Planetary Claustrophobia

Pollution is a hot topic. And rightly so: we're ruining the environment at record speed, causing a human-induced mass-extinction and human-induced climate change. Today however, I want to briefly focus on another kind of human-induced pollution.

When I was a kid I loved gazing at the night sky. I grew up in the city, so it wasn't until my first vacation to some place without bright city lights, when I noticed what I've been missing; there were so many more stars! And I could actually see the much talked about, but never before seen Milky Way! When I look at the night sky nowadays I can see precious few stars. That is because only the very brightest stars can compete with our artificial outdoor lighting...

Why is this important, you may ask. Well, the honest answer is that I'm not sure. I don't know if it's a problem. It's just a feeling I have, and I'm unaware of any research that's been done about that suspicion of mine. It's just that I believe that it's important for us humans to feel connected. Not just to each other, the planet and other living creatures on it, but to the universe as well. All through our evolution we've had a close relationship with the night sky. We've always attached special meaning to the heavenly bodies, their position and trajectories. Studying the firmament has given us an understanding about time, the seasons and the ebbs and flows of life on the planet. Our ancestors saw animals, forefathers and representations of other earthly things reflected in the night sky, and attached deeper meanings to those reflections, like the zodiac signs and the phases of the Moon.

It's also because of my personal experiences, gazing into the limitlessness of space at night. When I later in life learned that the light of those countless stars took up to several billions of years to reach the retina of my eyes, it added to the wonder and amazement of an already marvelous sight. Add to that the knowledge that our planet and everything on it, you and me included, is made out of stuff that came from the innards of those stars, and.. Well... It makes me feel small and grand at the same time, but most of all it makes me experience a sense of deep connection to Everything There Is And Ever Has Been.

And when I redirect my gaze from the stars back to my immediate surroundings, and see the people around me gazing at some small screen, I'm worried. In 2020 56 percent of the world's population lived in urban areas. More than half of the planet's population can't see the majestic night sky because of the light pollution of the cities they inhabit. Sure, maybe they'll go on vacation to a place where the city lights don't wash out most of the grandiose painting on the night's firmament, just like myself. But I just feel, I'm almost sure that if this was something to be available every night, we would feel different, act different, be much more aware of our place in the Grand Scheme Of Things, and that in turn might make us appreciate our earthly connections more. Instead of the confinement induced by the hyper-individualism and confirmation-bias-bubbles that seem to define our daily lifes, maybe we would realize that we're not so different, that we're all just tiny parts of the same whole.

It's just a thought. Light pollution puts a roof over our heads that shouldn't be there, a roof that blocks our view of something that's been with us throughout our evolution, and is ultimately where we all came from. I'll leave you with two short videos about light pollution, and maybe you'll spare a thought or two on the possibility of an advancing planetary claustrophobia and how that may affect our psyche and behavior...

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