I haven't seen any posts about the cause but I figured this is a good place to start. Maybe get a thread going about the various groups and movements that aim to preserve dark skies as a necessity. A friend of mine sent me this video where they talk about circadian rhythm, nocturnal wildlife navigation, and the importance of the night sky. It inspired me to talk more about it to my friends, family, and here. I also want to say that this is not just good for astrophotography, but also just in general for our health. Every time I go to a dark site to image/observe and see the Milky Way in its glory, it's therapeutic.
Raise awareness about the importance of dark skies
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Physicist Sabine Hossenfelder discussed light pollution and Starlink and gave several references to scientific studies regarding health effects in a recent video. I am afraid that it will be very hard to raise public awareness because LED lights are cheap and what usually happens is when a technology becomes accessible, it is overused (rebound effect). Also the cost of installing directional light fixtures is probably more than just changing all light bulbs with LEDs. That's a hard decision for any mayor/politician. And there is the misconception that well-lit areas are safer, while there is no clear scientific evidence for that.
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I believe that it is difficult to raise awareness or concern regarding light pollution at this time. The good news is that modern LED can be more directional and maybe we already have seen a peak in glowing garden gnomes 😉
Seeing the sky has now lower priority than personal and traffic safety (and esthetics).
This isn't anything new and many professional observatories have been dismantled when light pollution increased.
I think a good way to tackle this is to work for establishing more "dark areas" that can be visited when we crave it.
It is very similar to the need to be able to access real nature with grass, trees and bees (no, no dog known to me stepped on it).
But this will not help against star link or space junk…
Seeing the sky has now lower priority than personal and traffic safety (and esthetics).
This isn't anything new and many professional observatories have been dismantled when light pollution increased.
I think a good way to tackle this is to work for establishing more "dark areas" that can be visited when we crave it.
It is very similar to the need to be able to access real nature with grass, trees and bees (no, no dog known to me stepped on it).
But this will not help against star link or space junk…
Perhaps also an unintended consequence of the looming energy crisis that we will see less light outside and light pollution that comes with it in general. One thing that would be good is to ban all light commercials across cities, street lights are becoming more directional towards areas they need to light and don't spread it all over.
All good points. Preserving or designating dark areas would be nice, however that will come with a cost. For example, Robert Moses State Park in New York has a designated star gazing parking lot that requires a $25/yr permit. Problem is that there are no regulations about being mindful of car lights and other lights. At Cherry Springs Observatory in PA there is a designated observing area where they do have rules about lights which is great.
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I found this article a while back about how additional light prolongs allergy season by extending the growing season of plants.
I doubt people will care about how wildlife is impacted, but they may care about helping their own hay fever: https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/38838/20220718/nighttime-lights-prolong-allergies-researchers-explain.htm
I doubt people will care about how wildlife is impacted, but they may care about helping their own hay fever: https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/38838/20220718/nighttime-lights-prolong-allergies-researchers-explain.htm
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I think it is possible to raise awareness but it doesn't happen overnight. I recently talked to my mother, who is in the local council of my hometown about this issue. She had some vague ideas about how street lights should only point downwards but was completly unaware about the effect of colour temperature. I think that is the problem with most people. If they don't have a specific interest in photography or the night sky, they see only the asthetics or the presumed safety effect of light sources. And who can blame a community if they try to save energy and money by installing LED lights? If you want to preserve the night you need to go step by step. It's like building an astro rig 
You can't expect that overnight everyone will shut off house lights and LED ads.
There are already people out there who fight for a dark night and try to raise awareness. In Germany, there are some IDA approved dark sites, the Eifel National Park (website in English) and the Dark Sky Park Havelland. If you want to change something in your community why not seek the help of those guys?
Btw I recently came across this article about Shanghai wanting to dim light pollution.
You can't expect that overnight everyone will shut off house lights and LED ads.There are already people out there who fight for a dark night and try to raise awareness. In Germany, there are some IDA approved dark sites, the Eifel National Park (website in English) and the Dark Sky Park Havelland. If you want to change something in your community why not seek the help of those guys?
Btw I recently came across this article about Shanghai wanting to dim light pollution.
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It needs to be presented and framed as a public health issue. The nocturnal pollination part is also a good selling point. If enough constituents make a fuss, things will get moving. I guess the priority is money>food>health. That seems to be the way governments listen.
Wow, I didn't know about this before.
Unfortunately nobody cares with regard to the general population. You can tell people about how detrimental it is to human and wildlife circadian rhythms on social media and 80 - 90% of people will respond with comments calling you a tree hugger or accuse you of owning a Tesla and being a hypocrite or worse. I am convinced we are doomed as a species. The planet will eventually be fine when we kill ourselves off and it has a chance to recover. Maybe evolution will do a better job next to around . As for now we are going to burn this both to the ground good sense be dammed.
This is the best organization to get envolved with. International Dark Sky Association
darksky.org
Lynn K.
darksky.org
Lynn K.
Matthew Enrietta:
Unfortunately nobody cares with regard to the general population. You can tell people about how detrimental it is to human and wildlife circadian rhythms on social media and 80 - 90% of people will respond with comments calling you a tree hugger or accuse you of owning a Tesla and being a hypocrite or worse. I am convinced we are doomed as a species. The planet will eventually be fine when we kill ourselves off and it has a chance to recover. Maybe evolution will do a better job next to around . As for now we are going to burn this both to the ground good sense be dammed.
Well I've never received criticism when talking about the importance of dark skies, nor have I seen comments like you mentioned. Most people will either ignore it or actually take notice. Cynicism kills progress...