Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
ward, and especially avoid illumination that shines horizontally. Upward
and horizontal lighting illuminates vast areas, often including unintended
spaces that could easily be kept dark by a more focused beam. Batman might
be clueless about crime in Gotham City without its Bat-Signal searchlight,
but the real bats of Gotham and the birds migrating above would be safer in
the dark.
Do the streetlights where you drive dim or turn of late at night when
trai c is slack? Are your stadiums and sports i elds brightly lit even when
nobody is playing? Are skyscrapers and monuments aglow all night in your
city? Reducing these major sources of light pollution, and energy waste, can
vastly improve the night environment. Technology and willpower are mak-
ing a dif erence. Lights Out Indy, for example, is a citizen-driven initiative
that is helping Indianapolis, Indiana, save birds and energy by going dark
between midnight and dawn during bird migration seasons. Building own-
ers and tenants work together to reduce nonessential lighting of their build-
ings. Similar programs exist across the United States and Canada, though
not in other countries. Rigorous evaluations of ef ectiveness are not avail-
able, but anecdotal reports suggest that darkening cityscapes during migra-
tion really pays of . Bird collisions at one Chicago building dropped by 80
percent after the lights were turned down. And with concerned residents pa-
trolling the streets for the wounded, many birds' lives are saved. Even the
casualties are put to good use, ending up in scientii c repositories. The citi-
zens of the grassroots group Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, for example,
sent nearly nineteen thousand specimens to the Field Museum between 2003
and 2010.
Take a night walk around your home with an eye toward i nding places
you can darken by removing, repositioning, automating, or dimming your ex-
isting lights. Try working with your neighbors, landlords, and city facilities
managers to darken larger areas. And if you want to join a Lights Out pro-
gram in your city, check the web to see what is already going on and learn how
