Am I the only one that thinks that it is pretty weird to be persuading the AMA to take up our cause through, let's face it, a pretty tenuous link? And, them having taken this up as official policy, how will this possibly translate into real-world benefits for LPR? How much clout is a medical association likely to have in political circles on the issue of light pollution?

I mean, I am passionate about dark skies and reduction of light pollution, but it seems like in sheer desperation we're trying to get anyone on board whom we can persuade with even the most questionable arguments.

We talk about light trespass, driving safety, power savings, environmental disruption of various species, vague claims about 'benefits for public health' and so on. No doubt in a couple of years there will be more that we can add to that list once people have thought long and hard enough about it. Now, these I guess can be regarded as important issues, but it seems disingenuous. It seems as if we astronomers are drumming up support and dredging up any issue we can no matter how minor, while deliberately leaving astronomy or night sky preservation out of the debate entirely so as to not seem like a minority group with an agenda and pure self interest at heart. Ironically, it seems that the more we go in this direction, the more people seem to question why it is that people would be so passionate about a seemingly mundane issue such as light pollution, and then realising the answer, write us off completely with the 'interest group' label we studiously try to avoid.

I guess, in the end, we'll take anything we can get, and we'll have to keep pushing peripheral (as far as we're concerned) arguments to advance our cause because most of the public just couldn't care less (that's if they don't simply show outright hostility) about any sort of environmental issue if it inconveniences them in even the slightest way or there is the merest chance that even a single tax-payer dollar could be spent on it.

I live in Vermont. There is a state-wide ban on billboards and excessive use of neon signage.

It's noticeably darker here because there aren't hundreds, or thousands of 60-100 feet wide, 20 feet tall, light reflecting surfaces throwing stray light up to the sky.

Not to mention, it just nice to not have to look at the silly things: Divorce lawyers, ambulance chasers, diamond and gold jewelry ads, etc …. ugh!

These procedures are needed to be applied in a more broader sense across countries all across the world

there are a lot of governments which dont even know the meaning of light pollution

its a long way to go, but we"ll be there