NYT 10/7/08:

"A Little Less Light"

"It is almost impossible for most of us to imagine
the time, long before the invention of the light
bulb, when the stars were bright enough to cast
shadows. Nobody wants to go back to dark
alleyways, but we also know that man-made light
can pollute as well as illuminate.

Scientists are only now studying how perpetual
twilight affects the lives of birds and other
animals, but there is no doubt that a clear,
starry night has become a diminishing human pleasure.

Huge, electrified cities spread their nighttime
glow for miles. On a 9-point scale ‹ with 1 being
a truly dark night ‹ New York City ranks as a 9
and most suburbs seldom reach below a 5. Light is
so pervasive that during a blackout in Los
Angeles, some residents became alarmed at a
liquidlike substance that had taken over the sky.
It was, of course, the Milky Way."

Full article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/opinion/07tue4.html