Month: January 2013

[caption id="attachment_267" align="alignleft" width="1920"]Rep. Ron Barber gives his speech on the GAO report this past week in Douglas, AZ. (Photo By: Aungelique Rodriguez)[/caption]

DOUGLAS- Ariz.- U.S. Rep. Ron Barber was recently appointed to a leadership role on the Homeland Security Committee and with that role holds the responsibility of finding ways to improve the security along the Southwest Border.

The Department of Homeland Security has agreed to the Government Accountability Office’s new strategic recommendations. Barber and other public officials gave Arizona residents a brief overview of the GAO report in Douglas and Tucson earlier this week.

Creative Commons Licensed from Flikr: Photo by Bill Morrow

[caption id="attachment_259" align="alignleft" width="727"]Tucson lights pollute the sky. (Photo by Jason Davis)[/caption]The moon was only a quarter full in the wee hours of January 17, 1994, when a magnitude-6.7 earthquake struck Los Angeles, Calif. With electricity out in large swaths across America’s second-most populous city, thousands of disoriented residents stumbled into pitch-black streets to assess the damage.

High above Hollywood, the Griffith Observatory received scores of phone calls. Why were there so many stars? What was that shimmering grey cloud stretching out from the horizon? Did the strange sky cause the quake?

In the midst of tragedy, Angelenos were treated to a sight normally unseen from a bright city: the Milky Way. It takes a dark sky to see the band of starlight emanating from billions of stars near the center of our own galaxy, a view that has gradually disappeared under the glare of electrically-lit progress.

In Arizona, where space sciences are worth an estimated $250 million annually, bright skies are a serious threat to astronomical research. Cities like Tucson have adopted lighting ordinances to protect the industry, but as urban sprawl increases, bad lighting affects more than stargazing scientists. Energy is wasted. Wildlife is threatened. Human health is impacted.