Before artificial lights we just had the sun during the day. At night there was the moon, maybe a campfire–and a canopy of stars, thousands of stars.Against a pitch-black palette we contrived these bright points to be the likenesses of animals, gods and legends.But do Trinidadian and Tobagonian children still know these stars? I doubt they can see them.
Ever more areas are lit by streetlights. Day never ends. Very little thought goes in to the location or design of streetlights. Nearly all of their light radiate into the sky around them � obscuring the stars and planets and making deep space look like a hazy veil. With them go the traditions and myths about the heavens. Where light is introduced wildlife retreats in to the shadows�relinquishing habitat to the artificial sun of man. Take bats. Disrupt bats and you disrupt the forest.
Geoffrey Gomes of Trinibats and an IUCN bat specialist: "All bat species are nocturnal, resting in various levels of dark conditions in the day and emerging at night to feed. Ninety five per cent of Trinidad's 68 species of bats comprise important seed-dispersers and pollinators for over 40 different tree species.
These trees in turn produce fruit that provide food resources for countless fruit-eating bird species, and many mammals, including agouti, lappe, deer, monkeys, and others. The majority of bat species, however, are major controllers of insect pests, with each bat consuming a minimum of 25 per cent of its body weight in insects every night. These insects include moths, beetles (the larval stages of which are pests to agriculture and forest foliage), and mosquitoes. Everyone knows the potential hazards mosquitoes can pose to human beings.
It is not an accident that the recent Chikungunya virus mostly affected people who lived in urbanised areas where mosquito-eating bat species have all but disappeared due to habitat destruction and ensuing excessive light disturbance."
I dabble in night sky photography. In a futile attempt to outpace government street lighting programmes I travel farther and farther "in to the bush" to escape light pollution. I hunt dark skies but they are as rare as endangered animals. Recently I found myself studying a map of Trinidad. I looked for a spot that is both easily accessible and that offers an unobstructed view of a big portion of the sky.
Referencing Google Maps I settled on Matelot on Trinidad's North Coast. It is a tiny village that is literally at the end of the road. I figured that where the Matelot River opens on to the sea would be an ideal, dark-sky location.
After a bumpy three-hour drive from Port-of-Spain the shocker was that even at this remote spot the sky was filled with artificial light. Floodlights radiate from the Matelot fishing center. A cellphone tower hazard light glows red, reflecting off the sea into the sky. Tobago lights can be seen like a bright dome on the horizon. Forget about the impossibility of taking a long-exposure night sky photo her �what do light-sensitive leatherback turtles that nest up and down this coast make of all these artificial suns? What happens to the hatchlings that get drawn to what they mistake to be starlight guiding them to the relative safety of the open ocean? Communities on this coast protect turtles while poorly placed lights kill them.
Horror at Pigeon Point, last year. On the road to the resort area were forty perfectly flat, saucer-shaped turtle hatchlings. Attracted by the streetlights the just hatched turtles headed not for the sea but for the asphalt–like moths to the flame. The last light they saw was from the car that crushed them.
Safety is often cited as the reason for installing lights. However, academic research indicates that areas that are lit can actually become more crime-prone. The 1979 Street Lighting Projects�National Evaluation Program Phase I concluded that "while there is no significant evidence that street lighting affects the level of crime, there is a strong indication that increased lighting decreases the fear of crime." A more recent study by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority in 2000 also found that crime increased when dark alleys were lit. Is it possible that criminals need light too?
treetlights are an imaginary solution to crime and safety. Are we killing bats, turtles, other wildlife, disrupting our forests and even worsening our bent-over-in pain-Chikungunya epidemic for nothing?I spoke to Graham Rostant of Carina, the Caribbean Institute of Astronomy about light pollution. Carina is well known for its annual Star Party at the Satellite Tracking Station site in Tucker Valley, Chaguaramas. Rostant himself often takes refuge on Chacachacare Island to escape ambient light. He gives an economic argument for preserving our dark skies.
Rostant: "The Caribbean sky is as much a treasure as our reefs (and also in increasingly bad shape). From our latitudes one can look deep into both the northern and southern skies (and stay warm)...something people living in higher latitudes cannot do. By preserving them we can add to our eco-tourism product. Astro-tourism is growing in popularity. People who live in large urban areas have to travel to indulge this passion....the Caribbean beckons at many levels. "National development" that robs us of this is a shortsighted view on how to advance our society".
To many it seems that lighting up the country to reduce crime is a no-brainer. Academic studies prove otherwise. Too much light hurts our wildlife, our health and our tourism product. Time to switch off the lights.