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Author Topic: Interconnectedness & activism( rambly)  (Read 1246 times)

Ashmire

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Interconnectedness & activism( rambly)
« on: September 18, 2020, 01:17:47 am »
So, commonly enough these days, I want to be involved in helping solve these massive crises we are experiencing in our time.  I was a bit surprised and confused, however, when the messaging and divinations I was getting for "what should I do?" were tending, not towards the big headline grabbing things that actually have rather clear and logical connection to my deities, but towards environmental matters( by most pagan standards, my deities are rather urban and not particularly nature-oriented), and more particularly towards two smaller subsets of this that seem to be considered by most people as rather un-sexy hard sells.

    One, preservation and cleanup of a local body of water that has been significantly endangered and taken for granted for some time(mind you, it *is* big enough to impact climate change at least regionally), and two---something that has intermittently been an autistic special interest of mine over the years but gets shut down a lot because I find most people react even less well to infodumps on it than on most things---specifically, Light Pollution.  Honestly, my first reaction was to think either I had gone quarantine-crazy and was not listening to my gods at all, or that I was being given a dismissive "Go play with your toys, dear", and merely self-comforting with the "No, it really is Important Work and something that could actually help!" that I seemed to get when I questioned the usefulness of it.

A supportive conversation with friends on Discord reminded me of some ways it does actually tie in with the larger issues we have going on in the world and did provide me with some reassurance.  However, it wasn't until later that it struck me there's a rather more obvious connection there that I didn't even see.  I worship a Sun Goddess and the apotheothis of a man who firmly advocated a consistent 11 pm bedtime as essential to good health.  What else is light pollution but foolish humans arrogating to themselves the power of the Sun in short-sighted and harmful ways in order to avoid going to bed at a reasonable hour?  And they're also both health deities of a sort and this is a thing that harms human health as well as other creatures on the planet. 

So, interconnectedness on at least two levels, the interconnectedness of various kinds of trouble happening in the world at large (with each other and with regional issues), and interconnectedness of things personally meaningful to me that I had always considered completely unrelated.   Not sure where I was actually going with this, but just a little epiphany of sorts I wanted to share and perhaps some of you might have similar things?

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Re: Interconnectedness & activism( rambly)
« Reply #1 on: September 18, 2020, 08:03:04 am »
So, commonly enough these days, I want to be involved in helping solve these massive crises we are experiencing in our time.  I was a bit surprised and confused, however, when the messaging and divinations I was getting for "what should I do?" were tending, not towards the big headline grabbing things that actually have rather clear and logical connection to my deities, but towards environmental matters( by most pagan standards, my deities are rather urban and not particularly nature-oriented), and more particularly towards two smaller subsets of this that seem to be considered by most people as rather un-sexy hard sells

Firstly those both sound great and important things Ashmire.

On a more personal note ( rant in italics ) - I have to admit to feeling very conflicted about the "sexy" headliner movements of late. Not because I disagree with their motives but rather that, while it feels like a powerful push that will change the rules now, without the depth and one on one nature that can change future community perspectives  I can see a whole load of people and organisations slipping back over time.

It could be that these local and less well known issues will bring together people that larger ones wouldn't and have an impact on perspectives on a local level by giving a community a common cause/love ( if that makes sense. I'm afraid what I can understand in my head is getting a bit stuck before it gets to my fingers )

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Re: Interconnectedness & activism( rambly)
« Reply #2 on: September 18, 2020, 08:13:04 am »

    One, preservation and cleanup of a local body of water that has been significantly endangered and taken for granted for some time(mind you, it *is* big enough to impact climate change at least regionally), and two---something that has intermittently been an autistic special interest of mine over the years but gets shut down a lot because I find most people react even less well to infodumps on it than on most things---specifically, Light Pollution.

So, out of interest, with the light pollution are you looking at focussed ( down ) lights, changing light colours/power or a light cut off time?

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Re: Interconnectedness & activism( rambly)
« Reply #3 on: September 18, 2020, 12:38:15 pm »
So, out of interest, with the light pollution are you looking at focussed ( down ) lights, changing light colours/power or a light cut off time?

Mostly the former two---I think a cut off time might be difficult to enforce or win support for, though certainly dimming or shutting off streetlights in some areas at certain hours would also make sense.(  I don't see any reason at all why baseball diamonds are always lit up all the time with huge blazing lights even when there isn't a game on, so lights like that should definitely have a shut off, as should parking lots when all the businesses in them are closed). 

Additionally it seems to me that motion detectors are under-utilized for public lighting---surely lights that are turned off when there's literally no one there to see them would save energy and let everyone nearby get better rest without being any burden at all!  Not only that, for those who worry about dim lighting being associated to crime (which statistically is not actually borne out as a real factor), they can actually serve as a kind of burglar alarm---there are some cases known of break-ins being foiled by someone spotting a light on in a dark-sky community when they knew there shouldn't be anyone around.

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Re: Interconnectedness & activism( rambly)
« Reply #4 on: September 19, 2020, 07:55:38 am »
Mostly the former two---I think a cut off time might be difficult to enforce or win support for, though certainly dimming or shutting off streetlights in some areas at certain hours would also make sense.(  I don't see any reason at all why baseball diamonds are always lit up all the time with huge blazing lights even when there isn't a game on, so lights like that should definitely have a shut off, as should parking lots when all the businesses in them are closed). 

Additionally it seems to me that motion detectors are under-utilized for public lighting---surely lights that are turned off when there's literally no one there to see them would save energy and let everyone nearby get better rest without being any burden at all!  Not only that, for those who worry about dim lighting being associated to crime (which statistically is not actually borne out as a real factor), they can actually serve as a kind of burglar alarm---there are some cases known of break-ins being foiled by someone spotting a light on in a dark-sky community when they knew there shouldn't be anyone around.

I can certainly see that working. It sounds like something you should get a lot of support for.
Obviously road lighting would have to be more constant ( I can recall driving down too many un or badly lit roads and the sense of fear at not being able to see clearly enough ) although I can imagine some well lit roads being in a position to have 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 lights cut. I can also imagine having the lights focussed down will help strengthen lighting where it's needed.

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Re: Interconnectedness & activism( rambly)
« Reply #5 on: September 19, 2020, 10:35:51 am »
I can certainly see that working. It sounds like something you should get a lot of support for.
Obviously road lighting would have to be more constant ( I can recall driving down too many un or badly lit roads and the sense of fear at not being able to see clearly enough ) although I can imagine some well lit roads being in a position to have 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 lights cut. I can also imagine having the lights focussed down will help strengthen lighting where it's needed.

Huh.  I went out for a drive last night deliberately to look at what the city is doing with lighting in different areas, and what actually struck me at one point was that, when I went down a stretch of road where for some reason a large portion of the streetlights had gone out, my visibility was actually vastly better than where the lighting was on as normal.

 However, that is one of the arguments set out in IDA brochures, that a lot of street lighting used is simply too bright and too poorly directed to help anyone and just blinds people with glare( in fact the American Medical Association weighed in pointing this out a couple of years ago). 

It could very well be that the UK, or at least your part of it, is doing better than us in this regard, since some of the major studies done on municipal lighting were done there and they have a greater density of dark-sky reserves for the relatively small geographic area than most places to my understanding.

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Re: Interconnectedness & activism( rambly)
« Reply #6 on: September 19, 2020, 01:50:48 pm »
Huh.  I went out for a drive last night deliberately to look at what the city is doing with lighting in different areas, and what actually struck me at one point was that, when I went down a stretch of road where for some reason a large portion of the streetlights had gone out, my visibility was actually vastly better than where the lighting was on as normal.

 However, that is one of the arguments set out in IDA brochures, that a lot of street lighting used is simply too bright and too poorly directed to help anyone and just blinds people with glare( in fact the American Medical Association weighed in pointing this out a couple of years ago). 

I have to admit that where I live in a village has probably meant I've encountered different scenarios to a town or city situation. The times where no lighting has been an issue have been on smaller roads on the edge of the countryside where the grass verges merge with the road edge and the extra light is useful to mark out unmarked sharp turns etc. On well edged roads and ones with cats eyes that's not so much an issue.

In regards the blinding of lights, I agree that I find a lot of lights seem to be blinding these days - not just street lights but also the new stronger headlights that seem to be fitted on cars these days.

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Re: Interconnectedness & activism( rambly)
« Reply #7 on: September 19, 2020, 07:36:12 pm »
However, that is one of the arguments set out in IDA brochures....

I'll just drop a link here to the International Dark Sky Association, for the benefit of others who might want to look further into the issues.

This is something I care a lot about, too, for very different reasons than you/your deities: I'm an amateur astronomer.

In regards the blinding of lights, I agree that I find a lot of lights seem to be blinding these days - not just street lights but also the new stronger headlights that seem to be fitted on cars these days.

Argh, yes - far as I can tell, the idea is that an individual car is safer the more visible it is, but turning individual cars into blazing blinding beacons of light doesn't improve overall road safety in the slightest; when I encounter one of these over-lit vehicles, I can't see anything else until my night vision readjusts.

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Re: Interconnectedness & activism( rambly)
« Reply #8 on: September 25, 2020, 05:57:24 pm »
Mostly the former two---I think a cut off time might be difficult to enforce or win support for, though certainly dimming or shutting off streetlights in some areas at certain hours would also make sense.(  I don't see any reason at all why baseball diamonds are always lit up all the time with huge blazing lights even when there isn't a game on, so lights like that should definitely have a shut off, as should parking lots when all the businesses in them are closed). 

Additionally it seems to me that motion detectors are under-utilized for public lighting---surely lights that are turned off when there's literally no one there to see them would save energy and let everyone nearby get better rest without being any burden at all!  Not only that, for those who worry about dim lighting being associated to crime (which statistically is not actually borne out as a real factor), they can actually serve as a kind of burglar alarm---there are some cases known of break-ins being foiled by someone spotting a light on in a dark-sky community when they knew there shouldn't be anyone around.

Those seem like some absolutely sensible points right there.

Some local authorities here have taken the decision to restrict the hours street lighting is on overnight, in a bid to save a bit of energy and hence money - I think they tend to shut the lights off around 1am or it might be 3am (I can't recall what I've been told by folk, now).

I'm certain I'd more I was intending to add to this post when I first saved it as a draft, but it's been a long week, brain is buzzing and not in a good way; so I forget, now.  Hey ho.

Let me know if there's anything I can be doing to support your efforts, even if it's just signing an online petition or something similar   :)
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