[spacepaul]

Hi Everyone,
I have long had an interest in astronomy and used to help out at a local observatory.
As many of you probably appreciate, living in a big city is not much fun if you like a dark night sky for viewing the stars. Sadly, I was reminded of this tonight when I noticed for the first time new floodlights installed in a carpark across the road from where I live. Clearly, they are overkill for this small carpark which already had dimmer lighting that was perfectly adequate at night. I suppose they were installed to give workers there a sense of security at night. But there was obviously no consideration for minimising light pollution. Indeed, it seems that brighter is better these days.
What, if anything, is being done to lobby local or state governments about this problem? Are dark night skies going to be lost for future generations? It seems like there's a lot of complacency about this issue because all governments care about is turning night into day in urban areas to please the public that they are improving night security as well as making our cities like every other world city. Given the rapid pace of urbanisation, it won't be long before we lose the beauty of enjoying a dark night sky. That seems to be it! I wish it was more than the astronomical community that cared about this problem. It seems that other forms of pollution take priority, but light pollution is not high on any politician's agenda.
-Paul