SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
https://www.cnet.com/news/reykjavik-turns-off-street-lamps-so-citizens-can-view-the-northern-lights/
The northern lights have been blazing their beauty across Icelandic skies all last week, but it's a lot easier to watch nature's light show if the city lights themselves aren't so darn bright. So, on Wednesday night the Reykjavik city council turned off the lights in parts of the city so residents could ooh and aah at a clearer display.
The city street lights in most neighborhoods were scheduled to go dark between 10 and 11 p.m., though that time was reportedly extended when the northern lights were a little late to the party. Locals were asked to help by keeping the lights off in their homes. They were asked to drive carefully on the darker -than-normal streets, and the fire, police and power company were warned in advance, according to Iceland Monitor.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 04 2016, @04:43AM
Some time around 1968 or 1969 my stepfather was part of a movement of astronomers in and around Tucson, Arizona, to pressure the local government to do something about light pollution.
It is one of the few times I have actually seen the government respond to its citizens in a prompt and positive way. Tucson installed metal coolie hats over every single light in the city, that blocked light going upwards and reflected it downwards - effectively doubling the light where it was needed and perhaps halving the light pollution at the same time.
That was half a century ago. I just checked - https://www.google.com/search?q=tucson+mount+lemmon+light+pollution [google.com] - and I see it's still a problem. Tucson was the only city in the area at the time but there are now many smaller cities surrounding Tucson. Then, there are people who live out in the country - who regulates them?
I see that there's a Pima County code relating to outdoor lighting. But that only works if people WANT to obey the regulations.
Here we see the difference between Northern Europe and the United States - one wants their children to see the stars and learn, the other wants to make a TV show out of it.
More about Mount Lemmon Observatory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Lemmon_Observatory [wikipedia.org]
SoylentNews-For-Nerds link: I'm not sure but I think Chuck Moore was stationed at Mount Lemmon when he created the FORTH programming language - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_H._Moore [wikipedia.org] . I know there's a huge FORTH community in Tucson.
~childeaux