Last night was a couple of firsts for me. Earlier this spring I signed up to do Indiana’s Master Naturalist program through our local soil and water conservation. It’s been a rewarding experience and helped shine some light on ways where we all can improve. I’m not gonna lie. I haven’t missed a class so far, but yesterday I thought about skipping. The majority of the day was spent at Kercher’s Apple Orchard with a bajillion 1st graders and I was exhausted by evening. It’s also the Thursday before Fall break so lots of mental open tabs happening. There have been a couple of other things that have happened this year where I felt like skipping and ended up being so happy that I didn’t and other times where I followed through on skipping and then had major regrets (lots of those this summer). So I decided to push through the feelings and just go. This class was by far my favorite. Do I like stars? Sure, who doesn’t. Do I really need to know about constellations? No probably not. Was this my favorite class? Absolutely. More than wildflowers? More than wildflowers… I know, right?! My mind was blown from the instructors that after a couple of minutes I just got my phone out and recorded the rest of the presentation. One of the instructors had his camera and tripod. I immediately went running to my car to grab my camera. He was kind enough to walk me through the settings and let me use his tripod. It took me a little bit of practice to get it nailed how I wanted it, and I unfortunately missed learning how to use our analog star finder with the rest of the class, but this was far more valuable for me.
How lucky was our class that the night of Astronomy class the Northern Lights were happening? I had never seen the Aurora in person before. When I left class and got home Justin was in the yard taking photos on his phone. I ran inside to find my tripod because you could see them pretty clearly with your bare eye (we learned in class that it’s because of the cones and rods in our eyes that prevent us from picking up the colors the way a camera can). It was remarkably gorgeous out and I will forever be grateful for learning how to capture the night sky on my big camera. After about an hour of shooting in my yard I headed over to my brother’s lake house to see how they looked there. I probably missed the more stunning show but there was more light pollution at the lake.
A note on light pollution. From taking different classes on different topics in addition to my own learning and researching on Lepidoptera light pollution comes up quite a bit. It’s a little bit frustrating because it can be such an easy fix. It’s also frustrating because it feels like there’s not a seat at the table for nature when it comes to community and leadership conversations. Another topic for another day. However, according to the IUCN, “Light pollution severely disrupts nocturnal ecosystems, interferes with the natural rhythms of plants and animals, mars the wilderness experience and landscape beauty, carries risks to human health and safety, and wastes energy. Individuals, institutions, and governments should take actions to limit light pollution, including changing light bulbs and fixtures; adopting measures governing development around biodiversity and protected areas; and creating and promoting dark-sky areas.” You can read more about that here. In Astrology class, light pollution for observing the stars and solar storms. In our Birding class, light pollution having major impacts on migrating birds. In our Mammals class, light pollution affecting bats and other nocturnals. Light pollution affecting and killing our moths. Not to mention sea turtles, plant phenology, etc. I could go on and on. I understand people feel safer when there are more lights, and yes, safety is important but so is the environment.
“Cumulatively, light pollution threatens to disrupt the functioning of ecosystems and the benefits they provide to people.” – IUCN
What can we do? Firstly, switch out your light bulb for a yellow, bug light. The bugs aren’t drawn to it which means you won’t have moths, spiders, etc. around your lights and flying into your home when you open the door. And honestly for the most part, you might not have them flying around now like you might have a couple of decades ago – which is a bigger indicator of insect decline). Secondly, turn off the lights. You don’t really need them on. And if you must, then get a motion sensor. The light you’re providing for “security” is doing nothing but lighting the way for “the bad man” to see. You’ll see that he doesn’t really come around and it’s also costing you money. I loved the viewpoint from one of the instructors. He talked about an idea for the future of street lights. (And if you didn’t know, a UK study found that LED street lights reduced the number of moth caterpillars BY HALF. Another study found that LED street lights were more harmful to insects than traditional sodium bulbs) When you walk down the aisles at the grocery in the frozen section, they are now motion censored and light up when you go in front of them. He talked about this being the case when driving/walking with street lights. They come on when you need them too and off when you don’t. It’s an interesting idea and certainly the technology is already there.
