Keep The Porch Light On ....or not?

 For years, since 1980 or so, we, the neighbors, if you can call us that ‘cause we live so far away from each other, relatively; well…..we helped each other build our houses some and raised our children and horses and dogs together and fell in love with the land in unison; the land and the beauty around us was and is the “great leveler” of our differences, be they political or some other diversity….well, we neighbors have been threatening to “shoot out” ______’s personal streetlight.  That is quite a statement to make and so it begs the question of : why?  I will try to make it clear somehow; shed some “light” on the subject (read as in flashlight…) 

Despite our basic fear of the dark, there is another aspect that bears understanding, which is that lights often glare in our eyes and cause discomfort.  When we are talking in the parlance of these issues, we talk about the viewshed as the basic  common item of interest.  Anything that interferes with the viewshed, or that which we look at, or “pollutes” the charm of the landscape, be it dusk, dawn or the other variations of light quality and quantity….is, in fact, a detriment to our quality of life.  Some of these things shock us into wanting to “shoot” them  out and get rid of the offender.  When the offense adds up by having more and more of them, then you are no longer, for many practical purposes, nestling in the charms of the country; you have brought the city out here with you, often unbeknownst to yourself.  The phenomenon happens in cities in the southwest, like Phoenix, where the people are trying to get away from their allergies of the Midwest of East  but just can’t help but grab that Colorado River water and irrigate and plant…….more flowering plants and trees; bringing, ironically, back to their lives the things they were trying to get rid of.  This is the case with light pollution. 

I had read somewhere something written by  a astonomer.  He or she stated that the amount of light that people have seen through telescopes for all these centuries till now is, actually, measured in lumens or whatever, less than the amount of light that can be put out by a flashlight for a few seconds.  Despite the need to factcheck this is speaks great volumes on the light that is constantly competing with the night skies.

Why do we care?  It all depends on our sensitivities and sensibilities.  In terms of the viewshed, the light from a lone high wattage, uncovered porch light begins to make it so we cannot view the glory of the stars at night or see that sublime line of the mesa as it greets the sky.  We must avert our eyes and in one way  or another we are forced to stare at the light (or have it “stare” at us) all night long.  Put in another way, it is extreme for not much good reason.  It is like the neighbors’ dogs barking all night; they may be used to it but it is, like cigarette smoke, putting to test their right to do something with our right to be left alone.  It tests their “need” for a sense of security and convenience with the greater “need” to keep what we bought and paid for to come out here.  Some things fly in the face of history and reality as we “knew” it, such as the  two lights up on the mesa line now, far away, but perched, for a few years now, on the edge of the mesa.  You would think this is not such a big deal, really, but think of it; there is a line of unspoiled Landscape  of Glorietta/Rowe Mesa that can be seen from Galisteo, past the Lamy turnoff, going north and then past Eldorado and along the Old Las Vegas Highway and up Glorietta Pass and down that long slope to Las Vegas and now, from Galisteo to Las Vegas, these are the only lights (read break and “pollution” of the “viewshed”) that can be seen in that, perhaps, 75 mile run.  Does one person have the right to change that sublime beauty?  I really don’t know, but it does make one wonder.  One could try to reframe it like I did with the constant din of traffic that dominated my friends property near I25 and pretend the vehicles going by are like the ocean with waves constantly coursing and crashing on the beach somewhere.  After a while, though, it just feels like what it is.  Turn it off, por favor.