This past weekend I attended the annual Living & Building Green Expo at The Canyons resort in Park City. This years event was even bigger than those in the past. This was especially surprising given how beautiful the weather was. I guess it just goes to show that Parkites really get it.
Anyway, the event brought together a wide range of green building tools, tips, techniques and, of course products. Mayor Dana Williams even stopped in to speak about ongoing efforts by Park City to make itself a more sustainable city.
Of course, Starry Night Lights was there to educate folks on the problem of light pollution and what they can do to address the problem in their own homes and businesses. With environmental consciousness on the rise, I think we may finally start to make progress in addressing all the improper outdoor lighting that exists around us. Improperly designed and installed outdoor lights consume incredible amounts of money ($10 billion annually is the most recent estimate I’ve seen for the US). All this lighting is also a threat to the night environment. Nocturnal creatures (and humans) require a dark, natural night, as this is how all creatures on this planet have evolved. Mess with this at your own risk. All this light also removes the night sky from view to large segments of the world population. Given how the night sky has been part of our culture for thousands of years, this is quite a shame. I for one would be happy if future generations didn’t have this issue to deal with and could revel in the wonders of the night just as our ancestors did eons ago.