Tubman would have had harder time today
Harriet Tubman once pointed her pistol at one of her passengers of the Underground Railroad.
During her numerous escapes in the 1850s, sometimes runaways became so paralyzed by fear they were unable to move forward, or they became so overcome by second thoughts they desired to turn back. Tubman witnessed this strange affliction before and found the best elixir for it was the barrel-end of her gun. But Tubman also used a tool even more useful than a firearm to help runaway slaves make the 100-mile journey from her home state of Maryland to freedom.
She escorted slaves under the cover of night, using the stars.
Directions to deliverance were encoded in the folk song “Follow the Drinking Gourd.” Verses of the song told listeners to walk a path towards a patch of stars in the sky shaped like a ladle. That ladle, or “drinking gourd,” was the Big Dipper. Two stars on the outer part of the ladle point towards the North Star, towards freedom.
For many generations, the North Star was a beacon of hope. But today, those same stars that guided Tubman and her travelers are difficult for many people to see. They, along with multitudes of others, have been washed out by an overabundance of electric lights.
Stars have helped those traveling by sea and those traveling by land to navigate in the dark. For hundreds of years, humanity saw thousands of stars. However, according to the International Dark-Sky Association, today only 50 stars can be seen by those who live in big cities. Above us, sitting obscured by our bright city lights, is a wondrous panorama of stars. But the sky glow, created from those lights, has obstructed our view.
The reality that the once-known pristine night sky is now foreign to the modern imagination became evident in 1994. When the 6.9 magnitude Northridge earthquake hit Los Angeles, there was a power outage that removed the glow from the lights. Many anxious residents of the City of Angels called 9-1-1 to report a “gray, silvery cloud” they spotted in the sky. What these modern southern Californians were seeing was a faint band of light made of distant stars known by all for generations — the Milky Way. As of 2001, research articles like “The first world atlas of the artificial night sky brightness,” by astronomer Pierantonio Cinzano and a team of colleagues, say two out of three people in the United States cannot see the Milky Way any more.
Decades ago, moonless and cloudy nights were pitch-dark evenings. Today, moonless and cloudy nights are bright ones, since the light bounces from the water droplets and dust that make up the clouds. We’ve lost the night, which was a portal to our universe that reminded us that we are part of something bigger than us. Now, under those view-obstructing lights, we have lost that reminder and have become the center of our own universe.
The night sky is part of our human heritage and a historical natural landmark like the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls and Old Faithful. While marring these other sites would lead to an uproar, the increase in artificial lights happened slowly enough for society not to notice.
Fortunately, there are little things we can do to bring back the dark night. Cities can use LED lamps, with less harsh blue light in them, that turn on or become brighter only when movement is detected. Desolate streets and empty parking lots could follow suit. Billboards and gas stations could reduce their brightness, too. Homeowners and building owners could use light fixtures with shades that make sure that the light points downward, and not upward, which contributes to the sky glow.
Reducing the amount of electric lights has health benefits too. Scientists have shown the lenses of our eyes are less able to transmit blue light through them with age, impairing our ability to see a landscape or street at nighttime. The lens of the eye of a 25-year-old transmits double what a person who is 65 years old transmits, meaning the rest of the light will be seen as glare. Bright, blue-rich LED city lights are making it harder to see for our most senior drivers, putting all of us at risk.
We live in a world where the bright lights will actually make it harder for some populations to see what is earthbound at night. We live in a world where the bright lights have placed a veil over our eyes, preventing all of us from seeing the sky at night. But with small changes, we can bring the beauty of the night sky back.
We’ve made changes like this before. Lead-based paint used to be omnipresent, but was removed through legislation. A similar effort could be taken with the night sky.
Bringing back the dark would have health benefits but also be a monument to those before us, reconnecting all of us to those past generations who knew — and used — the stars so well.