I happened across a pair of images on the Picture of the Week at the SkyNews.com web site that illustrate all too well what it is we drown out with our over-dependence on lights.

These were taken by Todd Carlson, who lives north of Toronto. What impressed me about the first image is that I’ve previously only seen the Milky Way like that in the desert U.S. southwest or at sea under very dark skies. It was taken during the height of the blackout. The second image was snapped the next night, after the lights came back on. While I fully understand why we need lighting for our cities, it is a crying shame that so much of that light bounces off to the sky, and is so wasteful of energy. Sometimes progress comes at too high a price.

One of the unexpected consequences of the Big Blackout of 2003 was the re-appearance of the stars in the skies over the darkened cities of Northeast US and parts of Canada. People who hadn’t seen the stars in some time were remarkably impressed with how beautiful the night sky could be. I often wonder if they missed the stars the next night — when the lights came back on.