Starry, Starry Night

This week is primary election week. And if we had a vote on pollution, I’m pretty sure what the outcome would be.

“Do we want more pollution?” Like me, you’d vote NO, right?

“Do we want less pollution?” We’d all vote YES. Like death and taxes, pollution is almost universally considered a bad thing.

So, two weeks ago, when some very polite workers came to reduce the light pollution on my street, I was predictably ecstatic. One of the workers handed a brand new, eco-friendly, dimmable LED light fixture to the other one in a lift, and in less than 10 minutes, Leslie and I had a new streetlight.

It’s all part of the night-sky-friendly lighting management plan that the city council adopted back in 2023. With a $1.9 million U.S. Economic Development Authority (EDA) grant, supplemented by $600,000 from its own coffers, Boulder City is retrofitting 84% of its outdated street lights.

Depending on which people you listen to, the intended benefits include:

(1) Reducing light pollution;

(2) Curbing harmful greenhouse gas emissions;

(3) Unspoiling the night skies and promoting better stargazing opportunities;

(4) Protecting natural ecosystems and nocturnal wildlife from negative nighttime light impacts, including stunted plant growth;

(5) Advancing sustainable dark-sky recreation and tourism opportunities;

(6) Increasing visitor overnight stays;

(7) Improving driver and pedestrian safety;

(8) Reducing energy costs;

(9) Restoring our community’s natural nighttime beauty and historic character;

(10) Enhancing our quality of life;

(11) Increasing valuable teaching opportunities on STEM subjects; and my personal favorite,

(12) Supporting astro-tourism (which sounds an awful lot like filling our nightclubs with extraterrestrials and aliens, but might just be a repeat of #5 above).

Until recent years, I never really considered any kind of light to be pollution. But the more I think about it, the more I agree that artificial light can be just that. Don’t get me wrong, I still believe Thomas Edison’s invention was one of the greatest ever. But when artificial light is so bright, strobing, or pervasive that it blocks natural light or distracts from other gifts that God has endowed us or our world with, then it can quickly turn into pollution, skew our vision, and distort our perspectives.

In the ‘70s, my parents bought an old adobe vacation home in a tiny southern Utah town (population 500), and every time I go there, I’m amazed anew that the Milky Way even exists. It’s absolutely spectacular! Living near the neon lights of Vegas, it’s easy for me to forget what I’m missing. Even camping near the metropolis of Nelson, Nevada (population 36), it’s hard to see the stellar universe as it tries to compete with Las Vegas’ perpetual nightlife glow and the Luxor’s sky beam.

At home in Boulder City, when gazing up from my hot tub at night, why does it seem like there are fewer and fewer stars every year, each of them growing ever fainter? Maybe that’s in part because I’m getting increasingly older and my eyes aren’t what they used to be? But I suspect that light pollution is the bigger culprit.

One of our neighbor’s grandsons used to sit in his parked car at the end of our cul-de-sac and shine his high beams toward our house for hours after 8 p.m., presumably scrolling on his phone. That sometimes bothered me a bit, so I understand why residents sometimes complain about bright streetlights shining too brightly through their windows.

Our streetlight, on the other hand, has hardly ever given off much light at all. So, I’ve been astonished to see how much light the new eco-friendly fixture is now giving off. It’s so many times brighter than the old one that I keep looking out our window every night wondering if Mr. High Beams is back and up to his old tricks. But, alas, it’s just my new streetlight.

Leslie, for one, thinks that the jury is still out on benefit #4. We never knew that bunnies were such nocturnal animals. That is, until they started chewing up our lawn at night about a decade ago and haven’t stopped since. She tried a motion-activated alarm at first, but the rabbits just dance to it like music. She even put up a “Coyotes Welcome” sign at the end of our street, but that hasn’t worked either. And, sure enough, the bunnies are still holding after-midnight parties on our lawn even with the new 10x streetlight installed. Looking on the bright side, though, the stray raccoon that camped out in our yard two years ago hasn’t returned, so that’s good news.

Well, I’m not a cynical as I sound. I truly am grateful to live in Boulder City where we care enough to replace our streetlights once in a while. And where our pollution has always been minimal compared to our neighbors over the hill.

I once made the mistake during a Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) board meeting of remarking about the haze of smog I observe every day when I descend from Railroad Pass into the Las Vegas Valley, and how glad I am that I don’t have to breathe that “second-hand smoke” every day like they do. Needless to say, that didn’t go over too well.

So, you would think that I’d eventually learn to keep my mouth shut on controversial subjects. But Leslie says the odds of that happening are … astronomically small.