How Many Stars Can You Count?

Today I was taking a look at another page on the C.B.C.s website. This has been a source of inspiration for my posts as of late. I found an article on Light Pollution, which was quite interesting. I have a lot of interests and one of them is preserving our planet, and one thing that has been bothering me about the current urban environment is light pollution.

Years ago, when I was a child, I could look up at the night sky and see many stars. Over the years, the stars have been blocked out by light pollution. After groups like the International Dark Sky Association called attention to the phenomenon of light pollution, some Governments started asking cities to reduce their light pollution. Street lights were were changed so they would reduce the amount of light pollution, some cities even passed by-laws that prohibit the use of light fixtures that spill excess light into the night sky.

One of the main reasons why light pollution irks me, is that I used to draw inspiration from the stars. I also remember going on many camping trips and seeing the stars at night after a great campfire always gave me a warm feeling. Now when I look up at the sky from the backyard of my house in one of Canada's cities, I can almost count all the stars in the sky! I know that there are an extremely large number of stars in the sky, but most of them get blocked out by light pollution. In fact a few nights ago I went outside for some fresh air, and looked up at the night sky. I could count the number of stars on one hand! Granted the full moon that night may have blocked some of the stars out, but come on, how can we be inspired to go to space if we can't even see the stars that we want to reach?