[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

(meteorobs) Letter to Reader's Digest

Here is a letter I recently wrote to Reader's Digest.  Perhaps some of you also saw the Melville article . . .

ATT: You Said It, Reader's Digest

       The short article by Greg Melville on stargazing that appeared in your August issue ("See Tonight's Star-Studded Show," page 191) unfortunately failed to mention an increasing problem for stargazers both young and old: light pollution. Literally hundreds upon millions of precious watts are wasted each year because poorly designed streetlamps send a portion of their light into the sky. Over the past two decades, the increase in this ubiquitous, overbright, garish lighting has so polluted our nighttime environment that a majority of the current generation has never seen the Milky Way. 

    Unfortunately, having a "simple sky guide" as Mr. Melville suggests - like H.A. Rey's constellation book - will do no good if you can't see the stars and constellations thanks to bright lights. The "60 streaks per hour" that Mr. Melville quoted for the August Perseid shower probably will amount to just a fraction of that figure for most folks who must compete with the perpetual light blight that hangs over most of our towns and cities. 

    Fortunately, there is an organization that is trying to fight light pollution: The International Dark Sky Association (IDA).  Certainly their URL ( www.darksky.org ) should also have been given a mention in Mr. Melville's piece. Sadly, if light pollution is allowed to continue to proliferate we ultimately will lose our view of the night sky - the next endangered natural resource.  Indeed, a generation from now, if the current siege of "light blight" goes unchecked, seeing the stars will be reduced to a museum rendition, with your local planetarium becoming our children's only view of the universe.

-- Joe Rao
   Meteorologist
   News 12 Westchester
   6 Executive Plaza
   Yonkers, NY, 10701

A week later, the Digest replied:

From: Janice_Leary@ReadersDigest.com
Importance: High
X-Priority: 1 (High)
Subject: Reader's Digest letters
To: jrao@news12.com

Dear Mr. Rao:

I am an editor at Reader's Digest magazine writing in regard to the letter
that you sent to us recently regarding the article, "Tonight's Star-Studded
Show." We are considering including your comments in our letters-to
the-editor column and want to clarify one point.

In your letter, you say that "a majority of the current generation has
never seen the Milky Way." By current generation, do you mean young people?

Please send your reply to janice_leary@readersdigest.com by Monday, Aug.
12. And thank you for writing to us.

Sincerely,

Janice Leary
Senior Associate Editor/Research 
Editorial Research Dept., Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest Road, Pleasantville, N.Y. 10570


       NOTE: Spoke to Ms. Leary on the phone Thursday afternoon . . . my letter is tentatively set to appear in the October 2002 issue.

-- joe rao
Follow-Ups: