Share Cookies and Be Friendly!

LPN February 2025
Light Pollution News Podcast
Light Pollution News Podcast
Share Cookies and Be Friendly!
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February 2025: Share Cookies and Be Friendly!, Light Pollution News.

Host:

Bill McGeeney

Nick Mesler

Nick Mesler is a Director at Evari Consulting, where he takes a data-driven approach to achieving positive street lighting design, livable communities, and active transportation outcomes. Nick considers himself a “plangineer” and prides himself in understanding both the big picture forethought and honest realities of implementation necessary to bring successful projects to life. Nick specializes in transportation safety, with a background in mobility planning and transportation operations. Nick has worked on large street lighting projects across the United States.

Nick is a registered Civil Engineering PE in Oregon and Washington and a registered Traffic Engineer in California. He frequently presents and participates in events through the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), Illuminating Engineering Society (IES), and the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP). He is a member of the IES Outdoor Nighttime Environment Committee and the IES Roadway Lighting Committee. Nick is regarded as an authority on lighting for transportation safety.

Mark Baker

Mark Baker has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Mark was a computer programmer for 20+ years and a middle school math teacher for 10+ years. Mark has been involved in the effort to protect people from LED light since 2016. Mark founded the Soft Lights Foundation as a 501(c)(3) non-profit registered in the state of Oregon in 2021. The Soft Lights Foundation is now one of the world’s leading advocacy groups for the protection of people from the harms of Visible Light radiation emitted by Light Emitting Diodes and for the protection of the natural night as a resource.

Isa Mohammed

Isa Mohammed is an amateur astronomer, engineer, and entrepreneur residing in Trinidad and Tobago. He is the current President of the Caribbean Institute of Astronomy, the Trinidad and Tobago National Coordinator for Astronomers Without Borders, an advisory board member of the North American Regional Office for Astronomy Development, and an ACEAP Astro-Ambassador. Isa is a Director and Sales Manager at Eniath’s Printing Company Limited. Apart from his work in science outreach and education, he is also an avid astrophotographer. When he’s not tending to his business or doing outreach, he can usually be found behind a telescope, fishing, or playing board games with his wife and three sons.

Article List:

  1. Tallest lighthouse on Great Lakes looking for 2025 volunteer keepers, Lindsay Moore, MLive.
  2. Would you pay $700 a night to sleep under the stars at this Sand Dunes-area resort?, Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, The Denver Post.
  3. ‘Kosmos’ All-Inclusive Stargazing Resort Breaks Ground Near Great Sand Dunes National Park, Will Brendza, GearJunkie.
  4. Federal Government Now Requires Energy Efficient Outdoor Lighting Products at Thousands of Government Sites and Facilities, Leora Radetsky, EC&M.
  5. Letter to the editor: Breckenridge’s dark skies laws are absurd, Frank Mason, SummitDaily.
  6. Letter to the editor: Breckenridge’s dark sky rules were too strict and rushed, Russ Trowbridge, SummitDaily.
  7. Breckenridge changes its outdoor lighting rules, including holiday decorations, with 2025 compliance deadline, Kit Geary, SummitDaily.
  8. Exterior Lighting Code Handbook, Town of Breckenridge.
  9. DOE Gives $11.5 Million To Spread LED Lights In More Public Places, Noel Fletcher, Forbes.
  10. Light Pollution Control: Comparative Analysis of Regulations Across Civil and Common Law Jurisdictions, Laws.
  11. Trump says he’ll end daylight saving time: Here are the winners and losers if he does, Greg McKenna, Forbes.
  12. Why Soccer Players Are Training in the Dark, RM Clark, Wired.
  13. To a Better 2045!, LightPollutionNews.
  14. ‘Neurologic hazard’: Group sues over Bay Bridge lights, Phil Mayer, KRON4.
  15. Local Student Addresses UN on Light Pollution, Rushil Kukreja, The Falls Church Independent.
  16. Brighter futures through darker night skies: Virginia student fights light pollution, Kate Ryan, WTOP.
  17. Brightening Futures by Dimming Lights, Princia.
  18. The association between outdoor artificial light at night exposure and antenatal depression and anxiety symptoms: A retrospective cohort study in China, Environmental Research.
  19. Outdoor light at night, air pollution and risk of incident type 2 diabetes, Environmental Research.
  20. Impact of bedroom light exposure on glucose metabolic markers and the role of circadian-dependent meal timing: A population-based cross-sectional study, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety.
  21. Cartographic Visualisation of Light Pollution Measurements, Urban Science.

From MLive, anyone looking for an adventure in 2025? Well, why not volunteer at the White Shoal Lighthouse in Lake Michigan? The 113-year-old lighthouse sits 13 miles from the nearest boat launch in what is claimed to be the ‘most isolated lighthouse on Lake Michigan.’ It boasts a 22 foot vertical ladder boat to lighthouse connection, and 143 steps from the base to the top – so quite the workout!

The volunteers who will operate the lighthouse are on call 24-7 and should expect to witness incredible sunrises, sunsets, and glimpses of the wide open milky way. Anyone up for this?

In other interesting tourism related news, The Denver Posts asks if you’d be up for paying a whopping $700 a night to sleep under the stars at the Kosmos resort featuring numerous amenities including a “stargazing” spa, tennis and pickleball courts, a gym, wellness lounge, onsite restaurant, public stargazing. Higher end rooms include everything from grills to vesper telescopes. Oh, and there will also be a UFO gazing platform…which is obviously the most important amenity.

A couple of interesting stories over in policy news.

First, 2024 was a big year not just for astrotourism, but also for responsible lighting implementation. Per EC&M, in 2024, the US government’s real estate management wing, the General Services Administration, began requiring some exterior lighting to fit into the DesignLights Consortium’s LUNA program to promote maximum energy efficiency while reducing negative externalities associated with exterior lighting – such as light pollution.

Then, we have this interesting one.

The Colorado town of Breckenridge approved an updated ordinance that fast forwarded residential compliance to a deadline of July 1st of this year. And this apparently caused a stir.

Breckenridge implemented its first responsible lighting ordinance back in 2007 with a goal of having conversion by 2022. However, that was not met so the community extended the deadline in early 2024. The overall hope by community leaders is to have Breckenridge designated as a Dark Sky Community.

The community gave residents an initial 15 year lead in period – which was still not long enough for some.

Per gravely disgruntled resident Frank Mason, the “dark sky legislation represents the most absurd thinking I’ve encountered in my 79 years of living.” Mason further goes on to complain about the “wasted” tax dollars used to pay code enforcement officers for doing their job and blasts the city for spending $3.6M on replacement street lighting. Mason proposes starting a “Leave our Lights Alone” movement to counter responsible lighting policies. 

Fellow resident, Russ Trowbridge wrote a letter supporting Mason, arguing that this is a “feel good” objective that lacks public backing. He estimates that 7500-8000 units in the community still sit out of compliance.

Breckenridge actually has a very useful pamphlet that describes everything. I encourage you to swing over to our website at LightPollutionNews.com and take a look if you’re interested in learning more about this news item.

I will note that these are the following ordinance changes that took effect.:

  • Holiday lighting is allowed in all lighting zones.
  • Color temperatures can’t exceed 3000K
  • Decorative lighting is restricted to two areas of the following – roof eave line, window trim, columns, or railings; and the bulbs must be 3” or less in size.
  • Decorative lights are off at 2 am for businesses and 11 pm for residents.
  • New construction limits on residential properties are eight exterior fixtures.

Also, if you are interested in learning more about the legal frameworks utilized in many of these responsible lighting regulatory structures, I recommend an article from the journal Law that does a good job comparatively analyzing multiple global approaches in effect. The link, as always, is on the show page.

Rounding out this month’s policy news, here in the US, back in 2023, President Biden instructed the Department of Energy to roll out LED conversions of all public lighting at well…light speed. The haphazard approach has clearly denigrated our nighttime environment. At the close of 2024, the DEO handed out an additional $11.5M award for a variety of public upgrades – including airports, municipal buildings, parks, and sports fields.

I want to switch gears and head over to our culture news this month. President Trump took office, again, back in January, and with that was a promise to end daylight saving time. Per the President, “The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!

I should note that a member from his own party, Marco Rubio, had sponsored the ‘Sunshine Protection Act’ to make daylight saving time permanent.

Since we’re talking about our relationship with darkness, what if dark and dim environments could enhance our abilities? A UK company called Okkulo has found a way to monetize something that I think a lot of folks who regularly operate in dim or unlit environments already know – that training in these environments can help strengthen your other senses.

Okkulo, if you’re not aware, is a system that essentially puts an athlete in a dark room and tosses soccer balls, tennis balls, and, god help them, major league hardballs at athletes. The system begins to cycle through a series of dim single color lighting arrangements – first blue for visual focus, then green for peripheral awareness, then red for depth perception training, before combining all three.

Since we’re closing out streetlights I just want to touch on some health news that came through this month. As you recall, we had a vigorous discussion regarding health effects with Dr. Mario Motta last month. I encourage you to go back and listen to that if you have not. I do want you the listener to be cognizant of the methods used and sample sizes used in these studies. I encourage you, if you are interested in learning more and further evaluating the effectiveness of these claims to click on the article link on the show page.

First up, from Environmental Research, by utilizing generalized outdoor brightness assessment via satellite imagery, and a study size of 1,047 pregnant women, it was found that exposure to outdoor artificial light at night may increase the risk of antenatal depression and anxiety symptoms.

Next, from Environmental Research, by utilizing similar generalized outdoor brightness assessment from satellite data, a study with a participant size of 24,147 found that exposure in environments with light pollution experienced a positive association with type 2 diabetes. This held true for a correlation to air pollution. There was also an additional correlation between light pollution and fossil fuel derived NO2 on type 2 diabetes.

Onward, from Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, we have a study identifying that artificial light at night in the bedroom was positively associated with impaired glucose metabolism markers.

The study looked at 256 out of an initial 484 participants. The participants excluded apparently failed to fulfill data capture requirements. Of the 256 individuals who remained, they recorded light exposure via a light monitoring device, wore an accelerometer to measure sleep time, manually noted meal times, and provided fasting blood samples. 

The study data suggested that folks who maintain normal circadian rhythms with earlier circadian-dependent meal timing were not impacted to the degree of those who didn’t by exposure to artificial light at night.

Now, Mark, I want to get into the recent news that you were in regarding Illuminate San Francisco’s completion of the new 50,000 LED fixtured Bay Bridge relighting. For you at home, if you’re a long time listener, you’ll no doubt recall Illuminate San Francisco. And if not, let me rehash their best of.

Illuminate San Francisco is a nonprofit organization that specializes in installing very bright all night displays around the city. Past displays include the very bright, all night art displays in San Francisco parks, the blasting of a giant all night rainbow laser beam above Market Street, and now the relighting of the Bay Bridge connecting San Francisco to Oakland and additional areas.

The cost to install the new lighting tallied upwards over $11M, of which a very high majority was donated money.

You’ll recall Davis’ quote last year, ‘I feel like there is a hole in the night sky, and there has been for the past year.’ Davis is a man who clearly needs 24×7 daylight. I’m not going to fault him, I’m sure we all have insecurities. And to Davis’ credit, the public response has been, as far as I can tell, overwhelmingly supportive – and I’ll qualify that by saying it’s hard enough for me to convince you the listener to support this show but folks came out in droves to pour ludicrous amounts of money into relighting a bridge.

Now Mark, your organization, the Soft Lights Foundation has brought suit against turning on those new lights. Why don’t you tell us what your suit entails.

In other news, while some teenagers may find themselves overindulging on the holiday cookies, one Virginia student burned the winter hours in front of Virginia lawmakers. A task that we all should be so lucky to do.

15 year old Rushil Kukreja, a junior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax, even created a nonprofit named Princia. Per Kukreja, Princia apparently includes over 250 advocates spanning 6 continents. In September of 2024, Kukreja sat as a panelist at the Science Summit at the UN General Assembly.

Kukreja is directly working with Virginia Delegate Rip Sullivan to help construct a statewide light pollution bill.

Finally, let me pose this one to you here on this show. How would you describe your nighttime sky’s brightness to someone?

If you’ve ever tried to explain the sky brightness to folks, you’ve undoubtedly found that there’s no one unified measure. Hence, we have an intriguing article from Urban Science that proposes a new scale based on measured values akin to those you’d identify using a sky quality meter.

I think what the authors are proposing makes a lot of sense. Currently, we have sky brightness quantification techniques,

  • including magnitudes per square arcsecond for devices such as sky quality meters
  • candelas per square meter for luminance measurements
  • satellite radiance measurements
  • a natural sky brightness measure that identifies how many times brighter the sky is against a natural night sky
  • and the amorphous Bortle scale. 

The authors propose a more nuanced scale with the ability to exceed or underwhelm either end of the measure. For instance, current measurements often end at a certain low magnitude threshold. The proposed measurements would eliminate an ending and starting threshold to allow for infinite measurements in either direction. Hence, providing a uniform and detailed tool that could be used for everything from urban planning to health advisories and more.


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