darkness as an environmental imperative

[Jan Hollan <jhollan@amper....muni.cz>]

Dear Jan, Steve, Ylva,

I'm happy to hear from IDA (through Bob) that you as Swedish residents
decided to be active in ecology of the night (see ev. the conference with
the same name, http://ecologyofthenight.org)

Taking into account the high profile of Sweden in environmental
consciousness and protection, I hope it might become soon a forerunner in
night conservation as well (as it has been in housing standards before the
passive house had been launched in Germany -- you see, I've just returned
from the http://passivhaustagung.at, this is my further activity
after night protection and before Solarthermie).

I'd recommend considering light from the beginning as a serious pollutant,
a poison for the night environment. I admit that it's difficult for most
people to identify light with evil, as it is usually taken for a symbol of
goodness and used assuming that the more light the better.

Curiously, especially for northern countries it had been proposed, that
the Seasonal Affective Disorder is not caused just by lack of light in
winter, but also by lack of enough deep and long darkness to contrast with
the rather faint daylight or just twilight of December and January days.
The daily cycle of light levels with sufficient amplitude is what is
needed, not just more or very strong light.

I turned to this full-environmental approach after starting with minor
recommendations about how the existing lighting should be adapted. It
surely should be adapted, but with the idea that artificially produced
light at night, esp. (but not only) outdoors, is something dangerous and
harming, what should be avoided wherever and whenever possible. Of course
some lighting is needed in some places. But surely darkness does not
create horrible creatures that are ready to swallow us up (this
transformed superstition, replacing ghosts with thieves and murderers born
somehow out of dark, is the very cause of lighting in many instances).

Unfortunately, most info I can offer is in Czech only (as a novel huge
research report). What is English, is available through
  http://svetlo.astro.cz/darksky

(As I look now, there is no direct link to the archive of my selected
letters,
  http://amper.ped.muni.cz/jenik/letters/public/
 -- there are some comments on lighting too, as those sent to the relevant
mailinglists DSLF, OLF and a very low-traffic one magnitude6, all at
yahoo. I'll put this one there too.)

with best regards,
 Jenik (Jan officially, Jenik is one of many Czech versions of Johnny, a
useful way of distinguishing Czech Jan's from the Netherland or Swedish
ones)

PS. a nice article on LP and Czechia was published in DN a year ago, see
below
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                                Jan Hollan
              N. Copernicus Observatory and Planetarium in Brno
Kraví hora 2, CZ - 616 00 Brno                        +420 5 41 32 12 87

                                   home:
Lipová 19, 602 00 Brno                                     5 43 23 90 96

               volunteer of the Ecological counselling Veronica
Panská 9, 602 00 Brno, Czechia                  fax:  +420 5 42 21 05 61

e-mail: hollan@ped....cz             http://astro.sci.muni.cz/pub/hollan
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 11:19:27 +0100
From: karin.bojs@dn...
To: jhollan@amper....muni.cz Subject: ready for print!

Dear Jenik Hollan,

Thanks a lot for all your kind assistance during my stay in Brno. Tomorrow,
Saturday, the story on light pollution will be published, if you like to
tell your friend in Gothenburg. I send you a copy anyway.
While waiting, you can se the web version att www.dn.se/vetenskap

Send my greetings to your wife and your son!

Sincerely,

Karin


Karin Bojs
Science editor
Dagens Nyheter