One of the things I dearly miss, it still pains me, since I said life at sea farewell is the sharply cut out starry nights with the occasional meteor flashes across that beautiful picture of the Milky Way, a really awesome sight. How many times haven’t I gazed in wonder at those beautiful skies? That magnificent view is all gone as soon as you entered a harbor. Of the Americans 80% have never seen a starry night, of the Europeans 60%.
Less than 100 years ago, everyone could look up and see a spectacular starry night sky. Now, millions of children across the globe will never experience the Milky Way where they live. The increased and widespread use of artificial light at night is not only impairing our view of the universe, it is adversely affecting our environment, our safety, our energy consumption and our health.
In a small town in a rural area here they did a test to switch off all lights, including those of the green houses, for a quarter of an hour. Magically all stars popped up. It seemed that children and some adults fled into there homes as that sudden picture of an starry night overhead frightened them…