Their darkest hour
been room to sit down, talk civilizedly and concert remedial actions, the situation has turned out to be of the you win I win kind.
Jeff Brandfon operates an auto sales business in Brandford, Connecticut. He needed of course bright lighting to lure customers to his lot, and was reluctant to even talk about messing up with his shiny fixtures. After some patient talk by Bob Crelin, he accepted to fix things, and is now the happy owner of not only a magnificent display, but also his energy costs have been cut to one sixth just sending photons down where they belong. Crelin in fact started a one-man crusade in Brandford to fight light pollution. It was not easy, but Bob is a persistent, focused person, and his tenacity did bear fruit. New regulations regarding lighting fixture specifications were voted in June 1997. Security improved, costs were cut, stargazers are happy.
Stellafane is a venerable yearly convention for amateur astronomers, held in Breezy Hill, Springfield. Vermont planned in 1999, to build a new 350-bed state prison four miles from Breezy Hill, which of course should have the perimeter daytime flooded. It took years of arguments, legal actions, a petition with over 5000 signatures from every other continent except Antarctica collected by the Springfield Telescope Makers group, until a final settlement could be worked out. The state agreed to consult on the matter and commission an expert firm to design lighting infrastructure. The test came in September 2003 with the inauguration. Sky was affected next to nothing, everybody happy. In fact it turned out better than before, the plan included retrofitting of streetlights.
Calgary, Alberta. Streetlights were retrofitted with full-cutoff fixtures with the result of improved illumination levels even after halving bulb wattage. As a consequence, costs savings amount to about U$ 1.4 million yearly with an added bonus, each luminary contributes with about 300 kg. of reduced carbon dioxide emissions per year due to lower fossil fuel burning for power generation. Streetlights contribute with 30 - 50 % of light pollution.
Things have been steadily moving in those years, with the US sporting over 8 states with regulations effective or in varying phases of study. One may say the future begins to ... darken.
What can I do
Surprisingly a lot, yet it will not cost, on the contrary you will probably benefit in many ways.
The easiest thing to do is simply to be permeable. As things go,
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