Pullback clinicians tend to see people who have trouble in fact, there is the clinicians illusion where we extrapolate too vigorously from the people we see in the clinic to the general universe we saw this after 9 11 the assumption that york city would be traumatized the amount of money that went into Mental Health services was astounding and wellmeaning clearly and it turns out that if you are in the tower of course, you could of had a severe psychiatric reaction but if somebody died you were vulnerable but the vast majority were upset as hell but not pathological at all people are resilient but we see the people who have trouble coping so we see an addict who does not come on their own so many do but that is not who we see or research not to say you dont command for treatment you come right away dont wait for it because all kinds of things could happen but that Natural History so i will stop on that optimistic note. Thank you. [applause] one of my most vivid memory is is the late 70s where friends in their campaign in the meadow in the canadian rockies. Really back on their mattresses outside the 10 and were warned Something Big was coming taking in this spectacular meteor shower with no interference from city lights dozens of miles away from the nearest town. Needless to say it would have forfeited much of the luster if we watched it from the city or suburb. The last words were supposed to have been more like im happy to say paul bogart is alive and well the his message is a variation of the outcry more Natural Light but to see the love affair of artificial lighting causes us to miss he has traveled all over the world looking for clean view to have in all its glory the editor of the anthologys let there be light and searching for darkness in the age of artificial light when not on the road he teaches writing in harrisburg virginia with the National Book festival being held indoors this year he will have to make the best of it today. Please welcome paul bogard. Thank you for that introduction. I was excited to be invited to the National Book festival and also presenting at the exact same time i got to see him earlier so that was good. The end of night is a book of stories i make the disclaimer at the beginning i am not a scientist the lover of science. A storyteller and english professor. I have always loved nighttime. I grew up in minneapolis we still have a cabin in the northern part of the state so i grew up every summer going to this cavan going out onto the dock benders of milky way and this sky that was a normal part of my life when i finally got around to learning the constellations after college i quickly realized i could not see all the consolations i was supposed to see we lost so many because of the light in the sky in realize how important it was and how important darkness is for so many reasons for life on earth important culturally culturally, spiritually and to our physical health and the health of the ecosystem but just so important so i came up with this book a deal with a wonderful journey going from the brightest places like las vegas sort times square. [laughter] it is ironic how often i face blinding light. [laughter] o laydown to our darkest places like death valley and the path follows inserts with chapter nine in works its way down to chapter one to follow the scale and is named after an amateur astronomer who came up with this scale to link levels of darkness because he was tired of those younger astronomers to say you have to come now it is so dark he would it get out there and it was not that dark and he realized those under astronomers had never experienced real darkness like he grew up bin in the 40s and 50s. It was not that long ago but i will surely revealing slide that shows you how rapidly we have lost real darkness in this country. Run would like to do is talk about the book and show images that goes well with imagery of read brief passages in the time for questions because this is an issue that touches it is one that we can do something about so readily in our control so the end of night is a book of stories and one of the first that i tell is upper new york state a wonderful writer of astronomy and he is big and gregarious and enjoy is writing about astronomy with a sense of humor that is not the easiest thing to do but he said the favorite column he had ever written was all the dumb questions he had been announced over the years about astronomy. And he called this article the s in science and he said it is hard to top if a Solar Eclipse is so dangerous then why do we have it . [laughter] does mars have a son like our son . [laughter] so we got to talking about why people ask questions like that. We were discussing the way so Many Americans all around the world living in cities have lost a firsthand experience with the night sky and night in general and i wanted to share with bob why was writing the book what inspired me so i told him the story when i was 81 years after high school backpacking in europe i will read a brief passage in the book. The most beautiful starry night i had never seen as more than 20 years ago when i was backpacking through europe i traveled to spain and morocco at the end of the sahara to where nomadic tribes come to barter and trade when i look on a map i can no longer find. One night i woke and walked out to a snowstorm. But not the us know i was used to in minnesota or anywhere else standing in wearing flipflops and shorts ill let a storm of stars swirling around me. I remember no lights but i remember the sense of being lit by starlight to see the ground that the stars are floating down. I saw this guy in three dimensions in depth some much further way the milky way so defined it is called that structure. I remember stars from one horizon to another i had seen the severed go ahead toward the poverty of the children that afternoon to make this guy so plush it still seems like a dream. So much was right every day experiencing something new felt opened the way the world had breathtaking beauty beauty standing under the moroccan sky with skin against the air and the dark and the stars come with the night oppressed its impression in a lifelong connection was sealed. When i told bob that story he said that reminds me when my brotherinlaw came to visit from manhattan then we heard her get out of the car than there was a pause before we heard a knock at the door and when my wife opened the door the first thing she said was water all those white dots in the sky . [laughter] it is one of those stories you think nobody could really say that but if you live in manhattan all your life you could Say Something like an and the reason for that is all the lights in the sky. I hope you can see this from where you are. The world at night a collection of photographs it is a Beautiful Image but light is amazing and i am not here to say we should not have light the issue is how are using lights . Par rarely wasteful, irresponsible, and not thoughtful and ugly as well. Late can be beautiful like this although it is an image of waste all this coast trip to the sky a not making anyone any safer doing any good we waste 110 billion each year on artificial light out side so it is the big waste of money. You can find these images easily online. Said to find out where you live go to the dark sky finder it is a map to see how good or bad it is. Light pollution is the umbrella term underneath which of Light Pollution the first is called the sky glowed. It is the exact same street on the left a shot from 2003 a suburb of toronto and the had a power outage someone to pitcher of what it would look like an on the right is normal with that pale peach low. People down grow up thinking the clouds are white somehow but theyre only white because we like to them. This is big. This is clear light shining in all directions and far too often then neighbors lights are shining into your house last night at the holiday inn i pulled the curtains shot in my late room was still lit up i could not get it dark. The third thing that really speaks one where it their brand New Science Building this all the light shines on to the house for the students are living in had to hang black curtains in their windows to block a light it is just wasted light not doing anyone any good. This is where i live in virginia on the left hand side uc stadium waiting from the school when i teach i said widely leave the lights on like this on my long . That answer was it is good advertising for the school. [laughter] i 80 runs right through so i think they think people will say wow. [laughter] all over the country parking lots are live up if there is a car or not. Gas stations are live up in this has nothing to do with safety but getting used to stop. Gas stations and parking lots are interesting because they are 10 times as bright as 20 years ago. We have a lot of the plating like billboardbillboard s shining up into the sky. We also have lost vegas the poster child for Light Pollution but the early a. D. Billboards spreading all over the country we now have almost 5,000 growing at a rate of 600 per month they tested the incredibly bright and left them on all along. But what i would like you to notice this is too late the parking lot because they are horizontal it goes for as long as it came in through the atmosphere and the moisture with the same effect when you drive through the country and look at the horizon to see a security light clearly because it shines for miles and miles. We can light that far more effectively to everyone that and not anywhere else. Here is a photograph of europe a couple of astronomers from italy came up with the world atlas in fact, and as impressive as they are data show the true extent of Light Pollution it looks like if you get out of the city with a bright dots are that it is dark. But they want to show that spreads into the countryside. There is no place in western europe that is naturally dark you have to go to the north sea into the ocean before you get back to natural darkness. Brightest places are the cities but then work your way out from there but that spread of light is something most of us dont understand. Here is the image of the United States it is the most revealing. For images they head data from 1996 from the lefthand corner to estimate back to the 70s and the 50s to show a very darker country fail is like to guess those who remember the fifties or before. Then on the bottom rate the bottom right estimating for word. Here is another way to think of this with this abbreviated version down to the darkness areas. I mentioned before i used the structure for my book very bright down to the very dark and i talk about a different issue so we talk about the history, security history, security, ecological cost of light, heim and healthy fax and spiritually fax down into the last few chapters. The big issue is dont we need this for save your security and live in harrisburg Virginia Town of 40,000 as the top10 safest cities in the u. S. And went to home depot and was told by these lights for a safety and security were taught me to light everything up unfortunately it is this sun shield the late that goes in all directions. The effect of that if you have light in all directions and makes them harder to use the. Anyone who wants a great demonstration just looked out like a mess after the talk. [laughter] i want to illustrate the problem of clair the idea that makes us safer does not make sense. We will have liked but how will we use it . This is an image of a yard in tucson arizona as security light into the sky. Then is the exact same ski the same scene only the photographer will flocculate when he does that, you can see the bad guy standing in the offense. I will go back. You can definitely see him barely before billing ratio delight we lose the shadow and we can see better. So where every live you can see the and shielded light the light will get brighter and brighter