We rage against the dying of the dark night LAY OF THE LAND
Fiona O’Connell
‘IOFTEN look up at the sky an’ assed meself the question: what is the stars — what is the stars?”
Although a contemporary production of Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock might have to amend those immortal words to “where are the stars — where are the stars?” Because despite clocks going back today, drawing darkness down earlier so we should all get the chance to philosophise like Captain Boyle, light pollution is making it harder to see those celestial bodies that have so inspired us.
For we are losing our largest natural habitat — the night sky — at an alarming rate. The Milky Way is no longer visible to one third of humanity, including 80pc of Americans and 60pc of Europeans — specifically 45pc of people on this island.
Meaning we might all be in the gutter, as another Irish writer famously observed, but few of us can look to the stars for perspective.
Gone are the pitch-black nights that my father knew when growing up in the midlands. They inspired ghostly legends like jack-olantern, whose light would lure you ever deeper into the bogs, till you were lost there forever. Now the opposite is true, for we can’t escape light. Even in this country town, where I have to put a blanket over my window to block out the lights on the bridge that burn all night.
This blue planet is becoming a blue-rich LED planet. Ironically, it is energy-saving lights using the same technology that is in our screens and phones that are doing the damage. They interfere with the circadian rhythms of all living beings, from plants to people, harming not just our health but also our biodiversity, drawing important species such as night pollinators away from natural habitats and food sources. This is why dark sky experts only support LED energy efficiencies where temperatures are limited to 3,000 Kelvin ie warm-white, not blue-rich bright light. They likewise urge the use of sensor-activated lighting or adapting the ‘part night’ lighting policy of many UK councils, where street lights are switched off from midnight until 5am. All lights should also be shining downwards, not into the sky.
Only 60-odd places across this planet have secured dark skies status, including the Grand Canyon and Joshua Tree National Park in the US. But Ireland is blessed to have two: one in Kerry and another in Mayo. The latter’s 15,000 hectare International Dark Sky Park achieved Gold
Tier status three years ago, which is when the first
Mayo Dark Sky Festival started. It is organised by a group comprising three rural communities who are working together to preserve Mayo’s precious dark skies for present and future generations.
This year’s festival kicks off this Friday. Children go free to all events, which might help enlighten them about the good news that real stars don’t vie for our attention on artificially lit screens — but are awesome mysteries shining in the darkness above that illuminate and sometimes blow our mortal minds.