I haven’t been asked this question since I was a kid and because I am now a competent woman in my twenties, I feel as though the answer should be “No, of course not.” It is easy to be fearless in the comforts of daylight, but would your answer change if you were helpless to the dark? I thought there was no better way to test my fears while enjoying a summer night than to spend it on the beach. I left the flashlights at home and traveled to a familiar location outside of Yachats, OR.
The dark is a scary place with an ever-changing address. Sometimes it’s the relaxing break we find between the sheets of our beds after a long day. Sometimes it’s a romantic getaway, where we share intimate embraces in the shadows of anonymity. But sometimes it is the home to our worst nightmares, which project themselves on the black screen shielding us from our understanding of reality.
I am currently on a mission to better understand darkness. Historically, humans have been classified as diurnal creatures that end their day at the arrival of night due to lack of sight and need for rest. As our day ended, species more adapted to endure the dark took over, such as such as crickets, coyotes, and owls. However, as we have evolved so have our abilities to fend off the darkness.
Light is no longer only found in the sky in the form of a moon or sun. We’ve tamed these glowing wavelengths into the convenience of a bulb and now are able to call upon light at the flip of switch - in every room of your house and along almost every street that you walk. Light has literally lit up our world.
This lifestyle change has allowed for us to work into the night and venture into the world with less fear. On this map you can see the areas of our world that no longer experience a true darkness. From this map, Yachats, OR does not appear to emit a large amount of pollution compared to its neighboring coastal cities (Florence, Newport).
Artificial lights become scattered in our atmosphere creating an artificial skyglow. This glow disrupts natural nighttime landscapes, ultimately upsetting nocturnal-diurnal balance that wildlife ecosystems rely upon. Can you imagine if all your forms of time tracking (clocks, phone, sky) were no longer consistent and you were unable to tell if it was night or day? You would sleep at inopportune times and possibly miss work or arrive at the bank after it’s already closed. This inability to detect true darkness is throwing off the nocturnal activities organisms rely on to forage, migrate, reproduce, or avoid predation.
To be honest, until I began my research this summer I had not been very aware of light as a form of pollution. Therefore, in addition to assisting in research on stream ecosystems I have decided to travel around Oregon and learn about how aware the public is on this matter. I want to understand why we use the types and amount of light that we do, as well as investigate how the public feels about the possible solutions researchers suggest for remedying the effects of light pollution.
I chose a poor night to brave the dark on the beaches of Yachats because we were honored with a full moon. While having coffee in the Green Salmon I interviewed two men (Andrew and Reece), both agreed that I had picked a poor night and that Yachats remained very dark due to being shadowed by the mountains and trees, as well as having a limited number of street lights. However, both were aware of how big of problem light pollution was in the larger metropolitan areas. Reece spoke very comfortably about living a good distance away from these glowing cities and was a hardworking man that took advantage of the daylight. Andrew explained that his lifestyle (gardening, reading, and cooking) did not largely revolve around artificial light and expressed a fondness for candles. Neither considered themselves to be very dependent on artificial light and believed that they would not struggle in a world where it was not present.
These men were not afraid of the dark and that night I wasn’t either because I could easily see up and down the beach without any issue. Therefore, I indulged in the warmth of a fire and watched the lights of passing ships, contemplating how different my night would be had I been sleeping in a city, such as Portland. Andrew an authentic Portlander with his coffee, book, and hipster glasses stated that he felt fairly safe venturing in to Portland at night, but was aware that he was saying this as a tall, white man. It made me wonder if I, as a short Latina woman would feel safe strolling through Portland at night, especially in zones where street lights couldn’t reach. I will be headed there soon to investigate how lights play a factor in the nightlife and to question how safe Portlanders would feel without all the lights that make their city to glow.