Dark Skies and Light Pollution

The mission of the International Dark-Sky Association is “to preserve and protect the night time environment and our heritage of dark skies through quality outdoor lighting.”  They’re all about stressing the importance of lighting on health, light pollution, and some really interesting stuff.

For more on the topic, check out their website, darksky.org, and Paul Bogard’s book, The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light.

 

Admittedly, the “Google Hangout” is somewhat of an awkward platform, but they recently put out a great video:

 

 

Needless to say, the IDA is staunchly against stuff like this (so am I): double whammy…

 

fry-lights

 

The video above covers a broad range of topics, including many aspects of circadian biology, the physics of light, and circadian disruption.

 

 

2015 is the International Year of Light

While it may seem like the opposite of IDA, it’s not.  Their M.O. seems to be more about educating on all things related to LIGHT: “Light plays a central role in human activities. On the most fundamental level through photosynthesis, light is necessary to the existence of life itself, and the many applications of light have revolutionized society through medicine, communications, entertainment and culture. Industries based on light are major economic drivers, and light-based technologies directly respond to the needs of humankind by providing access to information, promoting sustainable development, and increasing societal health and well-being.”

Tons of interesting blog posts on their website, light2015blog.org.

That’s all for now!

 

Some more reading, if you’re interested in light:

The hot Blue Blocker Experiment

Fiat Lux

Vitamin D, Fiat Lux, and Circadian Rhythms

 

 

calories proper