In a letter to his brother in 1888, Vincent van Gogh, painter of perhaps the most famous night scene in art history, outlined his life’s basic necessities. These included the strength to work all day on a little bread and at night to smoke and drink. He added, “And all the same to feel the stars and the infinite high and clear above you. Then life is after all almost enchanted.”
He wrote this letter at a time and from a place, the south of France, where views of the night sky were unencumbered by mass electric lighting. He would have found existence in the over-lighted Front Range of Colorado most unenchanting.
A light pollution map of the world produced by the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder depicts a bulbous blot of artificial light that stretches from Fort Collins to Pueblo. The map indicates that 80 percent of Americans and a third of all humanity can no longer see the Milky Way through the soup of illumination that muddies the night sky. And the problem in the United States is said to be growing by up to 5% a year.
This is one of the reasons Gov. Jared Polis is to be commended for proclaiming June the state’s first Dark Sky Month.
The blight of light pollution extends beyond mere aesthetics. It has implications for the economy, human health, wildlife and safety. As noted in the governor’s proclamation, “light pollution represents a waste of natural resources amounting to at least $2 billion per year and contributes to diminished American energy independence.” Some scientific studies suggest light pollution can contribute to obesity, depression, diabetes and even breast cancer. A study published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health found no evidence that reductions in street lighting in England and Wales led to an increase in traffic collisions or crime. “Outdoor lighting is intended to enhance safety and security at night, but too much lighting can actually have the opposite effect,” according to the International Dark-Sky Association. “Glare from bright, unshielded lights actually decreases safety because it shines into our eyes and constricts our pupils.”
Boulder is a trailblazer on this issue. The city adopted an outdoor lighting ordinance in 2003, and one of the intentions of the law was to clear out enough light pollution so that the Milky Way would reappear in the city. The law had a 15-year implementation period and went into effect last November, but enforcement won’t actually begin until this November. Local homeowners and business owners have some catching up to do. As of January, about 21% of non-residential properties and 32% of residential properties were out of compliance. (One thing to watch out for — Christmas lights can go up only from Nov. 15 to Jan. 30.)
Individuals, not just governments, have some responsibility here. Turn off your lights when they’re not necessary. You’ll save money. And your sky-gazing neighbors will appreciate the gesture. Better yet, look up. Measures that restore darkness to the night will fall short of their promise if Coloradans neglect the overhead treasures dimmed lights deliver. There are 115 International Dark Sky Places in the world, and two — Westcliffe and Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve — are an easy day-trip from Boulder.
Simply observing space on a clear night inspires deep reflection on the universe and humankind’s place in it. But viewers might enrich their experience if they ponder some mind-blowing science: The universe is believed to have come into being 13.8 billion years ago. Some cosmologists think it burst into existence from empty space — from nothing. The universe could be infinite or finite, no one’s sure, and this is just the universe we know — theoretical physics suggests there might be an infinite number of other universes. Galaxies are all moving away from our own galaxy at an accelerating pace. Every galaxy contains something like 100 billion stars, and the whole universe might harbor up to 1 septillion stars (a 1 with 24 zeros). The center of the Milky Way is located in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius (it will rise a little after 9 p.m. today). The Earth and sun reside in one of the Milky Way’s spiral arms and travel at about 515,000 mph around the galaxy center. The Earth is traveling around the sun at 66,000 mph. And, at Colorado’s latitude, the view of space shifts from east to west at more than 800 mph due to the Earth’s rotation. Is there life out there? No one knows, yet, but some signs point to the increasing likelihood that there is. The first exoplanet (a planet that revolves around a star other than the sun) was discovered in 1995. To date more than 4,000 have been identified.
It’s a rare, impervious soul who can face the brilliant universe and not feel moved by a numinous or divine force, and ultimately, whatever it means, in whatever form one responds, it impels people closer together. This influence could be the primary benefit of dark skies. It’s akin to what astronauts call “the overview effect” — when you understand Earth as part of a larger whole you tend to see all inhabitants of the planet as members of one family. Partisan squabbles appear irrelevant. Political brawls look trivial. War seems dumb. Everyday stresses are surrendered in the recognition of a purpose grander than any one person or nation. A dark sky brightens the world.
Van Gogh was moved by the poetry of Walt Whitman, the world’s greatest literary champion for democracy and brotherhood, and evidence suggests Whitman’s “Song of Myself” influenced van Gogh’s masterpiece “The Starry Night,” in which the artist renders the moon and stars as swirling spectral organisms. The firmament of space is a persistent presence in “Song of Myself,” the very first lines of which tie the individual to all others in the most communal possible way: “I celebrate myself, and sing myself/And what I assume you shall assume,/For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”
Quentin Young, for the editorial board, email@example.com, @qpyoungnews.