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Wasted Light means Wasted Energy
If you are interested you can find images of England in the UK at night here - ................................ ... http://www.cpre.org.uk/campaigns/landscape-and-beauty/light-pollution/light-pollution-your-area.htm
An image of aurora over NE USA from the ISS - What beautiful aurora over eastern USA from space but what God awful LP/LAN and what a waste of energy and money on the ground below? I guess many city dwellers just didn't see this aurora because of the LP? Have a look HERE at Istanbul by night (or is it day?) and HERE for Beijing. And there's more - Moscow at night HERE - Tokyo at night HERE - Paris at night HERE - Shanghai at night HERE - Osaka Bay at night HERE - It is a pity that the ISS crew did not take any pictures during World Earth Hour - I asked that they should but was told that it could not be done - never could understand why and yet I got the same answer from NASA last year as well? Perhaps the WWF Sydney, Australia should ask for next year, 2011? Why don't YOU write NASA and ask them YOURSELVES for photos of cities SWITCHED OFF FOR WORLD EARTH HOUR 2011? There is an animated link to the WWF Earth Hour at the top RHS of the HOME page and moreover, now in 2010, there is an update for its world Earth Hour scheduled for 27th March. Please join in and support Earth Hour 2010! In the USA 59% of energy is wasted. Here in Europe we waste, just as much. Wembley in 2007 TURNED OFF its non-essential lights at the Live Earth pop extravaganza. You know that it makes sense? If they can do it so can YOU! Turn OFF non-essential lights and Save Planet Earth for OUR FUTURE! BTW our lights really will go out if we do not learn that energy conservation AS WELL AS its renewable creation is vital to our future - without this understanding our electronic future will FAIL - we will be JTL, apparently If you want a monetary estimate we can take our cue from Robert Wagner of the IDA. He estimates that the USA wastes about $2,000 million on LP. On a pro rata basis this means that the UK wastes (with a similar argument) ~$400million. In pounds sterling this is ~£240 million ($1.67/£). The CfDS argues this in more detail HERE. This concept apparently is endorsed by Brown University, because LAN apparently reflects a country's GDP. Weird huh? This is money that could be better spent propping up business in this recession? Don't forget that this estimate is for every year that passes - year on year on year, wasting an unsustainable resource! A GOOGLE search of the web asked this question "Can you think of a way of using this wasted energy?" Well I can - how about charging our Electric Vehicles? Read HERE and know what Bill Moore of EV World is wanting, amongst others who want to protect planet eartm (aka Earth).Here in the UK the Environment Protection Agency is concerned about light pollution as an environmental concern just like the CPRE. They have an LP web page at http://www.environmental-protection.org.uk/neighbourhood-nuisance/light-pollution/ On Wednesday 14th February 2007 they hosted a conference at the Institute of Physics in London UK. This was titled Light Pollution: Managing the Impacts. The details can be accessed from the following web address http://domain1252046.sites.fasthosts.com/ Dr. Pierantonio Cinzano has offered a view of Europe in 2025. When permission is received to place this image here you will be able to see how bad light pollution in Europe is expected to be in just 15 years.  The World Atlas of Light Pollution for YOUR area in our world can be found here - http://www.inquinamentoluminoso.it/worldatlas/pages/fig1.htm A thought to reduce global warming? - TURN OFF YOUR LIGHTS and PCs if they are not needed! See this BBC news page - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6183259.stm More news but this time from OZ! Come Spring 2007 Australians will turn off lights for 60 minutes - http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/let-there-be--less-light/2006/12/15/1165685862255.html Come on World do the same only more often. Hong Kong failed and Reykjavik did not make too much progress. Will Australia succeed where all others fail? It seems that NEWS around the world has supported this event. I cannot find any criticism so far. Have a look here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6514287.stm My old friend Fred Talbot of GRANADA TV said this about the concept of a WORLD Earth Hour " I have a feeling that you are going to get this to happen as everyone I have spoken to thinks it is a great idea. You just need one city to agree to do it and others will follow, not wanting to be left behind, but I think you have to take the dark skies produced as an added bonus. The focus will surely be energy conservation. Fred I wonder if cities of this world will entertain the idea of a WORLD Earth Hour at their upcoming C40 conference in New York in May 2007? Catherine Egan, who helped to organise Sydney's Earth Hour, on behalf of the WWF, has sent me this Earth Hour update report web page at http://earthhour.smh.com.au/ More details can be found here - http://earthhour.smh.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=59 Come on you 40 world city leaders. Help to save our planet! You know it makes sense? Read more about C40 at http://www.wnbc.com/news/13310786/detail.html?rss=ny&psp=news There is even more further down this page about C40 now it has passed. Steve Davis of the OLF group is sad there is no press statement dealing with LP. Many cities do not have one but I have provided a link to a pdf copy of Clover Moore wanting support for the idea of a global (World) Earth Hour in 2008. Pass the word to others. Access the press release at the link below. My USA friends WILL understand the tax dollar implications of the following 2003 statement - "Saving energy also makes economic and political sense. The International Dark-Sky Association in Tucson, Arizona, an environmental group, estimates that one-third of all lighting in the U.S. is wasted, at an annual cost of about 30 million barrels of oil and 8.2 million tons of coal—a total of about U.S. $2 billion. (2003)" How much more will it cost in the future of the 21st century? This answer from Francis Parnell (YAHOO OL-Forum). It is now $10 billion according to the USA's own DOE. All those lovely tax dollars screwing up the wonders of the natural night sky. Please do not despair, just complain to your legislators and if they ignore you then do not vote for them! A simple but effective solution don't you think?  Turn the lights off when you no longer need them!The web co-host saw this light switch which reminds people not to turn them on and then go away and leave them on. Well done ACTION ENERGY. Although I do not know who they are I applaud their campaign. Use light only when needed and if it is not needed turn it off ideally, but down to a more acceptable level if off is inconvenient. "DON'T TURN ME ON AND THEN JUST LEAVE MEEE!! Please lift this image and place it on light switches near where you are and remind your friends to do the same. You know that this makes sense? Click HERE for a pdf version. You can also look HERE and see cups of tea that could be made by the energy wasted lighting unoccupied offices at night? No amount of energy, wasted by leaving lights on unnecessarily, can be allowed.
 Earth HourThe image composite shows images of Sydney waterfront at Darling Harbour and the Opera House before and during Earth Hour. Those who have the misguided idea that anti-light pollution campaigners simply want all lights turned off can see that this is not the case. The event was better supported than had been expected but a full report was being prepared for the C40 summit in the Big Apple, May 14-17, 2007. http://www.nycclimatesummit.com/ The C40 Large Cities Climate Summit http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/05/03/the-second-c40-large-cities-climate-summit-welcome-reception/ This is scheduled to discuss ideas to green our cities. When you get to the FairFax page you will get to choose from ~127,852 images. Use the search routine at the left using the keywords Earth Hour to look at the 101 images from 31st March. Enjoy! This is from the office of the Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, Many people are interested in a large scale Earth Hour event of the sort you propose, and there may be opportunities for you to cooperate with other groups and governments. I believe the Lord Mayor (Clover Moore) would again lend her public support to such an initiative. The C40 Large Cities Climate Summit is over (May 17th) but Clover Moore has released this statement - She (Clover Moore) said that she hoped to interest other mayors in Sydney's Earth Hour. She has already spoken to the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, about the idea. "There was a marvellous response to that ... we would love to see that adopted again next year. It's very powerful. It makes people stop and think, how can I reduce my ecological footprint?" Read the rest of this story HERE. Latest News in from the C40 Climate Change Summit is HERE. AND THERE IS MORE(!) A press release from the office of Clover Moore, Mayor of Sydney is HERE. This is a 792 word 79 kb pdf file. A synopsis of only 92 words is below and "light" in the context of "energy" feature. Apparently you can save energy by reducing light "pollution". This is part of what has been said for years. A consistent theme at the Summit was that state and national governments can't or won't take the lead, so city leaders must. The crisis is not the result of a failure of technology, but a failure of political will for action. …….street and traffic lighting were identified as major concerns. ……..and led discussion on our recent successful Earth Hour initiative with WWF-Australia, urging other Mayors to turn this intoa global project in 2008. This work could include energy-efficient heating, cooling and lighting, with intelligent sensors to keep them on only when needed.What can be done then to stop light pollution?Most light pollution comes from street lighting, exterior illumination of buildings and security lighting. It is caused by light being allowed to shine upwards instead of being directed to where it is needed. For example, a streetlight is supposed to illumanate the highway and footpaths below it. If half of its light escapes upward then that light is wasted. If all the light was directed downward on to the highway then you would only need a bulb that was half as bright because ALL of its light would be going where it was needed. Lower wattage bulbs also mean less electricity is needed and the carbon dioxide produced by power stations is reduced! One 500W security light left on each night for a year has the same environmental impact as driving a car for 8,000 kilometres.OutdoorLighting-Forum A Group at YAHOOYou might remind anyone on this issue that relative to security lighting, most burglaries are committed during the daylight hours when people are away from home. The statistics on this are public knowledge and well known. This particular crime and other property crimes have virtually nothing to do with outdoor lighting--people are home at night and burglars much prefer to do their deeds when nobody is home--hence the lower burglary rate at night. If they have staked out a residence and determined when nobody is home, all the lights in the world won't discourage them.
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