Monday 11 November 2013

footlights or starry, starry night

From Der Spiegel's international desk comes an important piece not only about only about about the grandeur of being able to see the stars and constellations and the muzzling scourge of light-pollution but, I think, even more to its credit waxes philosophical about the great electrification experiment and what it means that our nighttime is something aggressively alienated with some awful municipal flash light tag.

To divide day from night, even in a nominal way, has been something formative—the source of myths, wonder and a star to sail by since time immemorial until not so long ago, and to lose that dichotomy of time for the sake of productivity or for a sense of security means quite a lot. Along with initiatives to preserve dark patches of sky, a multidisciplinary body is meeting to discuss the meta-effects on human health and ecology. Many communities in Germany are doing quite a bit to stave off the glare, and efforts in France are quite impressive, mandating that store-fronts, office buildings and even street lamps are switched off. What do you think? Can you see the spine of the Milky Way from your backyard or is there too much ambient competition to appreciate the night?