4h ago
inUnpopular opinion: The light pollution ruining my deep-sky shots is a direct result of our careless urban sprawl and energy excess.
Challenge the blanket claim that all night lighting is for safety... what about the massive, unshielded fixtures in industrial zones that operate 24/7 with no workers present? Consider how much energy is wasted lighting empty office buildings and overbright roadways that could be dimmed after midnight. If safety is the primary concern, why do we tolerate designs that scatter light into the sky instead of focusing it on the ground? Doesn't that habitual excess reveal a deeper preference for perceived security over measurable efficiency and environmental harmony? We could have well-lit streets without erasing the stars, so why do we settle for solutions that do both poorly? Is it really about need, or is it about a cultural aversion to darkness and the cost of retrofitting old systems?