WHERE DID ALL THE STARS GO? HOW LIGHT POLLUTION IS STEALING THE NIGHT

BY MARK BINELLI

The , seen from Texas’ Big Bend National Park, one of the darkest places in the United States

MEN’S JOURNAL 126 DECEMBER 2013 WHERE DID ALL THE STARS GO?

HE LARGEST OPTICAL TELESCOPE in North America belongs to McDonald Observatory, which sits atop a mountain in West Texas. have T come here to peer into black holes millions of light-years away, massive enough to contain 17 billion of our suns. To arrive at the observatory, they’ve most likely made a three-hour drive east from El Paso, through an alien desert terrain of spiny yucca trees and severe, distant mesas. When McDonald was built in the late 1930s, the most famous observatory in the United States was still Mount Wilson in Pasadena, California, at the time possessor of the largest telescope in the world. But even back then, light pollution from was beginning to wash out the night sky. So when a wealthy bachelor from Paris, Texas, named William J. McDonald left his banking fortune to the Univer- sity of Texas in 1926, saying he wanted the school to build a telescope big enough to peer into the very gates of heaven and see if anyone was there — in the paraphrasing of longtime McDonald Observatory employee Bill Wren — an initial site on the outskirts of Austin was wisely rejected. Instead, the trustees turned to West Texas, which to this day remains one of the most isolated, indigenously eccentric parts of the United States. No Country for Old Men was filmed out here, and local wildlife includes the javelina, a furry, piglike creature that can be spotted scurrying into the tall grass off Dark Sky Drive, the road wending its way up to McDonald. Wren greets me in the parking lot. He’s been working at the observatory

photograph by BRAD GOLDPAINT DECEMBER 2013 127 MEN’S JOURNAL COURTESY OF NASA . ------

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today? The Los StarryNight “The stars were in fact so The U.S. spends $11 billion the end result being more green more being result end the house gases released into the atmosphere. out unnecessary on year each door lighting, according to the Asso Dark-Sky International Wren, who has become one of evangelists dark-sky leading the in the country. Still, the net ef fects are undeniably environ only not pollution Light mental. point the to sky night the douses of much for unrecognizability of alsorepresents but thea world, feckless waste of energy, with Talk of “ineffable, mystical” loss might “It’s not like a species going extinct,” How How did our own solar system become sound a tad nebulousI thought so — untiland I stood on that cat abstracted. walk, as the twilight faded to pitch,were standing looked We up. andthein of one darkest places in the United States. Theseven-countysurroundingregion McDon ald Observatory has passed strict lighting ciation, which sounds like an organizationanlikesounds ciation,which James keeping about worried be should that isvolcanic lairchair a but tiedin a to Bond actually the leading advocacy group dedi be The pollution. light combating to cated points IDA the animals, nocturnal of havior gratuitous by affected negatively also is out, outdoor lighting, and scientists have even (includ risks health human serious linked ing breast cancer) to excessive nighttime exposuretobright, artificial light. says.“Thegoinganywhere, sky isn’t Wren are we But stars. the harming aren’t we and of bubbles these in ourselves encapsulating lightaround populationour major centers that make it impossible to see the stars at . that for consequences the And night. some losing we’re But idea. no have I well, Goghvan thingMystical.Would ineffable. paint to able been have I’m not sure. the Saint-Rémy, town where he painted it, has some of the worst light pollutioninFrance.” were dealing with,” Krupp told AngelesTimes. unfamiliar,theycalled whatwondering us happened.” Local police reported similar callsin which residents asked if the quake “silver curious a by caused been have might Thisturnedthe be theto sky. in out cloud” Milky — which,Way today, two-thirds of the U.S. population and one-fifth ofcannot thesee.world’s so unfamiliar as to now seem like an alien pollution: light is answer short The menace? the fact that much outdoor lighting used wildlynightis at inefficient, bright,overly targeted,poorly shielded,improperlyand, in many cases, completely unnecessary.Dark-sky advocates don’t most exactly the love “That’s the term. the of part “pollution” but on, going what’s of description accurate chainthinkto goingand hearit I’m people myself to the nearest streetlamp,” mutters

- - 50 percent of of percent 50 world’s the now population cities in living the towns, and never can Earth dark. go truly This 2012 2012 This showing image Asia, Africa, Australia and scope the depicts global the of problem: light than more With DECEMBER 2013 128 professionalastronomers IKE THE IKE Observatory,McDonald working at the amateurs at Limpia Crossing, Ed Krupp, the director of Los Angeles’ most completely camouflagedcompletelymost hadn’t Wren If darkness. the by pointed the place out, I would havenever even noticed it. strange sky.” “We finally strange“We sky.” realized what we starsand planets. clearA view the of solar system — and that awesome, unmooring, that terrifyingfeeling occasionally sublime, bearwitnessthe we to when us over comes vastnesstheuniverserecognize andof our infinitesimalplace in had— it been roua tine nocturnal experience for the bulk of human history. Now it’s become rarefied and,some,unimaginable. for Griffith Observatorydecades, for has the said thatpast in 1994,four after Northridgeearthquake the much knocked out of the city’s power, the observatory began toreceive panicked calls phone about “the and the hundreds of touristsweekly “star parties” drawn in the observatory’s to outdoor amphitheater, I’ve come to Texas to see the darkness. Across the country,as cities sprawl into suburbs and suburbs metastasize into exurbs, with the amount of artificial lighting exploding alongside every new McMansion, stripsuperhighway, mall, the night sky, in its andpurest form, is increasingly becoming an endan gered species. If you live in a decent-size metropolitan area, chances are you rarely glimpse any a but handful of the brightest L MEN’S JOURNAL ------wrote Mark Binelli Binelli Mark At the moment, though, I can’t make We make our way up to the metal cat Contributingeditor aboutBuddhist scholar Robert Thurman in theAugust issue. no streetlights on the winding roads, just curbside reflectors that flash headlightsback at drivers, warning them ofAnd none of turns.the houses seem to have illu minated porches or driveway lights. The only dim glow leaks from the odd livingroom window. Otherwise, a development al remains acres of hundreds over ranging Sure enough, a closer look reveals that many many that reveals look closer a enough, Sure of the homes boast miniature observatory domes at the edges of their driveways, or elseflat-topped sheds with sliding roofs. these of particulars,any out because night has fallen, and the development, Limpiaare There unlit. entirely almost is Crossing, sand feet there’sbelow, Fort Davis, an old were Buffalo Soldiers garrison where town to Closer afterstationedCiviljustthe War. themountain, rustica developmentap of proximately 100 houses stretches over the foothills. A good number of the residents, Wren tells me, are amateur astronomers, skies. night pristine its for area the to drawn cane thanks to a teenage motorcycle ac motorcycle teenage a thanks to cane cident. The hair and cane make him look face. handsome lean, a has he though older, walkcircling the of whiteone observatory domes, which affords a spectacular view of the surrounding landscape. thou Two for more for than 20 years. A bearded, white- wooden a with walks he 58-year-old, haired LIGHT POLLUTION ordinances that have helped to make the of the big domes. There are about 3,000 N THE CENTURIES preced- area “the dark-sky capital of Texas,” in the stars out tonight, versus the dozen or so ing the Industrial Revolution, words of Wren, whose advocacy played a key you might see in downtown Austin. Those “I evening appeared fraught with role in getting those laws on the books: At closest to the horizon shimmer like flecks menace,” the historian A. Roger Ekirch 28,000 square miles, it’s the largest contigu- of tinsel; farther up, they’re more fixed and writes in his lively cultural history of the ous space in North America legislatively set intense, some as tiny as pinpricks, others night, At Day’s Close. Darkness brought with aside to protect dark skies. The area includes thick as pearls. I see shooting stars and sat- it threats both real and imagined: murderers the gargantuan Big Bend National Park, the ellites. The white streak of the Milky Way and bandits, witches and demons, pestilen- darkest park in the continental U.S., which looks like a gaseous bruise. I think about tial night “fogges” and “vapours” thought runs along the border with Mexico — big how I’m looking up at thousands of violent to carry sickness and death. “All forms of enough, at 800,000 acres, to hold nearly thermonuclear reactions, taking place tril- artificial illumination — not just lamps but the entire state of Rhode Island. lions of miles away. torches and candles — helped early on to I live in ; before that, De- Down here, though, it’s very peaceful. alleviate nocturnal anxieties,” Ekirch notes. troit and Atlanta. Still, I thought I’d seen The only sound is the shrill, chirrupy drone The first streetlamps were lit with can- plenty of starry night skies in my life — in of invisible desert insects. I’m staying at dles and, later, kerosene. With electricity northern Michigan and upstate New York, the ’s Lodge, dorm-style ac- came incredibly bright arc lights (which at a friend’s cabin in Maine, vacationing commodations for scientists visiting the involved heating up vaporized carbon par- on a Greek island. But I’ve never caught a observatory. The rooms have twin beds ticles until they glowed), used in the late glimpse of the astral plane as dramatically (with star patterns on the comforters) and 19th century in cities like Paris. Incandes- unobstructed as this one. Initially, it’s over- whelming, like suddenly realizing you’ve swum too far out into the ocean. At the same time, being reduced to such a supplicant If you live in a decent-size state of awe feels jarring and unfamiliar. Post-childhood, how often do you spend metropolitan area, chances any significant amount of time with your head tilted back, gazing straight up? are you rarely glimpse any Wren directs my eyes to the Northern Cross, Orion’s Belt, , the Summer but a handful of the bright- Triangle. Occasionally, he uses a device that shoots light-saber beams straight est stars and planets.

cent lighting followed, and quickly spread. In 1891, Telluride, Colorado, became the first city in the world to use alternating cur- rent to power its streetlights, memorably described in Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day: “The high-country darkness . . . soon gave way to an unholy radiance ahead, in the east. It was the wrong color for a fire, and daybreak was out of the question, though the end of the world remained a possibility.” Bob Parks, the executive director of the IDA, says utility companies heartily embraced streetlights in order to avoid the costly and inefficient process of spin- ning down their generators at night, when home and business power usage dropped precipitously. By the 1950s, a new technol- ogy called high-intensity discharge (HID) lighting allowed streetlamps to burn 10 to 20 times brighter than incandes- cents. “And they didn’t cost much Bill Wren, at more,” Parks says. “So people McDonald Observatory, were like, ‘Fine, give it to me.’ ” considers Parks lives just outside Wash- the essential ington, D.C. When I visited him human cost of over the summer, I made time to light pollution. “Would van swing by an exhibit at the Smith- Gogh have sonian dedicated to Thomas Edi- been able to son, described by Parks as “the up to the black firmament, tracing star blackout curtains (because, of paint Starry first great salesman of lighting.” Night today? patterns as casually as if it’s a speckled course, the astronomers work I’m not sure.” Displays featured components chalkboard. “The center of the galaxy is all night). Every time I begin to from Edison’s first power plant right . . . here,” he says, circling the bright- wander in the direction of my (on Pearl Street in downtown est part of the Milky Way, then chuckling. room, I notice something else up above New York) and a photo of the first elec- “Pretty cool.” and stop in my tracks. Occasionally, the tric sign (spelling out the word EDISON in Eventually, Wren goes off to bed. But I dark shape of an astronomer glides past giant letters), but I couldn’t help squinting remain outside, lingering at the base of one me, silent as a ghost. askance at the rows of antique bulbs, which, photograph by JEFF WILSON DECEMBER 2013 129 MEN’S JOURNAL JIM RICHARDSON The End of Night, of End The The Rocky Horror Picture Show, In certain obvious, unfortunate ways, Our indiscriminate overuse of outdoor all month long. “They allthereforelong. montheffectively con- study the moonlight,” perennial in live them.” for comes really never “Night cluded. theunusualauthors of also note(The took only the Venice, in visibility night of amount Italiancity with populationa greater than 250,000 in which residents they can center; typically city the from Way Milky the see illuminate. Outsize spotlightsarchitectural used lighting for— say, to highlight a flagpole or church steeple —replaced could with beseven-watt LED spots that safety many Likewise, fine. just work would concerns could be addressed with better targeted, lower-wattage lighting, in some casesactivated detectors;motion by solely improperly aimed floodlights, perversely, wind up creating blinding glares that can make it easier for would-be criminals to lurkinthe shadows. alongside evolved simply has pollution light our lighting technology. As Paul Bogard book new the in out points a single 75-watt incandescent bulb burns 100 times brighter than a candle. Satellite vari- with night, at America North of images glow- by represented light of intensities ous startling,with are oranges, and yellows ing Mississippi the of east everything about just looking like a graphic representation of a toxic spill. Sky glow has transformedperpetu- into us, of the many for night, of color A blue. and pink of dizzying gradations ally 2001study co-authored byscientists from percent 80 for that found U.S. the and Italy of the U.S. population and two-thirds of night-sky population, EuropeanUnion the brightness equaled full- conditions a hacker hired by a corporation to protect its its protect to corporation a by hired hacker a serversfromother hackers, Parks realized bringspecialcould thishe skillsbear on to particular issue. Ironically, beginning in high school,spent yearshe’d working as a his bands, rock for mostly designer, lighting rangingstraightstageduties from lighting to Hendrix-style psychedelic light shows. phys- Parksupper-level college, In took ics courses on lighting, and continued in thebusiness after graduation, working for Tim artistslike touring with Records A&M of Curry, Yellow the calledact techno Japanese a and MagicOrchestra. member today a Parksis of the Illuminating and Engineering So- ciety of North America. Disappointingly, its members do not refer to themselves as theIlluminati. pollution. light of cause main the is lighting lightWe our driveways, our porches, our storefronts, and billboards our lots, parking our streets and highways, our parks and public spaces — at times for the purpose of commerce, but often because, on a gut justfeelsbrightsaferhavelights level, to it around at night. But much of our outdoor lighting is poorly designed, blasting light into the sky rather than onto the sidewalk or city street we’re actually meaning to DECEMBER 2013

130 Later, this prompted him to buy 10 dark 10 buy to him this prompted Later, ortto prevent birds from ! improperly aimed streetlights, and outdated Victorian-style streetlamps. In a positive development,as part of a recent e strikingbrightly illuminated buildingsat night and dying, 100Chicago-area skyscraper ownersagreed to dim their lights evening. the during club, where he learned about the IDA. Like IDA. the learnedabout he where club, until the day he began flipping through the flippingthrough began he day the until office the around left magazines stargazing by one of his employees. (Parks owned a multimedia designcheaply, so company.)scopes He up hadn’t pick could you realized littleeight- nice himself a bought he so and popu- a SCT (Schmidt-Cassegrain, inch startedand design) consumer compact lar, taking it out into his yard in Alexandria, Virginia, where, on a good night, he was luckytoseestars. 10 Vir- West in Mountain Cave of top on acres ginia and set up a camper there. Around localastronomy a joined time, samethehe for the next three decades or so, so, threeor decadesnext the for astronomy MEN’S JOURNAL lems, like Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C., stands out as perhaps the worst. In 2008, the city was light- most single the named pollutedcity in the country. Much ofChicago’s problem stems from its profusion of billboards, THEWORST OFFENDER Among American cities with prob- light-pollution cant signifi I met Parks for an early dinner at a chain a at dinner early an for Parks met I children’s television, perhaps with puppets. puppets. with perhaps television, children’s as telescope first his built he that me told He loved He kit. a from Scout, Boy 12-year-old a further no had interesthe in scope,but the chopped-salad restaurant. He was wearingwas restaurant.He chopped-salad round, rimless glasses, a green polo shirt, and khaki pants, bag with messenger’s a a tablet like chest computerhis across slung and his eyeglass case strapped onto a belt holster. A boyish 57-year-old, despite his white hair and beard, Parks possesses the in works who someone of manner soothing afterseveraltalking my weeks of people to about light pollution, suddenly took on a sinister appearance, as if they were a col- lectionmedieval of torture instruments. LIGHT POLLUTION attributed this fact “mainly to the unique notices unless it’s pointed out. “That’s the in reality, it’s probably 100. And it’s white low-intensity romantic lighting of this city, number one problem,” Parks says, sighing. light, which is the worst.” which deserves to be preserved.”) “You never miss what you don’t know is Parks’ mood seems to be darkening with Meanwhile, Richard Stevens, an epi- there. I’d say 90 percent of the population the night sky — which is not all that dark, demiologist at the University of Connecti- now doesn’t miss dark skies. They’ve never Parks would surely point out — but still, the cut, has conducted research suggesting seen them! And that’s really, really sad.” growing dimness allows the sheer amount of that lengthy exposure to bright, artificial horrible lighting surrounding us to assume lights at night (computer screen, television, UTSIDE THE RESTAURANT’S a much sharper focus. “That is just hellishly streetlamps) causes circadian disruption in plate-glass window, dusk has bright,” he says as we come across another humans, resulting in the body producing O fallen, and the headlights of the Washington globe. lower amounts of melatonin, a hormone that cars gliding along K Street have turned At the same time, Parks is not unsym- fights cancer and suppresses tumor growth. themselves on. Stepping onto the sidewalk, pathetic to the hardwired human yearning Night-shift workers, according to Stevens’ Parks immediately scowls up at an orna- to vanquish the night. “We light because study, are nearly twice as likely to develop mental streetlamp. “This city has probably we are innately afraid of the dark,” he says. breast cancer as day-shift workers. A 2012 the worst lighting in the country, and this “Psychology ends up driving public policy: report by the American Medical Associa- is the worst streetlight ever invented,” he No politician will ever get fired for putting tion noted, “Biological adaptation to the says. I have to admit (though I don’t, not up outdoor lighting. The public feels safe sun has evolved over billions of years. The aloud and in Parks’ presence), I rather like during the day, and there’s a feeling that power to artificially override the natural the design of the light: a slightly filigreed ultimately, the best thing would be for night cycle of light and dark is a recent event and metal post rising up to an old-fashioned, to be like day.” represents a man-made self-experiment,” mostly exposed acorn-shaped bulb known After Parks and I part ways, I head adding that “even low-intensity nighttime as a Washington globe. Unfortunately, toward the National Mall. Others had light has the capability of suppressing mela- because of the utter lack of shielding, warned me that once you start hanging tonin release.” Aside from “potential carci- more than 50 percent of the light shines around with light-pollution people, it’s nogenic effects,” the AMA report states that up into the sky, serving no useful purpose, impossible to unsee the matrix — in this circadian disruption could also exacerbate and about 20 percent radiates directly at case, an inescapable grid of harsh and other health problems, including obesity, eye level, creating glare. “You’re working aesthetically offensive lighting. And it’s diabetes, mood disorders, depression, and against visibility by using a light like this true! A garish LED sign outside a bank, reproductive issues, and calls for minimiz- one,” Parks says. “But people love the way informing customers they can “Deposit in ing light pollution and further study of its they look during the day. I’d have no prob- a Flash” with their smartphones, bathes a potential effects. lem if they didn’t turn them on at night. Or long stretch of sidewalk in a sickly irradi- University of Southern California profes- if they just put candles in them, the way ated glow. Staring into a park lit entirely sor Travis Longcore has written about the they were designed.” by Washington globes actually makes my effects of light pollution on animals. Mi- Parks turns onto 16th Street, wandering eyes hurt. It’s much darker on the Mall, grating birds become disoriented by lights in the direction of the Capitol Hilton. A where lighting is minimal along the major and crash into tall, lighted buildings and series of small lights buried in the center paths and nonexistent by the Reflecting broadcasting towers; newly hatched sea of some shrubbery, designed to light up the Pool. Still, I can see only about a dozen turtles crawl toward artificial lights (rather landscaping from within, stops him in his stars, thanks to the sky glow from the rest than the moonlight over the sea) and wind tracks. “People like lights in bushes,” he of the city. up crushed by cars or eaten by predators; nocturnal insects flock around city lights, dying in large numbers and disrupting the feeding of bats and other animals higher on We light our streets and the food chain (a study in Germany found that approximately 150 insects are killed highways, our parks and by each German streetlight every night). “A pollutant is only a pollutant because we public spaces, because on a call it such,” Longcore told Cabinet maga- zine. “Carbon dioxide, of course, has been gut level, it feels safer having produced on Earth for billions of years, but we now consider it a pollutant because it’s bright lights around at night. more abundant than it would be naturally. In the same way, we can think of light as notes disapprovingly, adding, “Unshielded, The Lincoln Memorial looks beautiful polluting when it’s more prevalent than it but they’re hidden, so that’s OK.” The ex- in the distance, spotlighted in a way that would be naturally.” terior of the hotel is highlighted by lights seems to give the whiteness of the marble One of Parks’ first light-pollution cam- coming out of unshielded wall packs, but a living pulse, and with such a high-defi- paigns, to help a local county adopt a strict Parks says the pale paint job of the walls nition gleam on Abe himself, he could pass lighting ordinance, became a teachable mo- and the brightness of the surrounding for a hologram. The flashes of dozens of ment for him after one of the board mem- streetlamps makes this choice unobjec- tourist cameras sparkle like lightning bugs. bers showed up at a public meeting dressed tionable. A guy rides past on a bike with a kaleido- as Santa Claus, claiming the new laws At the sight of a restaurant’s brightly scopic array of glow sticks weaved into his would ban Christmas lights. “He was just backlit sign, Parks pulls out his smartphone spokes. I start back in the direction of my a buffoon, playing on everybody’s fears,” and opens a folder of apps labeled “Lighting hotel and suddenly my newly light-sensitive Parks recalls. “He didn’t care about the Tools.” Photographing the sign, he uses eyes become slits: Near the Washington lights. He was just against regulation. He one of the apps to map the amount of light Monument, some kind of giant globe light was a Tea Party guy before there was a Tea being generated. The photo turns different has doused a cluster of trees and the sur- Party.” The ordinance was never enacted, neon colors, mostly green and yellow, with rounding sky. and Parks learned a crucial lesson about a tap of his finger displaying the number I’m about to snap a photograph and fire the importance of education: Bad light- of lumens that section of the light source is off an angry email to Parks when I realize ing is something the average citizen rarely emitting. “Fifty-five,” Parks says. “Though it’s the full moon.

DECEMBER 2013 131 MEN’S JOURNAL LIGHT POLLUTION

N THE PLUS SIDE, light pollu- tion is fundamentally a much sim- O pler problem to tackle than most other kinds of pollution. It doesn’t require the sort of life-pattern-altering tectonic shifts necessary for, say, weaning ourselves from oil or coal or factory-farmed meat. Our relationship to outdoor illumination remains a fairly passive one. If our towns decided to change the streetlamps, few of us, with the exception of the Santa-suit guy, would care, or even notice, until the night sky made its dramatic reappearance. And as Bob Parks points out, solid-state LATE 1950S LED lighting is coming online that could radically change the way we light cities. “You get this opportunity only about once a cen- tury,” Parks says. “We’re moving from a very mechanical way of lighting things — put- ting glowing elements inside glass, which is technology that was around a hundred years ago — to the sort of technology we’ve used to build computers. And we’ll see that same rapid curve we got with computers, where efficiency will go up and up and up and at the exact same time cost will go down.” Jeffrey Cassis, the CEO of Philips’ Color Kinetics division, who has spent years work- ing on LED development, agrees: “The technology is there — now we’re trying to get the cost down. And it’s moving down very rapidly. Probably less than 1 percent of 1997 lighting in cities is now smart LED lighting. Think about how much of how we light our cities is being left to humans deciding to turn things on and off!” The alternative, Cassis and other experts say, will be smart grids allowing for automatic dimming of lights, either pegged to time of day — a par- ticular neighborhood could, say, decide its streetlamps should be lowered significantly after midnight — or even more specific trig- gers. In San Jose, California, the compre- hensive LED retrofit being installed will let streetlights become brighter when sporting events or concerts let out or when bars close. Nancy Clanton, an architectural engineer based in Boulder, Colorado, who has be- come one of the premier dark-sky lighting 2025 designers in the country, predicts future streetlights will have the ability to detect approaching cars (or pedestrians carrying BLINDED BY THE LIGHT mobile phones) and brighten automatically. “Unfortunately, everyone knows where we Researchers from the University as altitude and the way light is are at all times with GPS, so we might as of Padua, in Italy, working with scattered by smog. Black space the National Geophysical Data represents the darkest areas, well put it to good use,” she notes cheerily. Center in Boulder, Colorado, traditionally clustered in sparsely Clanton has upgraded municipal light- have collaborated on the fi rst populated western states, while ing systems across the country, and says she World Atlas of artifi cial night- the colored areas depict di! erent initially approached the issue as a design sky brightness, which measures levels of light pollution. Yellow challenge. She points out that streetlamps, global light pollution. The above represents twice the amount of for example, are typically set upon 30- or images show light levels in the natural night-sky brightness. In 40-foot poles — but what if a second, much United States over the past fi ve orange zones, the Milky Way is no lower tier of luminaires were built into the decades, along with a projection longer visible. Red zones mean poles to light the sidewalks? Or how about for 2025. Drawn from computer fewer than 100 stars can be seen. models based on upward light Finally, in the white and pink curb-level lighting that would blast lights as measured by meteorologi- zones, most prevalent in the 2025 into crosswalks, so anyone in the street could cal satellites, the images take map, the North Star and the Big be immediately seen by cars? “Now,” Clanton into account other factors such Dipper have disappeared. says, “we can light the curbs themselves, or the stripes of crosswalks, or vertical strips on Jersey barriers” — the low concrete walls

MEN’S JOURNAL 132 DECEMBER 2013 LIGHT POLLUTION on the sides of highways — “all of which is foot candle. The brightness of a full moon so can pull off saying things like “Get some much more important than shining light is one-100th of a foot candle. grub” or “You’ll see all kinds of critters down on everything. Do you ski? Go skiing At the same time, groups like the IDA around here” with the unself-consciousness one day when the light is flat. You can’t see have been pushing municipalities to adopt of a native speaker, has surely contributed bumps! That’s why we need layering in our stricter lighting ordinances. Plymouth, Min- to his success ratio. Thanks to Wren’s in- lighting — which, by the way, we’ve been nesota, a suburb of Minneapolis with a popu- volvement, a Texas convenience-store doing in interiors for years.” lation of 70,000, became the first city in the chain called Stripes dimmed the lighting Seattle has been using federal stimulus U.S. to adopt the IDA’s comprehensive model above the gas pumps at many of its 500- money to retrofit all 40,000 of its residen- lighting ordinance, which mandates specific plus locations from 5,700 watts to 1,500 tial streetlights. Clanton points to a study amounts of shielding and caps brightness. watts per canopy. “That’s still enough light conducted in that city in which nearly 450 The city council of Malibu, California, voted to top off your car and perform brain sur- participants responded to different outdoor unanimously to adopt its own version of the gery at the same time,” Wren notes drily. lighting in various weather conditions. Stun- ordinance in April as a direct response to the But he’s not complaining. ningly, even when lighting was reduced to a wild overlighting of a shopping center and One night, under the dome of McDon- mere 25 percent of its normal level, respon- football field. cities like Flagstaff and ald Observatory’s 36-inch telescope, built dents continued to feel safe and secure — as Tucson have long had strict lighting laws on in 1956, Wren slides in front of a com- long as the fixtures were targeted white lights the books that ban, for instance, searchlights puter running an old DOS program and with low glare. “Lighting level made no dif- and unshielded parking-lot lights. Both cities punches in some Messier catalog numbers ference to people,” Clanton says. “In fact, are surrounded by observatories, and some from memory, whistling as he types. The they didn’t even know it was lower lighting!” believe Flagstaff, a dry, high-elevation locale Messier catalog compiles coordinates of Research conducted by Virginia Tech’s that has attracted stargazers since the 1890s, various astronomical objects. Wren has just Transportation Institute had passengers when it earned the nickname Skylight City, entered the coordinates for Saturn. The big ride in vehicles on a mile and a half of test passed the first lighting restrictions in the telescope, shaded an institutional gray the roadways. The vehicles traveled at 35 miles country in 1958 in order to protect its skies. color of a public school locker from the Fif- per hour, and passengers were instructed ties, swivels into alignment with an ugly to press a button whenever they spotted THE IDA AND other light-pollution activ- grinding sound. Climbing onto a ladder, I an object in the road. Again, the tests took ists have also focused on creating dark-sky peer into the finder scope and see what looks place in all sorts of conditions — wet, dry, preserves, generally state or national parks, to be a cartoon drawing of the planet — a various lighting levels — and the research- where visitors might glimpse what they’ve sailor’s tattoo of Saturn! — along with three ers found that lighting level made no dif- been missing. Along with Big Bend, the tiny dots that Wren explains are . ference on task detection if lights were IDA’s highest-ranked — i.e., darkest — “That’s not Saturn,” I say. properly designed. “So now we have both parks in the United States include Death “People always say that,” Wren says. objective and subjective data,” Clanton Valley in California, National Bridges in “They can’t believe it.” says. All the data points to the fact that Utah, Cherry Springs in Pennsylvania, and Stepping out onto the catwalk, Wren con- we’ve been designing lighting all wrong for Clayton Lake in New Mexico. Part of the tinues, “Light pollution is a soft sell — it re- years. “They were designing for one param- selling point of such ratings is the ability ally is.” If he sees bad lighting, Wren will not eter: lighting level,” says Clanton. “Which to market dark-sky tourism. Though one hesitate to knock on someone’s door, often we’ve found out is the worst predictor for might assume Governor Rick Perry and with a complimentary replacement fixture visibility. What’s much more important the deeply conservative Austin legislature tucked under his arm. As might be expected, is glare and contrast. It’s the quality of would balk at any lawmaking that smacked the initial response from Texans to a stranger light — having really good optical design. of environmentalism, the fact is, dark skies telling them to change the way they’re light- And now with computers we can model are good for business, and so the Texas ing their private property is not necessarily to everything, including contrast. Our tools Parks and Wildlife Department has agreed, invite that stranger inside for a Shiner Bock. “Really, very few people have slammed the door in my face, though that does happen,” Wren acknowledges. “People will say, ‘What “I’d say 90 percent of the the hell are you talking about?’ or ‘You can’t tell me how to light my property!’ But then population now doesn’t when you tell them, ‘Well, your neighbor across the street doesn’t appreciate your light miss dark skies,” says Parks. shining in their bedroom window,’ they’re like, ‘Oh . . .’ It’s like noise pollution. Blast- “They’ve never seen them! ing music at 2 in the morning and keeping people awake, or having a bright barnyard And that’s really, really sad.” light keeping people up — same difference. And once people see that, they get it.” are completely different. Back then, they with the blessing of the state, to assess all One of Wren’s earliest memories is could not analyze glare.” 93 Texas state parks for outdoor-lighting watching the moon rise through a pair of Of course, had those same citizens been improvements and to send their park rang- binoculars pressed up against the plate-glass subjects of a telephone poll, many would ers to McDonald Observatory for night-sky window of his childhood home. He thought have voted for more lighting, which intui- training, in order to better teach visitors about becoming an astronomer but realized tively feels safer, so education remains a key about constellations and telescopes. he wasn’t wired for math and and so component of any future political fights. Bill Wren has been a key player in advo- instead majored in philosophy, moving from Clanton says she likes to ask people if they’ve cating for such changes in West Texas and the existentialists to Zen practitioners like ever taken a moonlit walk. “They’ll typi- throughout the state, from shaping city and Alan Watts. In Austin, he worked with run- cally say, ‘Oh, yeah; it’s so great.’ And I’ll county ordinances to urging businesses away teens and their families, spending his tell them, ‘You know, you can read 12-point and residents to change the ways in which free time playing poker and catching shows at print under full moonlight!’ ” Foot candles they light their buildings. Wren’s courtly, Armadillo World Headquarters, the legend- are units used to measure light intensity. nonthreatening manner, and the fact that ary Texas rock venue (where Wren proudly A typical streetlamp, Clanton says, is one he grew up in a small town in Missouri and notes that he was (continued on page 163)

MEN’S JOURNAL 134 DECEMBER 2013 LIGHT POLLUTION continued from page 134 formal operational thought, where you’re able speck of a moment as we hurtle through to abstract and imagine other points of view. space and time into an empty black void — And depending on who you believe, about it feels like a gift. Tonight I don’t think of present for the taping of Frank Zappa’s 1975 half of the population never obtains any level explosions. I think about how the stars must live album Bongo Fury). He also continued of formal operational thought.” have looked to our ancestors, millennia ago: to pursue astronomy as a hobby, driving to Why is that? I wonder. like tiny torches held out for us by invisible the outskirts of town with carloads of friends “That’s a good question,” Wren says. “I’m agents. The fact that we might be the only liv- and coolers filled with beer. He’s since been wondering if losing touch with the sky has ing beings in the universe bearing witness to told that a sports complex called the Field anything to do with it.” this canopy of light can make everything feel of Dreams has opened near his old viewing pointless and random, sure, but, conversely, site, with lights “bright as televisions — out THE NEXT DAY, we drive over to Limpia and maybe especially if you’ve spent the past of compliance with everything.” If he still Crossing, where I meet amateur astrono- few hours sipping from nip-size little airplane lived in Austin, he’d have to find another mers like Allen Gilchrist, a retired research bottles of Dewar’s (discreetly poured into a stargazing spot. scientist who spent years working for oil- paper coffee cup you discovered back in your Shortly after he started working at Mc- industry companies in Houston and carting cottage), it can also make you feel special. Donald Observatory, Wren met David Craw- around his telescope on vacations. He and Chosen, even — if only by natural selection, ford, the proselytizing co-founder of the IDA. his wife chose Fort Davis for their retirement and by our own human craving for discovery Crawford, now retired, was an astronomer at in large part because of the darkness, and he and transcendence. Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona; he started bought a small observatory dome, which he’s I pop the trunk of my rental car’s hatch- the IDA in 1988, converting a legion of mis- called Stonecrest, at the edge of his drive- back and lie down in the bed like I’m at a sionaries such as Wren. Like Crawford, Wren way. Leading me inside, where Prokofiev is drive-in. One of the neighbors wanders out to sees himself as an educator, and spends much playing softly in the background on an old his own car to grab something, using a flash- of his time traveling around the state mak- boombox, he shows me some of the dazzling light. The insect drone is one part squeaking ing PowerPoint presentations about light photographs he’s made with his scope, one mattress, one part teakettle whistle, and it pollution. He’s also been working with a of the most impressive being the Lagoon blends with the sound of the wind, rolling in natural-gas drilling company to design a Nebula, a colorful interstellar cloud that’s like a tide. I remember an art exhibit I saw demonstration rig with dark-sky-friendly part of Sagittarius. Amateur astronomers are once that included a work — well, “work” — lighting. (There’s been a sharp increase in like birdwatchers: Some focus on stars in our by the playwright August Strindberg, who fracking in Texas in recent years, and federal solar system, others on galaxies far beyond thought he could capture images of the cos- safety regulations require high levels of light- our own. You might be nerdily obsessed with mos by leaving exposed photo plates out all ing on the big rigs, with operators generally the sun, or the moon, or seeking out super- night. The images he produced were beauti- employing monstrous floodlights.) novas or asteroids undiscovered by profes- ful, and they could pass for frozen images of sional scientists. “There are only so many the night sky. Strindberg was disappointed OUT ON THE CATWALK, Wren says large telescopes in the world, so this is one to eventually discover that what he’d thought he’s grateful for the mountains ringing of the few sciences left where amateurs can was the universe was likely no more than the observatory. Without them, he notes, actually make contributions to the profes- random scatterings of dust. we’d be staring at a sea of headlights from sional community,” Wren says. “I mean, you I’m starting to feel a dull ache in my neck, a hundred miles away. As we chat, a car don’t hear about amateur particle physicists.” but I don’t want to go inside. A car pulls out of makes a wrong turn as it exits the star-party After my visit to McDonald, I spend the the parking lot, briefly lighting up a tree and parking lot and starts coming up the hill in night in Big Bend National Park, in the newly making it look plastic, overlit, part of a di- our direction, its single pair of headlights retrofitted Chisos Basin. The main lodging orama at a natural-history museum. I wander washing over us like we’re escaped convicts area has dim, recessed lighting only where back toward the cottage and suddenly, I’m lambing it over a prison wall. Wren nods absolutely necessary: near doors and at startled by something huge moving toward at a distant cluster of hills where a group foot level on walkways. It’s very easy to get me. It turns out to be a spider, transformed of local survivalists has established an out- around, but any glow is muted and earth- into a B-movie monster by one of the low- post. “Good lighting, though!” he murmurs. bound. A path from the main lodge leads to wattage IDA-approved lights, its legs rearing “They just have this one security light that a series of stone cottages, built in the 1940s up in shadow against a wooden post. bothers the hell out of me. . . . by the WPA, which is where I’m staying. I thought about my first night in Fort “Most people will say looking up at the While most of the park looks as austere as the Davis, which happened to be July 5. Bill Wren Milky Way makes them feel so insignifi- landscape in a Road Runner cartoon, Chisos had suggested we check out the town’s fire- cant,” Wren goes on. “You know, ‘I feel so is a lush bubble of high desert ecosystem, works display, and so I’d ended up at a party small and tiny.’ Well, there’s that. But there’s notably cooler, with pine trees lining distant at his ex-brother-in-law’s place, stretched also: Look at what you’re connected to! I hills and animals you wouldn’t expect to see out on the grass with a bunch of strangers, mean, we’re part of something really grand, in a normal desert: I spot a white-tailed deer staring out at a fusillade of patriotic explo- and for me, that kind of evens things out. with massive, goofy ears and a petite gray sions — even then, tipping my head backward “One of the things I was interested in fox dragging an impressive tail. to peer at the stars, which struck me as far when I studied educational psychology is As the sun sets, I sit on the back porch of more compelling and exotic than any man- how we acquire different cognitive skills, my cottage and watch the stars come out. It’s made pyrotechnics. The bursting of a new like the ability to abstract — to imagine what sublime in a way I’m not quite prepared for. I rocket would briefly force me to look straight it would be like to walk a mile in someone have a book I’m enjoying, and some work to ahead. And there, in front of me, a whole new else’s shoes, as opposed to just your own do on my laptop. But I can’t tear myself from galaxy of colored lights would be streaking view,” he continues. “To imagine a world this dizzying, unfamiliar view. At McDonald the horizon, having appeared out of nothing. beyond your horizon. And there are differ- Observatory, my first glimpse of the night And then, just as quickly, it would be gone. ent theories of cognitive development, but sky made me feel tiny and alone, just as Bill After a while, I lay back on the cool grass, most of them follow along the lines of Piaget, Wren described. Tonight, though, simply giving up on the fireworks, and started look- where you move from infancy into concrete having been given the opportunity to witness ing for Arcturus, a bright star Wren had operational thought, which is very black- these stars, the beauty of this entire yawning pointed out earlier. I knew it was up there and-white, letter-of-the-law, and then onto cosmic spectacle, even if it’s just a fleeting somewhere. MJ

DECEMBER 2013 163 MEN’S JOURNAL