October 23, 2002

Contacts:
Kelly Beatty, Sky & Telescope
   617-864-7360 x148, kbeatty@SkyandTelescope.com
Elizabeth Alvarez, International Dark-Sky Association
   520-293-3198, liz@darksky.org"

Note to Editors/Producers: This release is accompanied by publication-quality illustrations and an animation; see details below.

Energy and lighting specialists from throughout the U.S. and Canada are gathering in Boston, Massachusetts, this weekend for a meeting of the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA). They'll be taking aim at the ubiquitous pall of urban skyglow known as "light pollution," its effects on our health and our society, and what can be done to halt and reverse its spread.

Members of the news media are welcome to attend the sessions on Friday, October 25th. These invited talks and panel discussions will take place at the Museum of Science in Boston. Speakers are nationally recognized experts from the lighting industry, government agencies, power-utility companies, and others from the fields of medicine, environmental science, and astronomy. Key areas of discussion will include:

• the glare and energy waste associated with poor-quality lighting
• the effects of light at night on humans and wildlife
• communityand commercial efforts to develop better lighting practices

A press conference will be held at 12:45 p.m in Cahners Theater at the Museum of Science.

The second day of the meeting, Saturday, October 26th, will convene at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge. Due to limited seating, we are not encouraging attendance by members of the news media. Instead, we will try to arrange interviews on Friday with the Saturday sessions’ invited speakers and other experts in attendance.

Satellite images dramatically reveal that roughly of a third of the light used outdoors escapes upward, totally wasted, into the night sky. The IDA estimates that each year in the United States, more than $1 billion is spent to generate that wasted light — resulting in the needless burning of some 6,000,000 tons of coal annually.

Founded in 1988, the IDA has about 10,000 members in all 50 states and 70 countries. Its 450 organizational members include lighting engineers and manufacturers, security personnel, government agencies, and municipalities. The IDA is a nonprofit research and education organization dedicated to preserving and protecting the nighttime environment and our heritage of dark skies through quality outdoor lighting.

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