Streetlights - a proposal
Posted: Sunday, 25 November 2007 |
Comments
One of the joys of camping on Lewis a few years ago was looking out at the moon and the stars and realising that it is actually dark at night, something that is almost alien to those of us living in England. There is little need for street lights after midnight especially somewhere as sparsely populated as the Western Isles. Surely everyone in the villages of Lewis can find their way home in the dark? On a different occasion when staying in a cottage at Cnip we were amazed to see a street light outside at the end of a cul-de-sac with no other house within 500 yards. If it were my house I know how long it would be before that light got 'accidentally' broken! I work at night and light pollution is constantly evident. What annoys me most - and I hope is not something you have even in Stornoway - is offices and car showrooms devoid of people with every single light blazing throughout the night. Why? If the government were truly 'environmentally aware' this would be outlawed and we wouldn't need to think about desecrating beautiful landscapes with wind turbines. I doubt that the Council will adopt your Irish solution so maybe the only answer is to go back to those days of youth where every boy seemed to have a catapult!
Les Ellingham from Stafford
They don't have to be those garish sodium horrors, and they can be designed to throw a white light onto the ground mostly, but the ghastly orange option is probably the cheapest. A bit like installing panel heaters in cardboard-walled council houses and then wondering why no-one can afford to heat them... I think the very Irish solution to the problem would appeal to our astronomer on Rousay, who is forever writing to the local paper about light pollution. You should try living at Anorak Towers, where there are three of the tangerine nightmares right outside the house...
Flying Cat from false economies
One of the things I was surprised about when we moved here was just how many orange street lights there are. We live 9 miles from Stornoway (although probably more like 5 as the crow flies) and can clearly see an orange glow on the horizon. The house across from us has one of the orange street lights in his garden that’s on from 17:00 - 00:30 every day - it annoys us, so how he copes with it in his garden and shining directly into his house I don’t know. None of the other houses round here have one and it certainly isn’t needed in this case. Why not just have a movement sensor light that comes on as and when it’s needed? Thankfully, we can still see the milky way if we look up on a clear night, something you can’t do in most other UK locations, but it’s far from dark here at night. I’d love a few nights every month when the street lights don’t come on so I could go out with my telescope and star gaze without having to position myself behind our house and out of the way of the neighbour’s street light on on side and the Stornoway glow on the other side!
Rachel from Ranish
outside my house too there reside a line of the orange horrors ... the closest of them shine right into my window, often until 3 in the morning ... more than once I've considered how hard one would have to throw some sort of projectile ... and with what degree of skill ... :-)
soaplady from whispering in a shift manner
Let's start a campaign Bring Back the Parish Lantern.
Hyper-Borean from Nostalgia
I want to know: whatever happened to the Lewis Town Crier.
mjc from NM
He rang his bell and "oyez-oyez-ed" on a Sunday and was never heard of again.
Flying Cat from LDOS
That's a good'un, FC!
mjc from NM,USA
In work we are allowed to view the BBC web page, as I live in an urban area I am probably not alone in dreaming about visiting your far shores one day and how beautiful it must be. so I always check out the Highlands & Islands site mainly to look at the stunning scenery but when I came across this blog about the streetlamps I was horrified! Why do the powers that be always think they know best, if I was a visitor this is not what I would expect, I would like to be as far away as possible from any reminders of all that is urban. and I understand your frustrations, it must be very unsightly. (Just a thought, if these street lights are new, cant you have solar powered ? Or haven't they been invented yet?) At least soaplady could get a decent nights sleep
Carol. from Cardiff. Wales
The sky on a cold winters night in Lewis is a joy to behold. It still is but more has to be done to stop the intrusion of lighting up the night sky. We dont need it. What's wrong with a torch? I can understand the need for lighting in inner cities and suburban for security but not necessary in Lewis. Ok maybe in Stornoway. I think it was in the winter of 2002 a truly spectacular event happened in the night sky over Lewis and was seen as far down as Kinross just north of Edinburgh It was as if your were inside an inverted cone with the top truncated and shafts of brilliant lights in all colours continually changing.The Northern Lights had arrived. It lasted for approximately an hour and a half. A firework display is no competition to mother nature when its in full display.Ive never seen the like and probably never will. Save energy and keep our dark night skys I say . Oh by the way Fir Chlis is gaelic for Northern Lights. Peatstack however I would not want to go back to the tilly latern as I still like my electric lightbulb in the home
Fir Chlis from Isle of Lewis
I may be reviled. Never allowed to set paw on Lewis. Blackballed... But could you please spell Chlis as it sounds...unless it sounds as it looks of course!
Flying Cat from Gaelic as she is spoke
There is something you can do about this. Here is a good place to start: http://www.britastro.org/dark-skies/
CVBruce from CA, USA
There is an dark sky site that I go to every once in a while to observe the sky. It is in the middle of nowhere at an altitude of 3,800 meters. And yet, you can still see the sky glow from Las Vegas over 320 km away.
CVBruce from CA, USA
I know that the Cat would probably have trouble speaking any Gaidhlig as whilst the language does have an 'm' it doesn't have a 'w', but Chlis is one of the forms of the word Clis (quickly / sudden / nimble), but in Gaidhlig the spelling of a word changes according to the use (I think this is all about such things as genetive and dative forms), in this case acquiring a silent 'h'. Chlis and Clis are both said 'clish'. Since writing this blog I've had quite a few views on this subject expressed to me directly - shouted across the street, sent in mysterious unmarked packages -all of which express a hatred for the street lamps!
Peatstack from In the dark
No one will take my Durham miner's headlamp from me.
mjc from NM,USA
Thank you.
Flying Cat from miao
Cold lifeless hands eh? mjc.
Hyper-Borean from NRA
Charlton Heston is your president, Hyper-B?
mjc from NM,USA
I must say mjc, when dear old Charlton made that speech, I couldn't help thinking a) it won't be long anyway and b) with all those guns around it may be sooner than you expect.
Hyper-Borean from The bunker
In response to Flying Cat and Gaelic as she is spoke. Not so easy phoenetically this one. There are no sounds in the english language that uses "ch". Its a bit like "ph" in phoenetically. Who would think "ph" sounded like "fu". So take the p out of "ph" and replace it with "c" and it should sound like "ch". It should all sound like "Fur Khleesh". Does that make sense? Oh the lights did go off last night for an hour due to gales and heavy rain. An evening by tilly and candle light. It evokes wonderful memories. Winter has truly arrived and snow flurries forcast for the weekend.
Fir Chlis from Isle of Lewis
It does indeed make sense...why am I so irresistably drawn to 'All fur kleesh and nae drawers?' It must be the weegie in my typist... You should start an internet Gaelic class for idiots and beginners.
Flying Cat from Fir Chlis' fonetical dikshonry
Heard the other day that they were putting green lights on oilplatforms, in order not to distract the birds. Maybe it's an idea to put green streetlights on Lewis?
Arnish Lighthouse from Stornoway
Anything green meets my approval...
mjc from NM,USA
Brassicas?
Flying Cat from windylights
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