EDITORIAL: Let there be less light

Coal Dock Park in Port Washington and Harrington State Park in the Town of Belgium were packed with people and enough vehicles to make a minor traffic jam. No, it wasn’t a hot day in July. It was late on a cold night in November. The crowds were drawn to the lakeshore parks to see a performance by aurora borealis.

When unusually strong geomagnetic storms ignited a spectacular display of northern lights over the west shore of Lake Michigan, people turned out in droves in the night and very early morning of Nov. 12-13 to behold a northeast sky painted in a glowing spectrum.

Nature’s show was awe inspiring, but also impressive was humanity’s show. Here in Ozaukee County and other places graced by the northern lights extravaganza people left their homes and the entertaining diversions that consume time in this era of electronic stimulation to witness a natural phenomenon. It was a refreshing sign that even in the age of artificial intelligence something as real as nature still matters.

Some of the skygazers who turned out for the northern lights show surely noticed when they turned away from the gaudy display in the northeast that the sky was not really dark. The natural blackness was washed out by reflected artificial light from Earth, and even though it was a perfectly clear night the lightened sky made it impossible to see the Milky Way and other celestial bodies that have been visible to mankind through the ages.

Humans have polluted the air and the water and now even the sky.

Light pollution is a global issue. The night sky around the world has been getting 10% brighter each year, according to the Natural History Museum. Excessive man-made light hinders astronomy and the scientific observations that are critical to understanding the universe, while it diminishes the experience of living on this planet by obscuring the stars and distant planets that have inspired humans since the dawn of civilization.

Light pollution is bad for the animal residents of the planet as well, particularly wildlife creatures that are guided by the natural light and darkness cycle in navigation, feeding and reproduction. 

The compromised darkness of the night sky also affects human health, scientists say, by disrupting the circadian rhythm, which can cause sleep disorders and lessen resistance to diseases.

The most measurable impact of the bleaching of the night sky is the contribution of needless artificial lighting to the greenhouse gases that are driving climate change. It is estimated that 30% of the outdoor lighting in the U.S. serves no purpose, but because most of it is produced by fossil fuel it adds millions of tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

Light pollution should be diminishing, 

rather than accelerating, as awareness of its consequences increases, because the remedy is obvious: Turn off or limit the use of unneeded outdoor lights on businesses and homes. For outdoor light that is necessary, options are available in mitigation techniques and technology for private, commercial, industrial and street lighting that diminish the deleterious impact on the night sky. 

It is going to take the best of that technology, along with a high degree of corporate responsibility, to mitigate the damage to the night sky that will be done by the coming Vantage Data Centers campus. 

Because they are large, highly sensitive to security issues and operate 24/7, data centers are enormous sources of night sky brightness. The lighting of the Port Washington data centers has daunting potential; it will rise from vast buildings and grounds covering some 2,000 acres of land.

The Northern Cross Science Foundation astronomical observatory at Harrington Beach State Park could be a casualty of that data-driven light pollution.

In a letter to Ozaukee Press, members of the foundation’s board of directors wrote: “We have significant concerns that the exterior lighting from the data center project, located only a couple of miles from our observatory, will make our observatory useless for its primary purpose of public astronomy and night sky education.”

The light pollution threat presents the data center operators with a test of corporate character and their ability to put the power of some of the data they manage to positive use. The $15 billion Stargate complex Vantage is building for Oracle and OpenAI will be a temple devoted to the glory of artificial intelligence. It ought to be smart enough to figure out how to do business without depriving mere humans of nature’s gift of a dark sky.