The City Dark

"Chad Moore, of the National Parks Service, reminds us, When we add light to the environment, that has the potential to disrupt habitat, just like running a bulldozer over the landscape can. Darkness is a necessary habitat for nocturnal animals, so what's the habitat for people?" (qtd. in City Dark)

 

Light pollution produces these destructive consequences. Every living thing depends on the Earth's regular rhythm of day and night to manage internal cycles. Some animals depend on this dark source to search for food and mate. But, us as human beings do not worry about how other living organisms will adapt to our convenience.

 When reading this quote you have to stop and think about how selfish we look, but also how we are harming the life of other living organisms. Light pollution is harming the lives of animals such as birds, sea turtles and even plants.  For example, birds use the moonlight and stars as a way of navigating through the night skies, but with brightly- lighten cities they become disoriented and crash into these brightly- lighten buildings. Another example, some plants bloom at night but with the excessive use of lights, prevents this from happening.

As seen in the documentary light pollution also endangers sea turtles. Sea turtles are attracted to light. Newly born sea turtles need the dark sky to find their way towards the sea, but because of artificial light behind the beach, they end up heading towards the cities instead of the sea.

Animals that have to avoid predators, such as frogs, or snakes, constrain their movements under a full moon, and hunt on moonless night, others search for food after dark, but because of high use of lights, they never get to see that darkness they wait for.

The things that we find so convenience in our daily lives have now token a toll on other organisms. I feel as though, we do not worry about things unless they affect us. So let me state, not only are animals and plants affected by light pollution, but we as human beings are. Light pollution (Indoor lights and outdoor) affect our melatonin level which can lead to cancer. Indoor and outdoor light sources affect our basic cycle within our bodies.

With that being said, “Are we actually benefiting from our excess use of light source?” Not really, if you ask me. Cancer is not beneficial for one’s health.

The sad part about this whole thing is that this type of pollution continues to spread and intensify in countries throughout the world, and many people remain unaware of its negative impact. We have grown to enjoy the things ease our living, but can cause potential harm to not just animals, but us too.

By turning off unnecessary lighting, closing your blinds while lights are on, or turning off the television before you go to bed, you are making difference. With a few cut backs, and new designs, we can put an end to light pollution, and preserve our planet.

Wait, Where's the Sky!!!!!!

     About three nights ago my boyfriend and I went on to his back porch to take a look at the night sky. There was barely anything to see, besides a blank canvas.  We literally could count every star that was visible from our sight, and believe me there wasn’t many. I was quite shock because back at home in the islands, the sky would normally be lit, with little diamonds that cluttered the night sky.

I remember as a little girl walking with my mom to the beach, where we would look up at the night sky trying to count every little diamond as she would say. The sky was so beautiful and lit. The stars were so bright and made my mom and I look small compared to them.  I felt as though the night sky complemented the beach each time we visited.

The night sky in Houston has nothing on the night sky back home.  The night sky here in Houston projects nothing but a gloomy sky. It’s as though the sky is wrapped in this foggy plastic cover, where you can barely get a good view of its true beauty. This foggy plastic cover would be referred by astrologist as light pollution.

I find it sad that because of the light pollution here in Houston new cannot view the true beauty of the night sky.  We are unable to see the sky with our own eyes, which is sad. I feel as a city we should do something about this.  With light pollution here, people who are interested in astronomy will not be able benefit.  Children cannot go in their backyard and actually witness one of nature’s beautiful sights for themselves.

I’m sure I am not the only one who is troubled by this, and if I am the only one who is concerned that is sad.  We need to raise the awareness, to help reduce light pollution. Like seriously, who finds staring at a blank sky fascinating, I sure don’t. If we don’t do something about this situation now, the younger generation will grow up unable to see the stars that light up the night sky.

It’s kind of funny how this week blog topic was a huge eye-opener to me. It raised my awareness on how we as human can find comfort in the things we need such as light, but also how we fail to see how simple things go disappearing right before our eyes. I never noticed that there was not stars in the sky until told to do so.  Sad I know, but I’m sure I am not the only one. I them thought about how my mom would take me out to look at the sky as a little girl, and how infatuated I was with the night sky too now, where you can only get a view of darkness.  Those little diamonds that once use to light up the night sky have now slowly began to vanish before our eyes.

Love Spoken In An Unusual Way

Majority of poems are about love or the harsh after taste of a relationship which was once sweet, to a relationship gone bitter. Carol Ann Duffy's poem "Valentines" and Julie Sheehan's poem "Hate", both express love.

When you first take a look at Julie Sheehan's poem "Hate", you would assume that the poem is about hate, but instead the poem is about love. The poem given from a woman's perspective. She goes into a great depth of details, attempting to make the readers and herself feel as though she hates this person she speaks about. When you clearly get the sense that this a woman that is obsessed with this person she speaks about. For example, she states " Everything about me hates everything about you… The history of this key-chain hates you… My aorta hates you.  Also my ancestors… Layers of hate, a parfait.”  Here she gives a detailed list of hate which truly  symbolizes how she constantly thinks of him, and sees him in every detail of her life. Another example that's give strong proof of this is when she goes on by saying, "My lungs, duplicitous twins, expand with the utter validity of my hate, which can never have enough of you.”  Shes admitting that her every breath is a thought of him. You get the sense that she  fears the power of this love, and would prefer to think of it as hate. 

Opposed to Julie Sheehan's poem "Hate", Carol Ann Duffy poem "Valentines", describes the love between two people and how one uses an onions to represent the love they share. She also goes on by using the scent of an onion to describe if one was to leave the relationship, the lethal scent of an onion will for ever be cling to them, no matter if new love was to be found. In this poem She rejects the gifts typically associated with Valentine’s Day, such as ‘red-rose’, ‘satin cloth’, ‘cute card’, ‘kissogram’ but by bringing an ‘Onion’ as a gift which we find in the second line as “I give you an onion”.This poem symbolizes how real love is. The different layers of the onion are like the layers of someone’s personality. Beauty is just skin deep, but discovery of true character deepens one’s love. Carol describes a beautiful idea that true love is not based on the color of the skin or appearance, but in discovering the true personality of the other.

The two poems share the theme of love, Duffy's poem tone was a bit more aggressive than Sheehan's, whose poem was more in the tone of an obsessed woman. I feel that unlike Sheehan's poem, Duffy's poem can be seen from both a females and males perspective, but the male perspective more seldom. Both poems have an extensive use of negative language. 

I really enjoyed both poems and how the authors of these poems describe love in such different styles. I feel like both poets succeeded when it came to developing a connection with the poem.