The city of Vienna offers very interesting and well-organized public lectures, held in the very beautiful ceremonial hall of City Hall, and I noticed at some point, with some surprise, that I have become not a lady who lunches but a lady who goes to lectures.
The topic this evening is artificial light and its impact on us and the natural world. Of course there are benefits like increased security, but the cost is quite high. Not only can it be literally fatal for animals — birds, for example, that at night usually navigate by the light of the moon, lose their way and fly into buildings — but it’s not very healthy for us either. Street lights can upset our circadian rhythms, measurably disturb the length and quality of our sleep, and are correlated to depression, among other health problems.
Luckily, there are things we can do. As the speaker, Florian Stuker, put it, this is literally an environmental challenge with an off switch. 😉 Much of what he said wasn’t new to me (Vienna has been changing the streetlamps so that they still provide enough light for safety but don’t shine quite so brightly and diffusely). What was new was the idea that there are dark zones, one in a national park in Austria, so that we can all rediscover what a natural night looks like. My next holiday, I think.
An evening well spent, I feel.
ecbinvienna 