Flip that Switch

The Mountain. Dir. Tsophotography. Youtube, 2011. Online Video.

Incredible, isn’t it? Unfortunately that is now one of the only places on earth where we can see the stars in such clarity.

Light pollution began with the invention of the incandescent filament lamp (Petersen).  This unnatural glow of light has created a glow about that hurts our view of the night sky. Not only does it do that, but it is also dangerous for many animals.

 For example, turtles in Florida. New baby hatchlings instinctively move towards the brightest spot in the horizon, and have been found to get hit or lost and die (Petersen).

                   Scientists have only just begun their study of light pollution and its effects. They have found that light pollution is mainly a result of bad lighting design because it allows artificial light to shine “outward and upward into the sky,” instead of downward where it would do much less damage (Kilnkenborg). This has hidden our view of most of the night skies and beautiful stars.

Light Pollution It's Not Pretty. N.d. Photograph. Flickr, Orem, UT. Wikipedia. By Jeremy Stanley. 10 Jan. 2009. Web. 30 Oct. 2012.

It has also produced orange hazes that surround our cities. The National Geographic calls light pollution a “magnet” that can literally trap migrating birds and insects and other nocturnal mammals (Kilkenborg).

 There are many different types of light pollutions that harm us and the environment, such as: 

·      light trespass

·      light glare

·      skyglow

·      light clutter (Turning Night into Day).

The optimistic aspect of this topic is that there are solutions to this problem. Most of Europe has already begun their quest to decrease their light pollution (Turning Night into Day).

So what can we do to follow in their footsteps? I am not asking for the world to live in darkness, I am however requesting some cooperation from everyone. Little by little if each city makes a change, light pollution will decrease.

SOLUTION: To decrease light pollution, each nation must agree to do its part. This agreement could bring the world together on an issue bigger than politics and differences. The sky is part of our world, the one thing we share with everyone else who lives in it. We should contribute to what Johannes Andersen suggests: “to bring this message to all nations, a special environmental symposium, Preserving the Astronomical Sky”(Andersen). Spreading the word of the dangers of light pollution can make a huge difference in getting anything to happen.

N.d. Photograph. Gristlist. Comp. Jess Zimmerman. Grist Magazine, 7 Sept. 2011. Web. 30 Oct. 2012.

For those in small towns, begin in your own home. Don’t leave your Christmas lights on all night. If you have a lamp post outside of your house, make sure the light does not glow up toward the sky, but points downward to the ground only. Request that your town makes the same change to all lamp posts. There is much to be done for this problem to be solved but it is feasible and it is important. Let’s make sure we can see the stars go on forever and ever.

Sorgjerd, Terje. Gorgeous Night Sky Timelapse. N.d. Photograph. Spain. The Hairpin. 18 Apr. 2011. Web. 30 Oct. 2012.

Works Cited

Andersen, Johannes. "Astronomy and the Degrading Environment." Science 288.5465 (2000): 443. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 28 Oct. 2012

Kilnkenborg, Verlyn. “Light Pollution: Our Vanishing Night”. National Geographic. Nov. 2008. 

Light Pollution It's Not Pretty. N.d. Photograph. Flickr, Orem, UT. Wikipedia. By Jeremy Stanley. 10 Jan. 2009. Web. 30 Oct. 2012.

 N.d. Photograph. Gristlist. Comp. Jess Zimmerman. Grist Magazine, 7 Sept. 2011. Web. 30 Oct. 2012.

No Author. “Turning Night into Day: The Facts about Light Pollution”. Online Star Register. 

Petersen, Aili. "NIGHT LIGHTS." American Scientist 89.1 (2001): 24. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 28 Oct. 2012.

Sorgjerd, Terje. Gorgeous Night Sky Timelapse. N.d. Photograph. Spain. The Hairpin. 18 Apr. 2011. Web. 30 Oct. 2012.

The Mountain. Dir. Tsophotography. Youtube, 2011. Online Video.

Let the Fire Rage: Finding the Bright Side of Wildfire

            Fire is universally recognized to have great power, and is often associated with the destruction that it causes, both to property and life. And this association is not unfounded: tens of billions of dollars of damage are caused each year (Hall), and in 2008 over four billion dollars was spent on wildfire suppression alone (Gorte). 

            However, fire has an equal, if not greater, capacity to benefit human lives by

·      providing heat to homes

·      managing undesirable plants and pathogens

·      clearing land efficiently for travel

·      reducing fuel loads (such as dead, dry plants that are extremely flammable)

·      maximizing food production (Pyke).

"Prescribed Burning." Environmental Encyclopedia. N.p.: Gale, 2011. Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 1 Nov. 2012.

            Paradoxically,  wildfire itself is now one of the dominant forces used to fight fire and to maintain ecosystems ("Prescribed Burning"). Greg Clevenger, a national forest officer, comments that fire "goes in and cleans out a lot of fuel buildup. What people tend to forget is, it will grow back.... Fire is a natural process. It plays a role like the wind and the rain" (Stuart). 

            The purpose of prescribed, or controlled, burning is to clear land of fuel build up, such as flammable debris. These intentional fires are generally small enough to be easily controlled if winds pick up or other conditions vary, and are temperately cool, preserving natural root systems. Frequent, low-intensity fires are beneficial to the land, clearing ground for new life ("Prescribed Burning"). 

            Bryant Olson explains in a New York Times video (starting at 5:11) how his home was likely saved from the brunt of the Wallow fire, a destructive Arizona wildfire that burned a several hundred square miles of land in 2011 ("Science"). Not only will more lives be preserved by making better use of this new technique of preventing uncontrolled wildfires, but wildland animal habitats and precious land will also be better preserved since they are adapted to periodic disturbances from fire ("Prescribed Burning for the Management...").

"Prescribed Burning for the Management of White-tailed Deer." Deer Management. Buck Manager: Deer Hunting and Management, 10 Jan. 2011. Web. 04 Nov. 2012.

            With rising number of wildfires occurring and limited money to spend suppressing wildfire, better wildfire prediction models are also of interest (Alderson). These models would allow firefighters to most effectively concentrate efforts on fighting the most dangerous fires with the most potential to damage fragile ecosystems, human lives, and precious property.

             All in all, it is clear that fire can be a tool to conserve lives of humans and animals alike as well as wildland habitats, and local communities should not resist prescribed burnings because the benefits of this practice far outweigh the risks.

Works Cited

Alderson, David L., Nada Petrovic, and Jean M. Carlson. "Dynamic Resource Allocation in Disaster Response: Tradeoffs in Wildfire Suppression." PLoS ONE 7.4 (2012): 1-9. EBSCOhost. Web. 29 Oct. 2012.

Gorte, Ross W. Federal Funding for Wildfire Control and Management. Rep. no. 7-5700. Congressional Research Service, 5 July 2011. Web. 1 Nov. 2012. 

Hall, John R., Jr. Rep. no. USS13. National Fire Protection Association, Feb. 2011. Web. 3 Nov. 2012.

"Prescribed Burning for the Management of White-tailed Deer." Deer Management. Buck Manager: Deer Hunting and Management, 10 Jan. 2011. Web. 04 Nov. 2012. 

"Prescribed Burning." Environmental Encyclopedia. N.p.: Gale, 2011. Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 1 Nov. 2012.

Prescribed Burning. N.d. Photograph. South Dakota. Environmental Encyclopedia. Ed. Mary A. Cunningham, Marci Bortman, and Peter Brimblecombe. 3rd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2010. N. pag. Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 30 Oct. 2012.

Pyke, David A., Matthew L. Brooks, and Carla D'Antonio. "Fire as a Restoration Tool: A Decision Framework for Predicting the Control or Enhancement of Plants Using Fire." Restoration Ecology 8.3 (2010): 274-84. EBSCOhost. Web. 29 Oct. 2012. 

"Science: The Forest for the Trees." NYTimes.com Video Collection 2010. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 2 Nov. 2012.

Stuart, John. "Controlled Fires Are Beneficial to Forests." The Environment. Ed. Laura K. Egendorf. Sand Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Fire: Friend or Foe?" Mother Earth News (2003): 51-54. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 29 Oct. 2012. Islands, British Columbia, Canada." Canadian Journal of Forest Research (2010): 2104-114. EBSCOhost. Web. 29 Oct. 2012.