This Week on “The Morning Show: Dark Skies with Nancy Pau and Madelyn Kaplin
September 4, 2024September 4, 2024
This week I have the pleasure of talking with Nancy Pau, a Founding Member of West Newbury Wild and Native, and Madelyn Kaplin, an American Conservation Experience Shorebird and Visitor Services Member of the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, about the growing international Dark Skies movement, which aims to educate the public about the problem of light pollution in densely populated areas, and the ways in which disrupted light/dark and sleep/wake cycles impact humans and wildlife in harmful ways.
For humans, high levels of artificial light at night can, for example, contribute to sleep disorders. For wildlife, light pollution can interfere with the navigation cues of migratory species that travel at night.
Nancy and Madelyn will discuss effective steps that towns, communities, and individuals can take to reduce light pollution and restore dark skies. They will discuss how dark skies benefit humans for medical, cultural, and scientific reasons, as well as the ways dark skies improve the safety and survival of migratory birds, pollinators, sea turtles, and mammals.
