Tuesday 27 October 2009

Light pollution

I've been contacted by the Cardiff Astronomical Society, which is campaigning against light pollution and have suggested I might want to start a similar campaign going in Bristol. What do people think? Their petition is here: http://tinyurl.com/cfds-petition

On a related point, it's Blackout Bristol this coming weekend. Nominations anyone?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Definitely worth supporting, given the effect light pollution has on wildlife. http://is.gd/4ELlC

Bristol Dave said...

I think it's a great idea if they use motion sensors on streetlights, so they turn on when people are walking near them, and turn off afterwards. It would have the added bonus of encouraging more people to go out walking/jogging at night because being followed by a path of light is frankly awesome.

Steven_L said...

So you want to start a campaign to change all the street lights?

Or will this just be a convenient excuse for when the lights go out?

Bristol Dave said...

Only worth changing them when LED streetlights become viable - not long now.

Traditional "Energy saving" lightbulbs are very soon going to be a thing of the past, once LED technology is developed and cheap enough - it's almost there anyway, frankly. LEDs use far less electricity even than energy saving bulbs, but more importantly give far nicer light, have a better CRI (Colour Rendering Index) than the appalling CRI of energy saving bulbs (which is why the colours of rooms look so terrible under energy saving bulbs), don't contain the harmful gasses that energy-saving bulbs do (that fact is often glossed over), and they'll also probably end up being cheaper.

It's the future.