De-Light the Night (Light Pollution Solutions) | Diane Turnshek | TEDxPittsburgh
Vložit
- čas přidán 15. 07. 2015
- Diane Turnshek wants to change how we see the sky at night. She wants to light up our night skies with stars. Based on her work as an astronomer and Carnegie Mellon University lecturer, she outlines how we can Carpe Noctem (seize the night) through a series of changes that can help us balance urbanization with a perspective-inspiring view of the cosmos.
Diane Turnshek wants to change how we see the sky at night. She wants to light up our night skies with stars. Based on her work as an astronomer and Carnegie Mellon University lecturer, she outlines how we can Carpe Noctem (seize the night) through a series of changes that can help us balance urbanization with a perspective-inspiring view of the cosmos.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx
"I feel like I need to clarify the issue of light pollution for anyone who might watch this video. First of all, light is important for safety and security at night, and if someone talks about reducing light pollution, they are NOT suggesting that we go without light at night. That's a common misconception about dark sky advocates. What they want (mainly) is for light fixtures to be properly shielded so that their light only shines down at the ground. This modification has many benefits:
- Because the light of properly-shielded fixtures is focused on the ground instead of shining everywhere, dimmer bulbs that use less energy can be used, which saves money on electricity.
- The light doesn't go to waste shining up, where it bounces off the atmosphere, making the night sky brighter than stars, nebulae, and galaxies. That's why urban night skies are largely devoid of any trace of the cosmos, and it has a name: "sky glow".
- The light doesn't travel directly from the light source (usually a bulb) to your eyes, but instead bounces off of things underneath the light fixture into your eyes. Indirect, reflected light makes up most of what we see, so there's just no reason why we should be able to see the light source in addition to what it's illuminating. Not only do bare light sources leave spots in your field of vision, but they force your eyes to adjust to them instead of to the much dimmer light of nearby shadowy areas and of stars, nebulae, and galaxies. Sideways light from bare light sources is called "glare", and it's also responsible for "light trespass", which is light shining where it's not welcome, like a dark bedroom for example.
- Light isn't allowed to shine hundreds of miles outward from cities, where it can spoil previously untouched dark skies in the wilderness as cities grow and multiply. This one is crucial, because if you think the wilderness will forever be a safe haven for stargazers, even without us doing anything to reduce light pollution in cities, you're wrong.
There are some other things that can be done to reduce light pollution. The speaker in the video already mentioned turning off interior lights when you don't need them and using motion sensors, but there are more. Timers can be used, lights can be removed where they're unnecessary or excessive, businesses can shut off their lights when they close for the night (particularly signs and empty parking lots), interior light can be bottled in with closed curtains/shades/blinds, lone streetlights can be set up to dim/shut off in the absence of people and brighten/turn on in their presence, etc."
- Jake Self
Thank 🙏💕you
Jake, I'm going to take your excellent post here and put it on Facebook. Things have only gotten worse over the intervening years for the night sky, and I'm starting to advocate with my friends and family that something needs to be done. Hope you don't mind.
Light pollution in my rural small town area of NW Missouri is now as bad as any metropolitan area. Almost every rural home and structure has LED glare bombs, and the smallest towns are bursting with them.
So far I've lived, I believed starry nights were computer graphics or were captured using space telescopes... I never liked bright, artificial lights and now discovering that they also masked me out from reality of darkness...
This generation will have forgotten the stars.
Well done! Starlight is, indeed, a treasure for people of all ages, colors and pay scales. It is also a giver of life for ecosystems. Please do not allow it to be buried in a cover of ill-designed obtrusive excessive light. Speak up! and become a steward of the starry night sky. We're at an urgent crossroad now, with municipalities worldwide switching over to LEDs. This is the time to speak up against blue-rich bright white LEDs, light trespass, glare, light clutter, over-illumination. How do you know if its a job well-done? Look UP! It ought to be glittering with stars. Well, when I was little my teacher put a star on my paper for a job well done. I guess some things never change.
Simply amazing! Great talk. Looking forward to more.
Afghanistan you can see so many more stars. And I didn’t know you could see that many shooting stars .
Why is it that people such as my neighbors are lighting more and more each time I look around? Is it because people are scared and they mistakenly believe that lights keep away thieves. Is it because local news continues to repeat that lighting keeps them safe?
I wish they had shown her background light screen effects closeup.
I’ve seen the Milky Way and it is amazing. I live in the LA area and I can’t see any cool stuff.
I live in a densely populated suburb. The homes are rather close together No city lights here. Increasingly, however, residents are creating light pollution to show off the front and sides of their homes at night. These lights are bothersome and intrusive. They often shine from dusk until dawn. There is a new company in the Pittsbugh suburban region that, for a hefty sum, will install up- lights, many of them, brightly pointing at your home from all angles. Many of my neighbors think that excessive night lighting on their homes is attractive. To the contrary, my street and other streets in my neighborhood look like a carnival at night. It's getting worse.
More back of the auditorium shots please so you can't see the photos she is showing. It helps tremendously with what she is saying.
Back of auditorium to face shot to back of auditorium to body shot back of auditorium to face shot. Awesome thanks.
wow
Keep a close Eye on our sky.... If you look up at a blue sky during the day, you can see the humidity increasing week by week..... It is this humidity, which is reducing the amount of Light reaching the Earth's surface at night, and the light from Cities is also illuminating this increasing humidity, more and more.
WarmLight LED's below 2700k would be better with bettewr shielding, dimming and no light tresspass across the world . Asia needs Warmlight LEd's like the western countries.
Australia....
People overuse LED light, buying stronger than traditional and it is even worse polluting. Manufacturers are competing producing brighter monstrosities than ever before...How is that a solution?
The Campaign for Amber Street Lights is trying to bring change. This level of pollution is entirely unecessary.
The topic is awesome, but overall this video was shot pretty poorly. She talks about pictures she is showing on the projector screen, but the video is only showing a very zoomed out view as if that was the only way to show the projector screen. Maybe that was the case for this presentation from July 2016, 7 years ago. I've seen many newer videos from TED or TEDx that do show a zoomed in picture of the projector screen during the presentation, so this issue must have been fixed.
who else just watched this because they have an essay due tomorrow and they procastinated till last minute. I know thats pretty exact but i bet a lot of u are doing that (I am 2). and who is watching in 2018 people
The heavens declare the glory of God. Its a delight to see that God is the glory behind the beauty of the cosmos...
Ironically to get to the darker places you need a car 🚗 yet it is the car which is driving a lot of the light pollution.Lit up fuel stations,car selling places, urban sprawl and roads nobody lives on lit up somewhat defeating the object of cars being fitted with lights.The light makers and the power industry will claim that lit roads are safer.... nonsense they will encourage greater speed and speed is behind most motor accidents.Well 6 years after this Pittsburgh has brought in a lighting ordnance and I think that it's the only big city on Earth to have done so but it only covers the lighting owned by the municipality and I doubt that it's them floodlighting whatever the white glowing building in the middle of Pittsburgh is?
Pittsburgh decided to lead by example. It is much easier to start going dark sky compliant with the streetlights and buildings on city-owned property. That includes all the facilities, the parks, playgrounds AND the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium, the National Aviary, and Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden. Let's see what private companies voluntarily follow their lead (like The Frick!). Once people see what an improvement this is, then, down the road, tackling changes to the city's lighting ordinance codes for every property owner will be easier. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
@@star1ady true!
LEDs... A beautiful way to develop skin cancer. I'll skip star gazing to avoid that.
So you talk about enjoying darknness but you're selling lites ?
??? Please clarify, what are you talking about? She is a professional astronomer. She doesn't sell streetlight or any other kind of lighting.
Plz talk louder
yes
Or faster
Such a bad speaker