Download Earth Hour in Wheatland County

Published March 26, 2014 in the Strathmore Standard
Earth Hour is 8:30 to 9:30 pm on Saturday March 29, but the Lessons Last Year Round
Highlighting a broad range of environmental issues, Earth Hour was started as a lights-off event in
Sydney, Australia in 2007. The World Wildlife Fund has since grown this event to engage more than 7000
cities and towns worldwide. The primary message is one of conservation. Turning off the lights for one
hour in the evening is designed to reinforce the idea that we don’t always need to be using electricity;
that we can function quite nicely without constantly consuming resources. Although the one hour
period is symbolic, Earth Hour’s activity should make us ask the question, “Do we really need all of these
lights turned on during the rest of the year?” Or, perhaps, a slightly different question, “What is the best
way for me to use light at night?”
Though the message of Earth Hour is one of conservation and energy use, the image of an unlit light
bulb easily translates into a message against light pollution, which transcends energy use to include
issues of safety, and environmental degradation.
For it turns out that artificial light is not the benign benefactor of nocturnal activity. In many cases,
poorly implemented lighting systems reduce visibility through glare and also disrupt the body clock
known as the circadian rhythm. In 2009, the American Medical Association declared support for light
pollution reduction efforts and advocated for non-glare lighting, citing studies on glare and visibility,
disruption of human and animal circadian rhythms, depressed immune systems, and an increase in
certain cancer types.
As you contemplate Earth Hour, I urge you to think about the increased instances of nocturnal lighting in
Strathmore and in the surrounding Wheatland County. For example, poorly-designed and installed
lighting systems characterize the large Federated Co-operatives Limited petroleum terminal west of
Carseland. It is widely known that glare always reduces visibility, and that site’s safety will suffer under
the onslaught of badly-shielded lamps there. Worse, the glare trespasses onto public lands, the
roadways adjacent to that facility. Municipalities in Canada minimize their potential liabilities around
roadway lighting by following recognized guidelines, usually from the Illuminating Engineering Society of
North America. In situations like the Co-op facility, Wheatland County has essentially ceded control over
public roadway lighting to that company. Since the illumination there does not meet the roadway
lighting guidelines, both the County and the facility owner may now be held liable in any accident where
lighting was a contributing factor.
It is not just the petroleum terminal that creates a roadway hazard and a potential legal liability with
poor lighting practices in that region, a newly built set of grain bins nearby has lighting directed off
property and into drivers’ eyes and the large Agrium / Orica complex also trespasses light onto public
roadways.
Even in the Trans-Canada Highway commercial zone, where Wheatland County Land Use Bylaw
stipulates “[l]ighting fixtures and layout should be in conformity with night sky principals outlined by
International Dark Sky Association”, both developments approved under those rules have some non-
compliant lighting. Readers might wonder why sites like these must conform to "dark sky" principles.
While these words might connote an astronomical principle, lighting of this type promotes a respectful
relationship between a lit work site and neighbouring lands by reducing glare, light trespass and the hot
spots that over-lighting commonly creates.
Roland Dechesne
Box 495
Carseland, Ab