Defend Your Right to See the Stars
The International Dark Sky Program is devoted to protecting the parts of the world that allow us to see the stars.
With all the environmentalist programs that protect the forests, oceans and rivers, we often forget that we also have to protect that which does not immediately strike us as relevant for the planet’s health, but which nonetheless is essential to its euphony: the darkness of the skies. The International Dark Sky Places Program (IDA) does precisely this; an organization devoted to promoting the preservation and protection of the night around the world.
The program is comprised by three different areas; communities, parks and reserves. The IDA’s parks and reserves are home to some of the darkest and most pristine skies in the world. The program’s communities are full of people who are concerned with the many factors that depend on the sky’s darkness and, while their sky might not be perfect, they remain examples of how a city can bring light to the streets without affecting the sky that covers them.
These places serve as reminders of how, without the sky and its celestial bodies to inspire us, a great part of the Earth’s history would never have been written. Art, culture, music and literature would never have been created. Additionally, among other things, the night sky connects us to the past and the future; when we turn and see the sky, stars and planets, we see the same bodies that stargazer saw many generations before, and which many generation to come will still see. The act of exploring the sky is as ancient as humanity, and it has been, more than anything else, the source of creativity. This is the reason why the IDA program wants to protect locations with exceptional views of the night sky, and they propose programs designed inspire others to appreciate the sky and return the sky to children and people who inhabit cities.
Among the communities that the IDA protects from the light are Isle of Coll, Scotland, Dripping Springs, Texas, Isle of Sark, Homer Glen, Illinois, Borrego Spring, California and Flagstaff, in Arizona. Their parks and reserves can be found here.
Any person can register themselves or their city if they wish to help save the skies, one star at a time. There will be few other endeavors as healthy or as poetic as reclaiming the world’s nights.
Related Articles
When ancient rituals became religion
The emergence of religions irreversibly changed the history of humanity. It’s therefore essential to ask when and how did ancient peoples’ rituals become organized systems of thought, each with their
Seven ancient maps of the Americas
A map is not the territory. —Alfred Korzybski Maps are never merely maps. They’re human projections, metaphors in which we find both the geographical and the imaginary. The cases of ghost islands
An artist crochets a perfect skeleton and internal organs
Shanell Papp is a skilled textile and crochet artist. She spent four long months crocheting a life-size skeleton in wool. She then filled it in with the organs of the human body in an act as patient
A musical tribute to maps
A sequence of sounds, rhythms, melodies and silences: music is a most primitive art, the most essential, and the most powerful of all languages. Its capacity is not limited to the (hardly trivial)
The enchantment of 17th-century optics
The sense of sight is perhaps one the imagination’s most prolific masters. That is why humankind has been fascinated and bewitched by optics and their possibilities for centuries. Like the heart, the
Would you found your own micro-nation? These eccentric examples show how easy it can be
Founding a country is, in some ways, a simple task. It is enough to manifest its existence and the motives for creating a new political entity. At least that is what has been demonstrated by the
Wondrous crossings: the galaxy caves of New Zealand
Often, the most extraordinary phenomena are “jealous of themselves” ––and they happen where the human eye cannot enjoy them. However, they can be discovered, and when we do find them we experience a
Think you have strange reading habits? Wait until you've seen how Mcluhan reads
We often forget or neglect to think about the infinite circumstances that are condensed in the acts that we consider habitual. Using a fork to eat, for example, or walking down the street and being
The sky is calling us, a love letter to the cosmos (video)
We once dreamt of open sails and Open seas We once dreamt of new frontiers and New lands Are we still a brave people? We must not forget that the very stars we see nowadays are the same stars and
The sister you always wanted (but made into a crystal chandelier)
Lucas Maassen always wanted to have a sister. And after 36 years he finally procured one, except, as strange as it may sound, in the shape of a chandelier. Maassen, a Dutch designer, asked the