News
|
South Dublin Branch News |
|
| Home | Events | What's About | News | East Coast Sites | Projects | Getting Started | Hands On |
Light PollutionA letter from Colm O'Brien re. the launch of a light pollution awareness campaign, 17.07.2003: I am a member of the first group in Ireland formed to campaign on the issue of light pollution. Our group, currently known as the Irish Light Pollution Awareness Campaign, will be officially launched in late September in Birr. I noticed that your website, the South Dublin branch of Birdwatch Ireland, features an article on light pollution and thought I would contact you to see if any of your members, or indeed your whole group, would be interested in supporting the campaign. Our campaign has the backing of An Taisce, and Friends of the Irish Environment, and we intend to get formal backing from the Irish Federation of Astronomical Societies (IFAS) in September. In other countries astronomers make up the majority of members of such campaigns and we hope their official support will greatly increase the size of our group and the success of our efforts. We have already commenced work and have made two submissions to county councils regarding the control of light pollution. In Clare we have already had one small success in controlling lighting operated by the council. Perhaps you heard the brief discussion of the issue on Morning Ireland on Radio 1 the other morning? Derek Mooney told of how noise and light pollution are affecting song birds in urban areas. The discussion related to an article just published in the journal Nature which purports to show that birds are changing the pitch of their songs to make themselves heard above traffic noise.
I would like to invite you and any of your members with an interest in this issue to join our
campaign. We have created a yahoo discussion group which is open to everyone, it can be found
at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilpac/ Alternatively, your members can email me
If you have any questions about the campaign please do not hesitate to contact me. |
… a phrase that hasn’t yet impinged on the public never mind the
vocabulary of county councils and corporations. Problems related to large,
illuminated areas first impacted on astronomers for obvious reasons: the night
sky over Dublin is a pathetic excuse compared to that over the Empty Quarter of
Arabia for example. It is increasingly being seen as a problem by those living in
rural areas of Ireland where houses are often “protected” by high powered
security lights, some provided by county councils, which negate any sense of
living in the countryside.
Its effect on birdlife is debatable; it may in some cases be beneficial. It is not uncommon to see Herons feeding late at night under the well-lit bridge on the Dodder at Ballsbridge and also along the bright shoreline at Clontarf. Waders often feed at night on a high tide close to the road at Sandymount. Migrating Nightjars used to flock to the security lights on the oil camps in the above Empty Quarter for an easy meal.
Against this, there are major casualties among migrating birds striking illuminated high-rise office buildings and communication towers at night. The problem is well recognised in the USA and Europe; I’m not so sure if there is much awareness here? The proposed development of offshore windfarms, which will be illuminated for shipping and aircraft, can only be detrimental.
Any comments on this subject would be appreciated.
|
"As wasteful, heedless light is spilled across Ireland, the
beautiful birthright of space and stars is shut out from the human experience."
Michael Viney on the Aurora Borealis, the Irish Times, 03.11.2001. |
The red areas approximately indicate zones where less than 100 stars are visible over 30 degrees of elevation. The orange indicates areas where the Milky Way is not visible anymore. Yellow indicates an artificial sky brightness equal to the natural so that the total sky brightness is doubled. Blue borders indicate artificial sky brightness over 10% greater than the natural brightness, which is the definition of “light polluted sky”.
For a detailed treatment of this subject see
http://www.inquinamentoluminoso.it/dmsp/index.html
from which the illustrations are taken.
Credit: P. Cinzano, F. Falchi (University of Padova), C. D. Elvidge
(NOAA National Geophysical Data
Center, Boulder, USA).
Copyright Royal Astronomical Society.
Reproduced from the Monthly Notices of the
RAS by permission of Blackwell Science.
|
|Home|
Events|
|