There is a somewhat interesting article on Orlando this month in National Geographic. It’s really not as bad to live here as the article makes it seem !
http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0703/feature4/index.html
There is this one picture from the article that is from a development about a mile away from our home.
These lights turn on every evening and light up our otherwise dark sky. Why the builder didn’t use directional ‘dark sky’ lighting is beyond me. The poor people who live here eventually will have horrible, bright orange light shining in their houses. On the second floor as well. There will be no escape. Big thumbs down to Trans Eastern builders! At least once it’s done the buildings will keep the glare contained from the surrounding area. Unfortunately even then it will send loads of light pollution upwards.
Tim, I read that National Geographic article a few weeks ago. One objection (I have a couple) I have is lumping anything that remotely follows a Disney-type business model as purely materialistic, and therefore wrong. I also think that the author is drawing too much of a dichotomy where maybe there should be more of a continuum- anti-materialistic Buddhism is not the answer, either. We were meant to live in this world.
An architect friend of mine puts it this way: “a person’s reaction to the sinful environment and fallen world around them can be either 1) you understand the ugliness and you reject it, or 2) you see the the ugliness and you try to climb to the top of it so that it no longer affects you.”