Light Pollution

So, the deal is my class has $5000. Yes, that's a lot of money. Our assignment, is to figure out how to use that money to implement a pinprick or maybe pinpricks of change. Last week, if you read my earlier post, we watched a movie called City Dark. This movie had more of an impact on me than I thought. My boyfriend, Sam, has always complained about how you can't see the stars in our city. I always just thought that he was whining! Now, I see that this is an actual issue that needs to be taken care of. Professor Goldsmith is always saying how we need to do things at the hyperlocal level, and hopefully it will have a rippling effect. I know that in Fort Douglas we are already trying to get lights that shine the light down towards the ground where we need it, and not in to the sky above, and I was thinking maybe we could try to get the whole campus to implement these lights. I also understand that this class is about the VALLEY as a laboratory, so if we could raise more money for our cause and use it in an area in the city to maybe have a trial run that would be extremely wonderful!

This light is an example of a lamp that emits light into the atmosphere. What is the purpose of having a round bulb that shines light up into the sky? Isn't it more important for us to have the light shining on the ground so that we can see instead of up? I would like to replace these lights with some with shades that project the light downward! I think that tackling areas like this that are on campus would be a good start at a hyper-local level. Even getting the project done up in the Fort Douglas area would be a great start to replacing lights all over campus. However, it is currently at a stand still because the lights are "histroic," even though they were installed recently! So, I would suggest trying in a different area where they would have to come up with a lamer excuse that we could get around!

This is another light that I encountered this week, and I am curious about it. I don't think that it is translucent on top, but there is no shade concentrating the light down towards the ground. I think that the light emitted may shine to the sides and that light goes up into the atmosphere causing light pollution. This light is located in the parking lot near the Hyper buildings which is not lighted very well! I have to walk in this parking lot every night on my way home on Tuesdays and I never feel like the light is sufficient enough for me to feel comfortable walking alone. I would love for these lights to have LED bulbs and shades that shine it towards the frouang where I am walking. I think that there would need to be more lights in the parking lot for night time strolls to be comfortable AND THEY NEED TO GET RID OF THOSE GOD-FORSAKEN YELLOW STREETLIGHTS BEFORE MY HEAD POPS OFF. I get horrible headaches from those things!