Modern Life, Light Pollution, & Fear of the Dark | Mickey Z.

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Photo credit: Mickey Z.

Mickey Z. -- World News Trust

June 4, 2015

“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light./And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.” (Genesis 1:3-5)

“Hello darkness, my old friend.” (Simon and Garfunkel)

Every now and then, I’m asked some variation of this question: When were you most awed by nature? Like most of you, I have a handful of examples to choose from… but the answer I usually settle on involves gazing at the night sky in a very rural Vermont town.

I had never witnessed that many visible stars in my life and -- being a heavily conditioned modern urban dweller -- I promptly bellowed something like: “Wow, it looks like the Hayden Planetarium!”

(insert sad trombone here)

A far more dramatic version of this modern malady took form in Los Angeles -- a city with a sky glow visible from an airplane 200 miles away. After an earthquake knocked out electrical power in 1994, it seems “many anxious residents called local emergency centers to report seeing a strange "giant, silvery cloud" in the dark sky. What they were really seeing -- for the first time -- was the Milky Way, long obliterated by the urban sky glow.”

(insert sad trombone here)

more

http://worldnewstrust.com/modern-life-light-pollution-fear-of-the-dark-mickey-z