I found this story to be particularly interesting.
The Wall Street Journal reports that "two-thirds of the world's population, including almost everyone in the continental U.S. and Europe, no longer see a starry sky where they live."
The problem, the story says, is city lighting. The lack of a night sky affects humans and animals. Groups are fighting to keep light pollution from spreading.
The WSJ reports:
Astronomers have long lobbied for local lighting reforms so they can continue to study the universe through wavelengths of the night sky. "We convert that starlight into knowledge," says Dan McKenna, superintendent of the Palomar Observatory here in the mountains 60 miles northeast of San Diego.
The International Dark Sky Association, founded by astronomers 20 years ago to promote sky-friendly lighting, has recruited 12,000 members in 75 countries. "We are about good lighting, not no lighting," says IDA technical adviser Peter Strasser. IDA experts are meeting Friday with congressional aides in Washington, D.C., to air their concerns.
But this light brigade is hard-pressed to keep pace with population growth, urban development and the changing technology of lighting. In the brightly lit cities that half of humanity now calls home, a half dozen stars may be visible on a clear night. In the darkest rural areas, about 2,000 stars typically may be visible -- half the number seen in centuries past.
The Dark Sky Association even has a listing of what it calls "dark sky friendly" lighting fixtures.
Check them out here.
Shameless Promotion of My Colleagues Dept.: My co-worker Jason Hardin...
