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My experience isn’t that uncommon, Michelle’s story confirms: as of 2016, 80 per cent of North Americans couldn’t see the Milky Way. Since then, the night sky has become even more saturated by artificial light — about twice as bright as it was eight years ago. It’s a type of environmental degradation that’s not as obvious, but light pollution impacts creatures like bats, sea turtles, songbirds — and humans, too.
For the Huu-ay-aht, everything is connected. It’s why the First Nation is on a mission to protect its stars, and even developing a dark sky festival — which it hopes will bolster economic development, preserve astronomical traditions and draw attention to our endangered, irreplaceable view of the stars.
“Artificial lighting is not an oil spill or a felled tree,” Michelle writes. “Unlike other forms of environmental devastation, we can undo much of it with the flick of a switch. It might not be so simple as that, but it’s possible to restore some of what we’ve lost, and protect what we still have.”
I hope you’ll spend some time reading Michelle’s feature this holiday season.
Take care and go stargaze,
Karan Saxena
Audience engagement editor
P.S. We’re so close to our goal of raising $200,000 this December, which will help us keep telling stories about the natural world in Canada (and the skies) that you won’t find anywhere else. Will you chip in what you can this holiday season?
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