Reducing Light Pollution

In various cities of the world unnescessary lights are switched off now. New York, Toronto, Chicago, Zürich and many more cities have decided to not waste energy and disrupt the ecosystem. Light pollution does not only obscure the night sky, but it creates health problems for humans and disrupts the life of a lot of other animals, especially birds. As a result many cities turn off their lights during bird migration, but plan to leave them off for the entire year. Skybeamers are prohibited in Switzerland so far.

In Manly businesses are arming themselves with glaring lights, making any vision for pedestrians and beach-goers impossible. Sporting venues billow dollars into the night sky. Council regulators seem to have no 'light awareness'. On the sub-urban front, domestic lighting beams up into the sky from underneath. Unsecured beams at the front and rear of houses simulate bright daylight. Also handy in case of a bit of night mowing and considerate as it saves the neighbours lighting while reading.

At event-hypes the public laserbeamer aims for Mars and the trees light up with bulbs permanently, so that no bird shall rest in them ever again. Meanwhile in the subs x-mas lighting orgies are displayed to small humans. Kilometers of light bulbs reading: "What energy crisis?".

As there is always that 5 year time-lag in Australia, one might hope the CBD could join in the dark sky movement and reduce the 'sky glow', then maybe councils and residents might also 'see the light' and turn them off. For the sake of

• their own health
• their energy bills
• their birds and other animals
• their beautiful southern sky
• their delicate ecosystem