IN SEARCH OF DARK SKIES
Sarah Klein had always wanted to see the Milky Way. Last winter, she finally drove five hours to a dark-sky park in the mountains, where there are no streetlights at all. "I really needed to go," she said. "When I was a girl, I could see thousands of stars from my grandmother's village. Today the sky above it is orange with city lights. I felt that this park was the only place where I could see that sky again."(lines 1–5)
Clear night skies are disappearing in many parts of the world. Because of artificial light from streets, buildings and advertisements, the sky over a big city now shows only a few dozen stars. The problem affects nature as well. Young sea turtles, for example, are attracted by the lights of beach hotels and crawl away from the sea. And in many towns, people leave lights on all night because they believe it keeps their streets safe.(lines 6–10)
Nowadays, there are more than 200 official dark-sky parks around the world. However, keeping them dark is not easy. For example, new houses and roads are often built close to the parks, and they bring more streetlights with them. Furthermore, light from nearby cities often fills the sky. This is bad news for the animals in the parks, since many owls and bats can hunt only in complete darkness.(lines 11–15)
To protect the darkness, rangers ask visitors to follow a few simple rules. "For example, visitors should bring a flashlight that gives red light, because red light doesn't spoil night vision," says park ranger Tom Hughes. "In addition, they should arrive before sunset. However, they must not use white flashlights or take photos with a flash, and they must never leave their car lights on."(lines 16–19)
Many rangers in dark-sky parks also teach visitors about the stars and about the problem of light pollution. They hope that visitors will start to protect the night sky in their own towns. "Some visitors put covers on their garden lamps so that the light shines only downwards," says Hughes. "Others ask their town councils to turn off streetlights late at night, when the streets are empty. Some teachers even bring their classes here to show them a sky they have never seen before. I hope that one day, children everywhere will be able to see the Milky Way from their own homes."(lines 20–26)