SEQUIM — International Dark Sky Week, billed as “a worldwide celebration of the dark and natural night” by Dark Sky International, will be celebrated today through April 28.
During the past century, the country has progressed from half of households having electric power, according to the National Park System at Thomas Edison Park, to 99 percent of Americans living “under light-polluted skies,” according to the 2016 report “The New World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness.”
Readers can view a map of international light pollution that “creates a sky glow that can blot out the stars” at cires.colorado.edu/Artificial-light.
“Overly bright and unnecessary outdoor lighting creates glare and sky glow, destroying critical nocturnal wildlife habitats, harming human health and diminishing our view of the stars,” Dark Sky International stated on its website, darksky.org.
Linda Kahananui, a volunteer with the free astronomy and night sky summer program at Hurricane Ridge, said light pollution is preventable and reversible and can be as simple as shutting a window shade so that light from one’s house “isn’t bleeding out into the neighborhood.”
Dark Sky International is dedicated to raising awareness of the issues surrounding light pollution as well as presenting actions citizens and municipalities can take to reduce light pollution, such as shopping for Dark Sky-approved luminaries, available at local hardware stores and online.
The organization has reduced the principles of responsible outdoor lighting to five: use light only if it’s needed; direct light so it falls only where it is needed; use the lowest level light required; control the light, using timers or motion detectors; and use warmer-colored lights where possible.
“Light spillage, also know as light trespassing, onto adjacent properties can be disruptive and disturbing,” said Scott Burgett, who was part of a successful campaign to limit light pollution in his Dungeness Bay neighborhood.
He said exterior lighting has effects on human and non-human neighbors, including about 70 percent of nocturnal animals and 80 percent of birds who migrate at night.
“To correct this, it’s recommended that exterior lights are fully shielded and directed downwards,” he said. “In addition, use warm-colored lights with a Kelvin rating of 3000 or less. Finally, and where possible, use timer controls and motion sensors.”
Lights higher than 3000 Kelvin, also known as blue or white light, are disruptive to living organisms at night, Kahananui and Burgett said, while “dim yellow- and orange-colored lights have little impact on the circadian rhythm and are good options to use at night,” according to the National Sleep Foundation.
Other issues with light pollution include the economic consequences to municipalities, businesses and homeowners of undirected light, disconnection from seeing the stars and the Milky Way, including astronomy challenges, disruption of insect and plant patterns and the ever-brighter white light of headlight LEDs and the linked increase in nighttime traffic collisions — as detailed at softlights.org.
Burgett and Kahananui said they are working to form a Dark Sky group for the Peninsula.
For more information or to learn how to get involved, email Kahananui at lkkahananui.teacher@gmail.com.
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Emily Matthiessen is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. She can be reached by email at emily.matthiessen@sequimgazette.com.
