Big Lighting Is The Enemy of Dark Skies
(blitedskies.org)
©Ted H. Schaar 2020

Street lamp, Burleigh-Pilgrim Intersection Sign at Burleigh & Pilgrim
Blatant example
Burleigh-Pilgrim intersection, Brookfield, Wisconsin. Navion™ fixtures made by Cooper, part of Eaton, flood the area
with enough light to read by. Dark shadows cast by the beam, post, and sign emphasize the intense illumination. 
Waukesha County personnel told me the LED cluster in the left image above emits light equivalent to approximately 11, 100-watt
  incandescent bulbs—four of these clusters illuminate the intersection for a total of approximately 4,400 watts of incandescent light.  

No hope of seeing even bright stars above these glare-spots!

Light Polluters and Some of Their Products
 
GE logo Home Depot logo
Super Bright LEDs logo		 Phillips logo
lightpoleplus logo

GE road light
Home Depot commercial lighting		 SuperbrightLEDs exterior flood

Phillips commercial fixture		  
Light poles plus cobra head

Sadly the above is just a small sample of the terrible commercial fixtures these manufacturers and retailers sell.


Residential lighting products (below) are equally bad.

GE logo Home Depot logo Lowes logo Phillips logo Westinghouse logo

GE Yard Light		 Home Depot Bare Bulb fixture
Lowes Bare Globe		 Phillips post lamp  
Westinghouse glare beacon

 
GIANT COMPANIES ARE THE VILLAINS!
 
Light Pollution is obnoxious, rude, wasteful, and destructive.  It's hard on wildlife and ecosystems, and across America and around the world people are prevented from seeing our glorious Cosmos. 

Poorly designed artificial illumination glaring in all directions is the cause.

General Electric, Westinghouse, and other corporations design, build, and sell poor, light-polluting fixtures even though they know the devastating impact glare has on our night skies.  Governments, as in the cases of the State of Wisconsin and Waukesha County, are complicit. 

We need to take Big Lighting to task.

        —First, manufacturers must cease producing, promoting, and selling non-shielded fixtures; and

        —Second, they must pay for remedial action to fix all the bad fixtures they’ve already sold.

A tall order?  Yes! But after making billions, maybe trillions, with their light-polluting products, it’s time they make amends.

Want to help hold them accountable?  

Start by sending images of polluting exterior lighting to ted@blitedskies.org.  Specify where the offensive fixture is located and its manufacturer.  I'll create a Wall of Shame sub-page and perhaps over time we can embarrass the industry into taking responsibility. 

It's worth a try. 

If you have ideas that might lead to reduced light pollution or want to help in other ways, please e-mail ted@blitedskies.org.

                                                                                                  International Dark-Sky Association

I was a member for years, but the group seems unwilling to take on Big Lighting.  Home Depot and other villains have even sponsored some of IDA's work.  Rather than offering financial support, Home Depot could make a huge difference by selling only dark-sky friendly products and publicizing its stand.  That would be major and the beginning of the solution! 
 
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