zealand, the Alps, the Himalayas and Greenland. Ice shelves at sea in the Ant-Arctic will NOT raise sea level BUT the land based ice that is now melting will do so. Learn the science. It is all there but too many are ignoring the signs. By the time they do it will be JTL - Just Too Late. Scientists say that climate change is getting worse. LIGHT POLLUTION - The easiest pollution that we can "fix" at the flick of a switch! Francis Parnell has written News & Press. His simple advice is at the foot of the letters page. Francis's letter should be at the foot of this page. (Thanks to Lisa Chalian-Rock at News & Press). Scientists study Arctic haze for clues to rapid melting. What surprises me is that I developed the AEM analysis techniques in the electron microscope for this kind of research nearly 40 year ago. Amazing isn't it? Let us hope that these aerosols are properly AEM'd. If not then I can explain the reasons why. Graham Cliff - half a Cliff-Lorimer k factor in AEM analysis of aerosol particles.. "You have to ask what would it take to set off the alarm bells to make this a top-of-mind priority in the body politic." NO I do NOT say this of light pollution but Al Gore says it instead of climate change. We really will be JTL. At least I can blame everybody else but that will not help me. Sad but true!IYA 2009. The 400th anniversary of Galileo's first use of the telescope and the 40th anniversary of the first Moon landing! Join in with astronomers, amateur and professional, worldwide to celebrate these events. There will be many world projects to help to find the answers to the questions about life , the Universe and everything. And No the answer is not 42 in spite of the late Douglas Adams, so put UYA 2009 in your diary now and join in next year. Dark Sky Lighting: Simple but Effective. Peter Strasser, IDA. April 2008. So global warming is "myth"? Read "Warmest March over World......" The STERN review of climate change was bleak. IT IS EVEN MORE BLEAK NOW! Bye, bye South America's Rain Forests! Brazil's 33 billion barrels of oil? "This would lay to rest some of the peak oil pronouncements that we(?) were out of oil........" PLUG IN AMERICA with Chelsea Sexton. Make a REAL change in the USA. Give the USA a "sustainable" lead in OUR world's future. Homer Glen goes "DARK" for Earth Hour. If they can then why can't the rest of us? Thought for the day "Stars - wonderful aren't they?" Tommy Lee Jones to Eddie Murphy. This at the end of Men In Black. City kids today think that the stars are movie SFX. Real sad isn't it? Have a read of this - "‘It is indeed a feeble light that reaches us from the starry sky. But what would human thought have achieved if we could not see the stars?’Jean Perrin 1870-1942 - French physicist; Nobel prize for physics 1926." This quote can be found at the top of the Light Pollution page at Armagh Observatory, NI. It can also be found in a report to Parliament from Macclesfield Astronomical Society, the MAS based at the world famous Jodrell Bank, UK The DARK SIDE (of light at night, by Dave Owen, New Yorker magazine). Caused by the 24 hour day, which may be killing off Life On Earth? And that means us - yeah, us - the human race and not just bugs, birds and turtles. Just read Dave Owen's article. BUT WHAT ABOUT WORLD EARTH HOUR 2008? (And what about better ads for WEH 2009 - especially for News Media here in the UK?). The stars light up in darker Homer Glen and ComEd report an energy usage reduction of 7% in CHICA6O. Chicago Astronomical Society have their CHICA6O EH picture set. Well done guys. Sydney, Australia, embraced Earth Hour and so too did much of the rest of the World. This year's Earth Hour in Australia can be seen HERE at FAIRFAX DIGITAL. Take a trip back to the first EH, Sydney, 31st March 2007. Half way down the page at this link. Of course here, in the UK where I live, our Docklands, London was so complacent - no effect and my home location Manchester - no effect. Sad but true. The UK - a seat of environmental ignorance. Sad but apparently true. MetroNews, UK said "Docklands was all lit up Saturday night". - perhaps a bit like the Spithead Fleet Review in 1937? You can add your comments to this UK newspaper's comments section. Please do so and add your international perspectives of how your country contributed to EH 2008. Will you be part of WEH 2009? I hope so. (BTW MetroNews UK did a story last year titled "Sky At Night Could Be a Thing Of The Past". makes you think doesn't it?) Earth Hour'08: Did it matter? YES, YES,YES,YES AND YES - AGAIN! (cf Jim of Vicar of Dibley). The Toronto Star & Earth Hour. Their brilliant video is HERE. WEH WAS Saturday!!! The Toronto Star "Earth Hour proves cynics wrong", by Bob Hepburn. And a 15th March video from CHICA60 is HERE narrated by Jeremy Piven. Whilst my personal Earth Hour is now well over, I am gearing up to campaign for WEH, World Earth Hour next year. 2009. I will post the results of this unique world effort once the data is in. Fingers crossed that the effect is significant enough to make our leaders wake up? Fingers crossed. Apparently this hope appears to be over optimistic? I will have more here about Earth Hour updates ASAP. This however from Monday 31st March in th Independent newspaper on page 23 , WORLD, "Golden Gate Loses Its Lustre. The lights go out over San Francisco. Organisers (of Earth Hour) estimate that power usage fell by 3 per cent". Maybe had the media been more responsible and publicised the event better support would have been better? The byeline used ".. loses its lustre." is fine alliteration BUT its implicit negativity means that media imperatives will be part of the problem and not part of the cure. Earlier data in for WEH so far is HERE. It seems that this world has a "problem"? But the Toronto Star disagrees. However Debra Norvil, of Homer Glen which had an EH including the ISS, said this - "EH was just great here - better than I expected. We took lots of pictures .. it was clear but cold - about 0 degrees C. … the local business owners put EH over the top! Many of them turned out all their lights - parking lots too. It was so dark in one area near my house that I didn't recognize it. I had 2 newspaper reporters with me. I got to show them the ISS going overhead. (This URL from 30 minutes after EH). They had never seen it (before). You can see Orion but just look at the wasted energy and the LP! The one reporter from the Joliet newspaper, was awe struck by the stars that he could see. He will be writing an article for the Tuesday paper. For me the best part was that the Mayor and 2 village trustees met me at McDonald’s. He's done more TV and newspaper interviews than I think he ever did in his life and he knows that EH helped put Homer Glen in the national news …this is up in the top 10 days of my life. Debra Norvil." Debra – not just the national news, Homer Glen is INTERNATIONAL now – Graham. BTW I have added a page for Homer Glen 3/4 of the way down this home page. Sorry that this is so far down. I will not explain why now. Just go there and see the guys from Home Glen. Homer Glen leads and hopefully this World will one day follow? Melbourne joined in - did you? Clearly we face a JTL future when all of us want it to be JIT. If you are a media journalist wanting further information about LP and birds then click HERE.Environmentalist media journalists click HERE for a reduced URL link set. This is some of the latest thinking about the harm possibly being done by the 24 hour day and its "hidden" insidious effects! Will Whip-Poor-Wills Die? Is the 24 hour day killing off Life On Earth? Think about it! This is the "friendly" version. Colin Henshaw has created newer version 5 April 2008. The "aggressive" version is HERE! You can read a profile about Colin here. If instead your are a "kid" of any age then browse these web pages HERE. If you want to see the growing skyglow cartoon footprint over Orion look HERE. If you like video then go well down this page and view the many (6!) WMV videos. These are from the Dark Sky Conference, Portsmouth, 2006. Dr. John Mason gives an excellent and humourous summary in his 30 minute video, described by American astronomers as "very British" and by others as "Pythonesque"? Whatever your prejudices, his story is both educational AND frightening. Make up your own minds but please do it soon. Whilst JIT - (Just In Time), is all well and good in industry, Colin Henshaw and I (Graham Cliff) believe that it will soon be JTL - (Just Too Late)? LATE BREAKING NEWS - -"You have to ask what would it take to set off the alarm bells to make this a top-of-mind priority in the body politic." NO I do NOT say this of light pollution but Al Gore says it instead of climate change. We really will be JTL. At least I can blame everybody else but that will not help me. Sad but true!So global warming is "myth"? Read "Warmest March over World......" The STERN review of climate change was bleak. IT IS EVEN MORE BLEAK NOW! PLUG IN AMERICA with Chelsea Sexton. Make a REAL change in the USA. Give the USA a "sustainable" lead in OUR world's future.Cost Rica "aims" to become carbon neutral by 2021.They can go a long way by turning off unnecessary lights at night. SIMPLE isn't it?Now there's a thing - I really mean it Hunters Worry About Global Warming? The Philippines is to make climate change a part of the school curriculum. The next Arctic species to face extinction - Arctic Seals. Awh well - once all the wildlife in the Arctic has gone we will not have to worry about the oil prospectors finding more gas for the "guzzlers". I will be glad that by then I will not care - I'll be extinct too! So creating light pollution has NO effect on the Earth. OH YES IT HAS! But our warnings have simply been ignored. It really will be JTL if all of you folk "blinded by the light" do not wake from your self imposed ignorance. An Antarctic ice shelf bigger than Connecticut risks collapse because of global warming after a retreat that began on Feb. 28.A new Homer Glen blog - My favorite part is where the student realizes how much light energy is wasted w/o shielding - kids learning the truth? And this from 5th/8th graders or thereabouts? Let's hope Mom and Dad are on board? Reminds me of Anzy McWha of Fallbrook, CA 2 years ago and Lisa Simpson, "Scuse me whilst I miss the sky"?SWITCH OFF (UNNECESSARY) LIGHTS - Melanie Rimmer's poll, Folk in Harmony, Florida are having an Upcoming Dark Sky Festival April 5. Will you? A small selection of recently notified events.Kids help track early plant blooms and one wants to be an Einstein.Join World Earth Hour because Global Warming Rushes Timing of SpringSo Global Warming Now Rushes Timing of Spring - Gosh???Thickest, oldest Arctic ice is melting: NASA data.If the URL above at YAHOO does not open then please try this below at Reuters. NASA data shows thickest and oldest Arctic ice is meltingIn CHICA60 it appears that with the increased lighting came an increase in the number of crimes....... (in Chicago). Is that why they are so conscientiously endorsing EH? Good old Chicagee....as Doris Day would say. Their city fathers are at least trying. Tokyo (?) at dusk and its suburban light pollution. Wow indeed. World's glaciers melting faster? Maybe because we are wasting energy creating light pollution? Why are there no stars HERE in Vancouver? Read these pages to find out the reasons why? Turning Out the Lights. The dangers of a bright night are becoming more apparent. By Ben Harder Posted March 14, 2008. In US News and Science Reports. Apparently the City of London will be joining in with global (World) Earth Hour. This today (14-March-2008) "As with Lights Out London and European Lights Out Day, Earth Hour is another opportunity to highlight the need to act against climate change and the importance of individual action. The GLA is currently making enquiries into the feasibility of City Hall participating as well as exploring the possibility of linking up with other organisations in London, and hope that it will be a well-supported event." Good on yer", Ken Livingstone, will you be joining in with Vancouver and others in Sydney's EH 1st birthday? Vancouver, BC, Canada joins in with Earth Hour. Bats need the dark and it is now no longer there in Britain? Britain's inky nights are disappearing - and with them their most famous inhabitant, the bat. Researchers have found that growing light pollution is now playing havoc with the country's flying mammals. Homer Glen Sees the Light, leads the way forward and joins Earth Hour to turn off unnecessary light at night. Macclesfield UK is concerned that we have lost starry nights. Sad for kids, their imaginations must be recessing, not being able to see stars and the Milky Way at night.. A very recent blog "How much does turning off the light really save" - Light pollution killing off creatures in Cheshire? Apparently Clear Channel and CBS in the USA just do not care? Liverpool, Saturday 8th March 2008. "Your 'Zero-Carbon' Car : How Soon?". PLUG IN AMERICA with Chelsea Sexton. Make a REAL change in the USA. Give the USA a "sustainable" lead in OUR world's future. Atropos letters page 34 - Is LP killing birds by killing their insect food supply? Global warming, the ice melts and polar bears and seals die out. The Arctic is melting TWICE as fast as was once expected. Slovenia Light Pollution controls - Press Release 2007. "Every morning, light absorbed by your retina..sets a master clock.. that cues (your) other biological timepieces.." Ergo IF you DO NOT get a good, dark night's sleep, then you suffer the consequences? You can read about this HERE......! If you read this MSN article, you will read that to help protect against melatonin suppression ".. when sleeping, keep the room as DARK as possible". It might save your life? SAVE JODRELL BANK - Sign the petition HERE. Brazil's deforestation worsening: Greenpeace. This begs the obvious question - Are We signing the Death Warrant of Life On Earth? Is it really JTL - Just Too late?How much will it cost to address today's key environmental problems?Apparently a whole LOT more money if we do not do something today, like killing LP? Instead we are killing insects, birds, nocturnal creatures etc. You name it and we are likely to be killing it, simply by not turning off unnecessary energy waste. Lose money today, have less in the future and have to pay more. Crisis management, if ever there was a management failure to be seen, this will be the best example. The problem is that we will see it tomorrow, in our collective future, but it will be JTL - Just Too Late? From the Dark Sky meeting Bled, 2007, this from page 3. security in the dark has been brought, in Europe, to an extreme, which was several decades ago unimaginable. Enormous consequences of the light pollution have become apparent. By our way of using light we blind people on roads, illuminate their bedrooms and disturb animals. Many nocturnal animals are dying out because of the inappropriate outdoor lighting. There are most recent research on the increase in the number of people suffering from cancer caused by light at night." WHEN WILL THE WORLD WAKE UP AND "SEE THE LIGHT"? Night brightness co-incident with breast cancer, but not lung cancer, in the female population of Israel. Are Arizona's Dark Skies in Jeopardy? Prince Harry about Afghanistan - ".. being out in the middle of nowhere, with the stars out, is just a fantastic place to be." Perhaps he has never seen stars before? LP kills them. Are you a QUEEN fan? Are you an amateur (even a professional) astronomer or environmentalist concerned about the harm being done by the 24 hour day? Then read what Brian May thinks about LP at his Bang Universe web site HERE. LP is mentioned about 1/3 the way down this question and answers segment.Shoreline Light Pollution makes boating more "dangerous" HERE. Johnny Noles, who is behind this boating report, has another HERE. This discusses the harm being done to wildlife by LP "The Harm Being Done To Wildlife By Light Pollution". Johnny is a US Navy biologist and he knows his stuff. The Diocese of London is Shrinking The Footprint HERE. Perhaps Lisa Simpson and Anzy McWha should join forces with Maryn Smith? My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants. A mnemonic way to remember this solar system's planets and dwarf planets. Neat huh?5 PERCENT adds to a better future? Did you know that Anthropogenic GHG Emissions had doubled in 38 years? Read the IPCC report HERE (page 5). That is green house gases have doubled - presumably making the light pollution and creating the 24 hour day "Killing Off Life On Earth?". World Earth Hour is actually going to happen. Yippee! Have a look here at World cities embrace Earth Hour. The Daily Mail has a "blog" about Night Lighting curfews described as Blackouts. This has 112 messages and sadly many contributions have been edited out. The article's author, David Derbyshire, assured me that the blog was OK and that he would get back with my concerns that mine and other contributions had not appeared. He has not got back. Of the 112 messages only 43% (48 messages) were constructive contributions to the debate. The other 57% (64 messages) were downright mischievous and unhelpful. The blog certainly ignored truth, balance and reason. Perhaps it reflects no more than the values of the Daily Mail? The 48 Constructive contributions are collated HERE. Whilst the 64 Non-Constructive contributions can be found HERE. Make up your own mind. Steve Fossett, adventurer, entrepreneur and aviator extraordinaire has been declared officially deceased. Sad, but maybe we should not give a damn that the US can solve climate change. Frankly I do give a damn but I know that the future will fail because of the kind of technical ignorance that failed to find Steve Fossett. After 5 months of US technology they cannot find a dead man in Nevada. What chance do they have of preventing climate change? (17-2-2008). Frankly I despair. We must reclaim the darkness. No-one can any longer see the Milky Way. Join the FivePerCenters and maybe make the difference? Dublin to lead Irish Cities in World Earth Hour March 29th 2008. How Much Money Does Turning Off The Lights Really Save? If you read some of the comments here the saving is real big and unexpectedly so for some people. Evidence for a fundamental and pervasive shift away from nature-based recreation. The authors of this Natural Sciences report claim that "In conclusion, all major lines of evidence point to an ongoing and fundamental shift away from nature-based recreation. Quote from BBC radio broadcaster Terry Wogan on Dave TV (Thursday 14th February 2008). He said that he had heard the claim that "Sparrows are in decline because there are too few insects". At least he has read our pdf then? Coventry City Council - Switch It Off - Schools. The message is spreading so please do YOUR bit. Pictures of children's night sky heritage, blotted out by LIGHT POLLUTION. Sad! Gosh - shock - horror Can you believe that small birds AND insects are in decline in Ontario Canada. The reasons are described as "mysterious". We know the reason don't we? The CfDS submission, from Martin Morgan Taylor, to the Royal Commission on Environmental Protection is a 10 page pdf which can be found HERE. Read it and learn about the many problems of bad, wasted light at night. It may surprise those who had not given any thought to the "hidden" problems to which too many are just "blinded by the light" to paraphrase an old pop song. From the UN: Climate change will cost $20 TRILLION. It strikes me that turning off unnecessary lights at night would really help our future. Maybe though I am just stupid and not as clever as Mr. George W. Bush? LP - What's The Problem? Well I think the answer must be ignorant lighting engineers and architects. Have a read of this blog HERE. You will read that " Light pollution can be minimised, with efficient lighting that doesn't spill up into the sky." Why do lighting engineers simply IGNORE this good advice? Are too many just stupid? I hope not. Light Pollution from 24,000 feet. Wasted Light - Wasted Energy in Ontario. Canada "killing" our future? From Scotland - "Brilliant learning experience." The public reaction to a tour around the dark night sky and its wonders. From the USA: "Global warming is real."One viewer commented, "The lights WILL go out think of last year in Gloucestershire, UK. Harvey Elliott had warned the year before about "the inundations yet to come". Well we now know where they have been and we nearly short circuited last year. How long will we have to wait before the "short circuit" is catastrophic? It will not help, in our upcoming future, up to your ears in water and there is no Ark. Suicide and the 24 hour day.These findings agreed with previous studies that had reported an The MANY misconceptions about Dark Sky Campaigning HERE! Lights Out, by Sean Kirst, Columnist for The Post-Standard. NOT an LP post but interesting. Hot off the press from WWF (19 Jan 2008). World Earth Hour is ON! (See the discussions of WEH down this page and on other pages). YIPPEE - its going to happen. Did you know that nocturnal birds are in world wide decline, because of the 24 hour day? They are all at risk. Perhaps whippoorwills will never again sing – they will just die? Moreover you can read a CNN report, from Audubon, that COMMON backyard birds (are) becoming less common. Is light pollution killing our birds? I think so – do you? The Royal Commission for Environmental Pollution is inviting contributions for interested parties to comment on Light Pollution. These comments are NOT intended to focus on astronomical issues - rather they should focus on environmental concerns! The hosts of this web site have already made contributions and one of them, Colin Henshaw, now offers this 9 page referenced commentary in WORD .doc format for appraisal. Let us hope that the RCEP reads it and can understand its importance? Have YOUR say! Please fill in this CfDS survey. You know it makes sense? Environmental issues of light pollution are generally seen to be insignificant! As a result they are therefore perceived to be of little or no consequence? Sadly nothing could be further from the truth! If you are concerned that light pollution might have “hidden”, concomitant environmental concerns, then read the Internet available pdf “Is Light Pollution Killing Our Birds?” Learn the truths that our politicians simply want to ignore so that “their” status quo can prevail. By the time they wake up to reality it will be JTL - Just Too Late! What's it going to take to get people really committed? CATASTROPHE FIRST? Hey - Who Turned out The Lights? And this has nothing to do with LP - sadly. I will not say more until a later date BUT climate change modeling may be wrong? Trust me - I used to Monte Carlo model electron/specimen interactions in electron microscopy. Garbage In - Garbage Out!. Just read the article and THINK! Please - hopefully it is wrong! Apparently Richard Stevens 20 years ago was right. Research for the WHO implies that shift work causes cancer. What makes shift work possible? Light at night and the 24 hour day? So if your city fathers put a light outside YOUR bedroom window and YOU cannot sleep at night - sue them if (when?) you succumb to cancer! Treat light pollution just like asbestos! Do NOT tolerate its misuse? More ARE in action and from a much wider arena of environmental interests!!!!!!! For ALL of us it is truly the time to act!" Last year Harvey Elliott warned of floods yet to come, Vale Royal on their Climate Change Garden at the RHS Tatton said that a 2 degree increase in temperatures would cause floods in "wet areas" like England. If you examine http://www.thersa.org/journal/article.asp?articleID=675 you will read that in February 2006 Harvey Elliott said that "What no one can be certain of is where and when the inevitable inundation will strike" We are seeing climate change if we simply look around us. What we should know at Christmas? Light pollution today would make it impossible to see the star which guided the wise men? Light Pollution - The Problem? YouTube. Lights washing the stars from the night sky.............see the difference in Los Angeles between 1908 and 1988 from the site of the once proud Hooker 100 inch reflector! MORE LIGHT, MORE CRIME : CHICAGO You can read this 7 year old report HERE in pdf format. Alley lighting increases crime. And yet here in the UK HORS 251 "claims" lighting prevents crime. But then those who have read ALL of HORS 251 know the extent of its "economy with the truth"! Please read its conclusions summary and recognise that its failure is part of its problem. If you see anyone referring to it then at least you know that they are are ignorant of its true content? Its numerical claims are unsubstantiated? Bright Lights, Big Cancer. More on the health aspects of the 24 hour day. Make sure that if your city fathers place lights outside your bedroom, which prevent a good night's sleep, that you will notify them that, should you succumb to light induced cancers, then you will prosecute! You know that it will make sense to at least warn them of what they will face in the future? A bit like the tobacco companies used to face? According to the National Park Service the US wastes $28.7 billion annually creating Light Pollution. As China and India become more wealthy then the USA will no longer be able to afford light pollution? Ugly Light! You cannot see the stars from your back lot, NE USA! If there was any proof that the World "does not give a damn" then look HERE! Lindsay Magill has had these thoughts - "The only sign of humanity’s existence from space: the lights that we spill upwards (NASA GSFC image)." Is light pollution a REAL nuisance for YOU? Martin Morgan-Taylor of the CfDS wants YOU to fill in his questionnaire. Click HERE and access the Microsoft form which he wants YOU to fill in! For those who can open only PDF click HERE. If you are from overseas then fill it in anyway and he can get an INTERNATIONAL perspective to add to the UK perception. Please join in and really help Martin to make a difference. You know it makes sense? Apparently, according to David Solomon, World Earth Hours are a waste of time! "The Earth Hour experiment (Sydney, 31st March, 2007) suggests quite strongly that small changes in individual lifestyle are unlikely to have a significant effect in achieving such goals (as 60% greenhouse gas reductions by the year 2050). " OK folks just be a Rhett Butler like David Solomon and "Frankly Do Not Give A Damn!" http://home.uchicago.edu/~dsolomo1/EarthHour.pdf Read this from Vietnam. "In the long term, light pollution will possibly have dangerous effects on ecological diversity.-Enditem" Nice to know the third world agrees! They are today (15-Dec-2007) making motorcyclists use helmets. What next - turn off light at night? VIDEO: Other peoples' take on light pollution! Blinded by the Light(Windows Media File - Video) The groundbreaking 2-part series on light pollution initially broadcast in March 2000 on KOTV, with viewers on several continents fortunate enough to log into the web simulcast. This archived version is a 17.6Mb .wmv file, and is available only for non-commercial research or private study. Are we SAD? That is suffering Stellar Affective Disorder. Charlotte Observer, 1996! A Thought for Christmas? "I hope we all remember ....when we leave our lights (and heating) on unnecessarily this Christmas. We have become so used to wasting artificially cheap energy that we have lost touch with what it takes to light up a bulb. In the short term, perhaps we can remember to SWITCH OFF whenever possible". Adapted from a letter to the Independent, page 44, Thursday, 6th December 2007.You can read the pdf about how the light could actually go out one day very soon HERE. The 24 hour day, light at night and cancer? And let there be less light. A page from the Green Girls Global Blog. Don't blow it..... good planets are hard to find! Ours is a throw away world! Waste everything? Waste Energy to Light Pollution. This not new! Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark had this song lyric from 1979 - Our one source of energy See below for a mention of OMD and their TESLA Girls. The web master has these tracks as MP3s! Jack Troeger (Iowa) has a light pollution and astronomy web site HERE. Jack tells me that " If things don't change and change quickly, there won't be any need for Astronomy magazines around the world." Seems to me to be a serious truism. Perhaps we will have to say "au revoir" to Sky & Telescope? Seems like energy is in short supply in Connecticut, USA. BIG OIL cannot supply? Seems that I said the lights would go out sometime. Maybe Connecticut will be first? Could Our Lights Actually Go Out..............................?http://www.lightpollution.org.uk/dwnLoads/CouldThe%20Lights%20ActuallyGoOutv3.pdf Proceedings of the 6th European Symposium for Dark Skies. This meeting from Portsmouth, 15-16 September, 2006 is now available in this pdf formatWEEE Care - Do You? cf. Don't leave MEEE on! No excuse for causing Glare, Skyglow and Light Pollution. Get your night lighting advice from experts HERE. Dark Sky Lighting care about the Sky At Night. Contact them if you share their prejudices? Warwickshire UK have had an SIO hour. Switch It Off for 60 minutes. Their information pack in Powewrpoint format can be found HERE. Essex Council is now to curfew street lighting to reduce light pollution and energy wastage. (7th November 2007). The ABSENCE of the sky at night? In Metronews, Monday 5th November. Rachel Reilly writes that "Confused night-blooming flowers fail to open, leaving insects unable to feed, and subsequently pollinate them"! Shock - horror? Colin Henshaw said this in 1994 and with even more emphasis in the Challenge article which started this web site. Moreover John Feeney had an even more damning story from the BBC Green Room HERE saying much the same thing with even more horror? He implies, even more forcefully than Colin and I, that it will soon be Just Too Late? He says that "Humanity is the greatest challenge"! Venezuela is following the content of this site. A translation is HERE!. Neat huh? A Riot Of Colour" at York Minster? EVOKE for the next 9 days (26 Oct 2007). "The concept behind it came from the fact that the building has historically been where people would communicate with the heavens,..." BUT they would be unable to see the heavens of the sky at night! They would do well to see more than energy wasted skyglow and light pollution? There are 2 new Comets which will best be seen where light pollution is a minimum. One comet is C/2007 F1 (LONEOS). (25 Oct 2007). This means it was discovered by the Lowell Observatory Near Earth Object Survey - LONEOS. Well done guys and thanks for your help with asteroid 4989 Joegoldstein last year. In an earlier version of this page it was assumed that a Colin Henshaw estimate was for LONEOS, however Dr. Darren Baskill, CfDS, wonders if Colin observed Comet Holmes. What an amazing situation 2 comets at the same time. Watch this space for updates. Colin Henshaw reported a magnitude this evening (25-Oct-2007) from Tobuk, Saudi Arabia of +2.5. Real bright and will possibly get brighter? Please get out and give it a coat of looking at. That is IF you can! Comet Holmes is in Perseus in the NE and LONEOS can be seen at about Sunset in the West. Let's hope people get to see it/them? (Saw Holmes myself at about mag +3 Monday - YIPPEE). See what the sky at night should look like HERE ? Tonight (22-Oct-2007) I took my niece to see Ratatouillie which is a great film, a fun film, a magic movie but scenes imply that stars can still be seen in the Parisian skyglow.Whilst the story is cleverly humorous, the impression that stars can still be seen from within the city of Paris remains sad for me. It would be nice if PIXAR learnt the "hidden" truths behind light pollution? Lights Out LA and San Francisco happened yesterday (20- Oct-2007). Read here an LA Times account and how folk are now looking to Lights Out America next March. Roll on World Earth Hour. Yes! Lights Out Liverpool is next month November 1st. (See below). 0 - 60 mph in UNDER 4 seconds in an EV sports car at TESLA! That is faster than my TR8 which took 6 seconds and did a gas mileage of about 15 mpg! How about a bit of pop? OMD and TESLA girls! Toyota promote HYBRID cars. Learn from their ad about their product HERE! The World Land Trust have these pages discussing Light Pollution HERE and HERE It looks like we are approaching the onset of a World Earth Hour? This today (13-10-2007) from Gerard Gilligan, CfDS local officer Merseyside. Lights Out Liverpool. I have asked Councillor Neil Swannick of Manchester City Council if Manchester will join in. I will post his reply here when I have it. - Nothing so far (21-10-2007). Lights Out America. Lights Out LA and Lights Out San Francisco Which World City will join in next to reduce CO2 emissions, global warming and climate change? If you read further down this page you can find this text " I am trying to promote a Fall/Autumn WORLD Earth Hour." It might not be happening in the way I imagined but it IS happening - slowly. A bit like the way the "hidden" effects of light pollution are being revealed? Mike McCarthy, Independent science correspondent, wrote Monday 8th October, "..that it was a mystery why sparrows were disappearing"! Oh no its not! The insects they need to feed their chicks are being "sucked out of habitat by light pollution acting as a vacuum cleaner". You can read this from Professor Gerhard Eisenbeis in chapter 12, on pps 283 and 287, of the "Ecological Consequences of Artificial Night Lighting", by Catherine Rich and Travis Longcore, Island Press, 2006. Its a snip at less than £20 (paper back).FYI - A translation of this web site can be found HERE. I do not yet (7-Oct-2007) know the language ID. Colin Henshaw tells me that it 's Chinese. Neat huh? Durham town has a Lighting and Darkness Strategy (1-8-2007) which is only one day old as I write this text. It has been posted as a pdf at http://www.durhamvision.org.uk/durham_light_strategy.pdf where on page 33 you can read a section recommended by Mike Tabb of the CfDS. Let us hope that where Durham leads other towns (like St. Helens with its "folly") will follow? Indie r
 Homer Glen leads the World and its City Fathers AgreeThis page section is under development but it shows residents and leaders of Homer Glen, a village in the conurbation of the city of Chicago, in Illinois, USA. Debra Norvil (cream jacket) has got back the names of folk in the picture line up to me (see caption details below). Homer Glen joined in with the rest of the World to attempt to make energy saving and sustainability a tangible reality. Homer Glen followed Sydney, Australia on the 1st birthday of Earth Hour 2007 to attempt to draw attention to the extent to which we WASTE energy every day and night. A 24 hour day problem in this global village? San Francisco ended with the Golden Gate having its floodlights turned off but the roadway lights, of course, were left illuminated. In short Home Glen turned off UNNECESSARY lighting which is all that EH (Earth Hour) is all about. I am looking forward to WEH next year, 2009 (World Earth Hour, 2009). Tell YOUR city fathers that if their township didn't join in then they will be responsible for future failure. Homer Glen made the effort this year and will continue to do so. Will your city leaders do the same? Picture figure captions - L to R: Illinois Lt. Governor Pat Quinn, Homer Glen Mayor James Daley, Homer Glen Trustee Russell Knaack, Homer Glen Trustee Margaret Sabo, Debra Norvil, Bob Gent IDA, and IDA Illinois Section Leader At Large Dave Toeppen. Somehow if others didn't join in this year then I guess that they will not bother next year. Sad isn't it? But it is real nice that Homer Glen knows the way forward.
SOCIETY IS UNDER-ESTIMATING ITS EFFECTS !By the time people wake up to its "hidden" effects it will be "just too late"? This quote from Challenge magazine page 20, Summer 2006. Learn more about the problem at http://www.savethenight.eu/Home.html Here you will SEE the nature of this problem! It is much worse than you can ever imagine? Please sign up to the four UK light pollution petitions! One web address is here ..... http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Floodlighting/ Another can be found here... http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/starry-night/ And a rural campaign is here http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Streetlighting/sign John Tunnicliffe has added... http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Light-review/ And another here at........... http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/light-pollution/ Whilst these petition links are now out of date I leave them here for information. The latest (Msrch 2008) petition link however concerns Jodrell Bank's Merlin interferometer. The £85 million Government scientific funding cut-back puts Jodrell and Merlin at risk. Don't let Government ignorance fail our future in science. The petition web site is at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/jodrellfunding/ - please sign up.
There is a new book out there titled The Energy Age, by Robert Kyriakides of GENERSYS PLC who are the publisher. This retails at about £13 at B&Q! If you do not know anything about energy then read this book. Energy use, energy abuse and proper energy management are all included in the narrative. I have not read it fully. Watch this space for more. GENERSYS have a web site at www.genersys.com The energy which we waste at night, illuminating the night sky, should be powering our Electric Vehicles. It does not because of corporate incompetence? Please be kind enough to read "The City Domes of Wasted Energy Which Should Be Charging Our EVs" Bill Moore, editor of EV World, has placed a link to this article HERE. It can be found about halfway down this EVW page under the title "Light Pollution and Plug-In Electric Vehicles".  What is 'Light Pollution'? See here ... LP - THE MOVIE!Light pollution is simply light that is having a bad effect on the environment. You can watch a WMV movie video explaining "The Problem?" by clicking HERE. The major effects are:
The purpose of this websiteLight pollution is unnecessary and can be controlled with very simple measures that cost very little. We aim to show you how YOU can make a difference and how YOU can improve your local environment. Remember that light at night needs to be enough to meet the need, it needs to be where it is wanted and at the time that it is wanted and it needs to be no more than will do the job! Turn off light at night (and at any other time) if there is no need for electric light? Switch it off! Do not waste energy! Do not warm planet Earth! Do not add to global warming! You know it makes sense? Or do you? Please do not be blind to that which you cannot see! The "hidden" effects of LP? This is a life experience for so many politicians - those in our world who are so blind that they WILL not see! The main pointsHere are some points about light pollution and its effects.
Potentially Worthwhile Links.....?Brian May is against LP. His Bang Universe web site is here - http://www.banguniverse.com/questions-and-answers The IDA is here -....
The CfDS is here .......... http://britastro.org/baa/content/view/168/2/ You can learn about Bob Mizon of the CfDS here.......... http://www.flamsteed.info/fasbobmizon.htm The Campaign to Protect Rural England is here....... http://www.cpre.org.uk/campaigns/landscape-and-beauty/light-pollution/light-pollution-your-area.htmLightPollution.org is here (in Croatia/Hungary)....(no English translation yet) http://www.lightpollution.org/index.htm
Pierantonio Cinzano is here........... http://www.savethenight.eu/Home.html Prairie Astronomy Club, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA have an LP fact sheet here- http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org/light.htm
Simply browse and enjoy, and then turn OFF your lights! All the best, web site manager Graham Cliff. This web site's tracking software is returning evidence that browsers want to know "who is Graham Cliff". Although very flattering "Graham Cliff" as such will not take a GOOGLE search very far. If you have read the pdf "Is Light Pollution Killing Our Birds" you will know that I am a retired Analytical Electron Microscopist (AEM). So what I hear you say! Well my wife, Pauline, tells friends that "I know my place". This is because my goal in AEM was to analyse atoms and yet I am an amateur astronomer and so I know the scale of our Universe - hence I know my place? I took over a job from Margaret Beckett (nee Jackson) in 1971 at Manchester University. She was until recently the Foreign Secretary of the UK. My colleague Gordon Lorimer and I were interviewed, by BBC political correspondent Michael Crick, about Margaret as a person, when John Smith in 1995 died and she then led the Labour Party before Tony Blair. If you have bothered to get to here then access GOOGLE scholar, key in Cliff and Lorimer and read on. You should find about 2190 (at 5-12-2007, it was 1490 on 11-10-2007) references to my work in AEM. This work from 1975, in AEM, has been described as a citation index "classic". (This pdf, for the curious, is 1.5MB). Very flattering once again but it was based on good common sense science. Light pollution is neither good nor driven by common sense. Please get on board and help Sir David Attenborough save Planet Earth for our kids and their future. You know that it makes sense? Or do you? All the rest is history. If you are an historian how about this 3 MB pdf? It includes Sir Patrick Moore's signature on my Wilkins and Moore "Handbook for Telescope Making", Tony Bradshaw with his "REAL" telescope at Jodrell Bank and an image of ME with Tony's scope on the ADAS observatory roll-off roof, before light pollution wrecked astronomy in Timperley! Astronomy Now used it May, 1992. Small world isn't it?David Eicher used the same image as a front page cover on one of his books years ago (the other picture here is from my video projector's intro screen shot. I am standing on a TV weather map in the Albert Dock, Liverpool, England. My jacket I bought in Salt Lake City, after my wife photographed me in a book store holding David Eicher's book with my image on its front cover). The store in Salt Lake City had a Wilson's Leather shop. The store with David Eicher's book sold telescopes. I hope that Salt Lakers patronize these store. BTW the guys in the photo of 4 (now aged) astronomers are me, Colin Henshaw (co-discoveror of supernova 1987A ), Robin Scagell, President of the SPA and Professor Ian Morison of Jodrell Bank, Radio Telescope Observatory, of the University of Manchester, UK) If you have bothered to read to here then look at Graham, Colin and Fred Talbot, when they were only 18 in 1968 in the pdf HERE! Enjoy it, if you can, in this unsustainable, light polluted, badly managed world! Sad that I am so cynical, isn't it? Can anyone offer me sustainable hope for our future? I added this 1.5MB pdf image to add to my "ego", which of course I do not have(?). I appear in 1994 with academic colleagues at the inauguration of the Lehigh 300kV STEM/AEM which achieved atom analysis resolution in 1996, a year later than I predicted in Boston in 1992 when I received the MAS/EMSA Presidential Award. My wife likes to tell friends that as an electron microscopist and astronomer "I know my place". Have YOUR Photo Opportunity To Have Your Say.A web page Light Pollution photo gallery has been in place now for just over a year(?). Its home page is at http://www.librapix.com/lightpollution/ It has images from activist anti-LP members motivated to bother to take a photo of an LP (or a light energy wastage) problem and to then post it. Not quite a YOUTUBE of LP but then LP is not very dynamic. Some of these photos are worthy of despair and distress. I like(?) numbers 1, 19&22, 45, 48, 59&60 (which are "ironic"), 72, 86, 89 and so on. Please be inclined to post your own. Maybe if you live outside the UK you could ask that a WORLD Gallery be created? You could even create your own. That reminds me - Is there already a World LP gallery site? What is its URL? Please get back if you know of one and I will post it here. Enjoy, or not, as the case may be - more irony. |
Just go to http://www.lightpollution.org.uk and learn the wider issues of NOT turning off unwanted lights at night.
Graham Cliff @ 6:00 pm February 14th, 2008 (comment #49)You will find some of the implications are really frightening for the future of our kids. On the LP 4 Kids page you can download a pdf asking folks “DON’T turn me on and then just leave MEEE!!”
Kids seem to love this and I have seen them pasted to the wall adjacent light switches in their schools. Maybe the kids can educate their parents to the vital need which we will soon have for energy conservation. Switching off unnecessary lights at night is real easy. You just need to be motivated to bother and just do it.
Graham Cliff.