Cooperative Living January 2014 - 30

KIDS' KORNER by Anne M. Dellinger, Contributing Columnist
Star Light-Star Bright
What has happened to the night??
I
f you stepped outside on a clear, January night
around 9 o'clock, and looked up, what would you
see? Those of you who are rural kids, like Hay
Seed, could probably observe hundreds of stars
piercing the deep darkness. But you town kids, along
with City Slicker, might discover only glare or a haze
where the dark sky should be, making it difficult to
find even a handful of stars.
Are you
surprised that
your location
has everything
to do
with your
answer? Even
though the
same stars
are present in
both settings,
the darkness
is totally
different.
Think of all the light sources found in urban areas
but not in the countryside. Street lights, parking lot
lights, digital billboards, gas station lights, stoplights,
etc., all wash the darkness out of the night and empty
the sky of stars. The expression Black as night
does not hold true in a lit-up city.
However, there was a time, in early America, when
the night was almost always pitch-black everywhere.
Those who ventured outdoors into the darkness, with
only a candle or lantern, felt a connection to the stars,
planets and the moon as they used their faint lights for
guidance.
As years passed, man found ways to
brighten the darkness in the towns. Candles
in glass boxes on poles (Ben Franklin promoted
this idea), whale oil lamps and
gas lights, all helped make
night-time travel safer and a little
less dark.
But it was Thomas Edison's
introduction of the light bulb that
marked the beginning of really
dazzling nights. By the early
20th century, electric street lights
were supplying the illumination
and dark city skies were on their
way to becoming bright as day.
28
It would never be practical, safe or desirable to
return to those inky nights of colonial times. Thanks to
modern artificial light sources, you and your family
can work, play, shop, travel and enjoy sporting events
long after the sun sets. But there are consequences
that come with these rewards.
Since the 1980s, the International Dark Sky
Association has been alerting the public about the
disappearance of natural night.
Trespass light + light clutter + glare +
sky glow = Light Pollution
Simply explained, when light falls where it is not
needed/wanted, it trespasses. If a large number of
lights are grouped together, it becomes clutter,
which creates too much brilliance called glare.
Look toward any urban area at night and
you'll see that light pollution goes SKY HIGH.
The bright sky glow comes from artificial
light shining up and out into the atmosphere;
on cloudy nights the light is reflected back down,
creating an electric amber blush.
Scientists believe that light pollution is much more
than an annoyance. They remind us that the natural
cycle of the earth's light and darkness ties into a person's
pattern of waking and sleeping.
This 24-hour cycle is called a circadian
rhythm and is the " body
clock " that humans depend on.
If too much man-made light disrupts
the cycle over a long period
of time, it could possibly
lead to insomnia, depression,
obesity, and other health problems.
It is easy to forget that scores of animals
begin their normal activities at sundown. They depend
on the dark night to tell them when to eat, sleep, hunt,
migrate, or even reproduce.
A lit-up night causes confusion and death for many
species. Consider the beach-born sea turtle searching
for the moonlit ocean that heads toward motel signs
along a busy highway instead. Songbirds that
migrate at night are often " captured " by searchlights
or cellphone towers' lights when the stars are not
visible. Like insects that cluster and swirl around street
lights, the birds become disoriented and will continue
to circle the light source until they die from exhaustion.
Perhaps Shel Silverstein was showing support
for the nocturnal animals' plight when he wrote the
following short verse:
Cooperative Living/January 2014
KIDS! CLIP AND KEEP YOUR KIDS' KORNER COLUMNS IN A THREE-RING BINDER AND YOU'LL HAVE A NOTEBOOK CHOCK FULL OF FUN IDEAS AND ACTIVITIES FOR THE FUTURE!

Cooperative Living January 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living January 2014