Mar
20

Lights Out: Can we have the dark without giving up the light?

Have you ever seen the Milky Way wheeling across the night sky? Most people in North America will never have the opportunity to see our galaxy because we are bathed in a luminous fog of artificial light 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The evolution of lighting technology over the last century has made it possible to live, work, and play at any hour—day or night. But this light pollution has a major downside affecting all life on earth, from humans to plants and insects. In this episode of Sidedoor we explore how we came to find ourselves surrounded by a glowing shroud of electricity—and ask the question, can we have the dark, without giving up the light?

Graphic for Sidedoor 9.2 Lights Out showng edison light bulb containing a globe

Thanks to a century of illuminating innovations, our world moves at the speed of light both day and night. But the artificial lighting that allows us to work and play as we please has had unintended consequences for every organism on Earth.

This time on Sidedoor — how did we find ourselves surrounded by a glowing shroud of electricity? And what bright ideas are out there for keeping the dark without giving up the light?

Side-by-side images of streets lit by streetlights
Left: New York arc lights: A street in New York ca. 1880, illuminated by Brush electric arc-lamps. Smithsonian negative #43,893a. Right: Light is usually associated with increased safety, but bright, unshielded light like this streetlight scene from Liberal, Kansas, can create glare that makes it more difficult for night drivers to locate pedestrians and hazardous objects in the road. Photograph copyright, Jim Richardson.

Guests

  • Diane Turnshek – Astronomer, advocate, and International Dark-Sky Association Dark Sky Defender Award recipient
  • Brian Schmidt – Museum specialist, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
  • Lisbeth Fuisz – Coordinating director, Lights Out D.C.
  • Hal Wallace – Curator of electricity collections, Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Three photos with Brian Schmidt on left, bird specimens in drawers center and right
Brian Schmidt shares a few of the 600,000 bird specimens held within the collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Photographs by James Morrison.
Twenty tagged bird specimens
Twenty birds that were collected by volunteers with the Lights Out DC program and will be featured in the exhibition, “Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky.” Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

This episode was produced in collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s exhibition: Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky. 

Through over 100 photographs, nearly 250 objects, interactive experiences, tactile models, and a theater program, discover why dark nights matter, rekindle your connection with the night sky, and consider how much light at night is enough—for whom, for what purpose, and who gets to decide?

Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky opens March 23, 2023.

Listen Now 

Links and extras

Bortle scale showing degrees of light pollution
This simplified version of the Bortle Scale (a numeric measure of brightness and observability of celestial objects in a given location) shows a typical night sky as seen in urban and rural regions across the United States. Image courtesy of Kim Arcand, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Graphic showing five principles to reduce light pollution
Five practices for dark sky-friendly lighting. Graphic courtesy of the Illuminating Engineering Society. A text-based version of the five principles is also available to read at darksky.org

We hope this episode shed light on some of the ways you can benefit from a bit of darkness! Join us again next time for a journey to a splendid land of swirling clouds, watercolors, and windows to the past.

Transcript

Lights Out Transcript (002)Download

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Posted: 20 March 2023
About the Author:

Alex di Giovanni is primarily responsible for "other duties as assigned" in the Office of Communications and External Affairs. She has been with the Smithsonian since 2006 and plans to be interred in the Smithson crypt.