Light pollution
Eighty percent of North Americans and 60% of Europeans can no longer see the Milky Way, which amounts to nearly 1 billion people.
What we have on the Big Island is more precious than residents realize. Unless we protect it, it will disappear as it has on Oahu and on parts of Maui.
The county regulates street lights for the sake of the astronomers, but there is nothing that regulates businesses or residents, and as the population grows, so will light pollution.
The stars, and our connection to them, is a cultural heritage for all of us, as humanity’s link to the night has been stitched into the history of mankind. In the span of one human lifetime, we have lost what has been part of our experience for hundreds of thousands of lifetimes.
I live in a neighborhood where a person from the mainland bought the house across the street, with no intention to live there. It is a vacation rental, and the lights are on all night, with no regard of the impact it has on the neighbors, the night pollinators or nocturnal wildlife, like the owls.
Light trespass is as much an invasion as sound or physical trespass, and those of you reading this most likely have a similar experience.
Nobody should have the right to shine their light into your house. Unless we on the Big Island take a stand, expect our view of the stars to disappear. And for those who think, “My lights keep me safe from crime,” if that was the case, there would never be crime during the daylight hours. Motion sensors, warm amber lighting, lights pointed downward and only on as needed protects the night sky.
Remember that a light on with nobody using it is no different than your oven on with no food in it.
Michael Marlin
Pahoa
‘Stop bombing’ PTA
Hawaii is one of the most militarized places on the planet. It is home to the U.S. Indo-Pacific nuclear war command center for more than half the Earth.
One of the most polluted military sites in Hawaii (and there are many) is the 133,000-acre Pohakuloa Training Area in the center of Hawaii Island at 6,500 feet elevation. PTA is contaminated by a wide range of military toxins from 75 years of military bombing.
The toxins include depleted uranium radiation, perchlorate from rockets and munitions, PFAS (a group of chemicals), lead, etc. Continued bombing of Pohakuloa (upwards of 14 million live rounds annually) spreads military toxins around the island and beyond, polluting air, water and soil. Whatever is done mauka, eventually comes makai.
Is there any elected official at the county, state or federal level who has the moral courage to stand up and say, “Stop bombing Pohakuloa” and begin the process of demilitarizing Hawaii?
Now that’s the kind of leadership we need in the midst of a global pandemic and the growing threat of a climate catastrophe and nuclear war.
Spend money on health care, cleaning up the environment and waging peace, not training for more war. Who will be the first elected official to stand up to vested economic and military interests and say, “Stop bombing Pohakuloa”?
Jim Albertini
Kurtistown
