this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023

58 points (96.8% liked)

Solarpunk Urbanism

1836 readers

2 users here now

A community to discuss solarpunk and other new and alternative urbanisms that seek to break away from our currently ecologically destructive urbanisms.

Henri Lefebvre, The Right to the City — In brief, the right to the city is the right to the production of a city. The labor of a worker is the source of most of the value of a commodity that is expropriated by the owner. The worker, therefore, has a right to benefit from that value denied to them. In the same way, the urban citizen produces and reproduces the city through their own daily actions. However, the the city is expropriated from the urbanite by the rich and the state. The right to the city is therefore the right to appropriate the city by and for those who make and remake it.

Checkout these related communities:

!15minutecity@slrpnk.net

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Light pollution is the easiest pollution to fix — so why aren't we doing it? "If we can't do this to simply not waste light... then we will have failed the fundamental test of progress and change i... (www.salon.com)

submitted 1 year ago by cerement to c/urbanism

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

top 15 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] sndrtj@feddit.nl 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I live in one of the most light-polluted areas in the world. Even Orion is hard to pick out, and even lunar eclipses visibly more muted than elsewhere.

The main source of the worst pollution is not street lights. Instead, it's industrial pollution coming from one of the largest collections of greenhouses worldwide a couple km. Many of them have growlights on all night long. On an overcast night, the sky is orange and purple - orange is the older technology with modern leds being purple.

That said, i am hopeful for the future here. Between 2012 and 2018 the brightest areas have already become a little less bright. Let's hope that trend continues.

[–] schmorpel 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh shit, it's that 'eco-friendly' agriculture of the future, is it? I guess you are from NL? I remember, from when I was little, my dad cursing about 'holländische Gewächshaustomaten' just to buy equally horrible tomatoes from Spain ...

I've noticed the same trend in PT. From 2001 to 2012, lights being added to the surrounding hills. Then they started switching off every second lamp, during Covid possibly more. Let's hope for some dark, quiet times.

[–] sndrtj@feddit.nl 2 points 1 year ago

Indeed, I live in The Hague, just a short hop from the Westland (where all the tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers are from). At least I can say I can get very local produce if I go the supermarket 😅.

Even the "water bombs" (as we call them here) situation is improving. There are some really interesting new producers that actually focus on flavor instead of yield. The price naturally is high, but I'm enjoying Dutch tomatoes for the first time ever.

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Because dark streets mean more muggings, more burglaries, and more car accidents.

Cities are slowly adding “blinders” to streetlights, and homes are switching to motion activated lights — but this will take time because most of it is only replaced when the previous fixture fails.

[–] cerement 6 points 1 year ago

the connection between bright light and lack of crime has been pretty thoroughly debunked, criminals like to see what they’re doing just as much as anyone else – Paul Bogard, The End of Night (2013)

[–] BruceTwarzen@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I live in one of the safest part of the planet and people lost their shit when my town turned off every other street light. Not even on the main street, just the side street. They always talk about how unsafe it is and their children will die on the streets with no light. I walk my dog a lot at night and i have yet to see someone out on the streets, especially children who apparently roam around in the middle of the night.

[–] owler_nook@c.im 5 points 1 year ago

@BruceTwarzen @cerement @reddig33 Perceived safety is an important consideration, especially if it disproportionately affects specific groups.

[–] blazera@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

why they talking about wasting light like its a finite resource?

[–] itchick2014@midwest.social 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wasted light in this context is light that is not serving a purpose. For instance in my neighborhood there is a house that has security lights that shine well beyond their property lines and are triggered on sensor from across the street movement. These lights also illuminate upwards which provides no benefit. Simply controlling where light shines if you must have it is a good step to being a good neighbor and is better for nature as well.

[–] blazera@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

unwanted light might be a better description

[–] itchick2014@midwest.social 7 points 1 year ago

Oh I agree. Just was trying to provide how I interpreted the article.

[–] schmorpel 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But it IS a finite resource. To produce light, you need energy. Even if you use renewables, you can only cover so much area of the planet with solar panels and wind generators. In a world run on electricity that is produced by limited means, we should consider where we want to use each kWh ('bag of electricity'). Do you really want to render that image? Have that status light on all day? It's small things, but they do add up.

[–] blazera@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Youre underestimating either how much electricity we can generate, or how efficient lights are nowadays. Way more energy is going into heating applications.

[–] schmorpel 2 points 1 year ago

So just because more harm is done with heating we shouldn't care about this waste? Small differences also make a difference, especially if the wasted light does more harm than good. If your roof leaks in two places you don't just go a fix the bigger leak.

[–] 1chemistdown@kbin.social -2 points 1 year ago

Don’t worry, once North Korea realizes they can make a fortune off star gazing tourism we’ll all enjoy viewing an unperturbed night sky.

load more comments