I like the dark. I mean real dark, not the ambient glow of the city. When it’s dark I’ve seen bats, owls, and flying squirrels, meteor showers, the Northern Lights, and the constellations. I used to lead nighttime hikes in the river valley and the hardest thing was to convince people they didn’t need their flashlights. It’s too hard on your eyes, going from dark to light to dark again; and the light of the flashlight is enough to make the skittish, like flying squirrels, disappear. This is why I like Earth Hour. It’s not about the drop in power consumption during that hour, although that may provide an incentive to some, it’s about being able to see.
I went down to the Earth Hour event at city hall plaza on Saturday night with several friends. It was great. The crowd materialized around us, eventually reaching 350 people. The fire barrels and bannock roasting provided some nice ambience to the event. And the entertainment really kept with the spirit of Earth Hour featuring a magician, an accordion group, a drumming group, and a juggler. There was also the small and cute child, with ideas to change the world, who helped to turn off the light switch that was bigger than her.
One of the things I noticed when the lights went out was how few lights had to be turned out in some buildings. I think it’s a good sign that several of the office towers were already dark, hopefully they look the same every week. The most striking lights were those that illuminate the outside of buildings like City Hall, when they went out, you noticed.
It made me think, do I notice when the lights are on? We have so much excess light; decorating streets, highlighting buildings, advertising products and companies to relatively empty streets. Sure, it can look nice, but after awhile you fail to notice it anymore. Wouldn’t it be more effective to only turn these lights on when there are special events happening?
Another reason that we have too much light is for safety. People feel safer when there is light. But according to the International Dark Sky Association there isn’t actually a clear link between safety and light. Think of it this way, if it’s really dark out the criminal will have to use some sort of light source to see what they’re doing. And, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been blinded by some exceedingly bright light on a building or street light that actually prevents me from seeing into the dark beyond it because my eyes just can’t adjust.
It’s not that I think we shouldn’t have light; personally I couldn’t handle reading by candlelight. But wouldn’t it be nice if wildlife wasn’t actually limited by the amount of light in our city, if we could see the astronomical events that are supposed to be so cool, if we didn’t have to go camping to remember what they sky looks like; in short, if we could take the idea of Earth Hour, to turn off all non-essential lighting, and make Earth Hour happen all year round?
And remember, the lights are just the beginning, how much else do we use that we really don’t need?