The Largest “International Dark Sky Reserve” on Planet Earth—Signpost for a New Philosophy for the Human Species?
Trapped in our skyglow metropolises, who looks at the night sky with awe and wonder?
This essay originally appeared in Socrates Cafe.
In the remote regions of far west Texas and northern Mexico, plans are underway to create the largest “International Dark Sky Reserve” on Planet Earth. The Dark Sky Reserve will span approximately 18,000 square miles of Texas and Mexico. That’s almost the collective size of Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
Of course, this may seem like an irrelevant topic to the 90% of humanity living in the electric skyglow, far removed from the starry skies that surround our planet. After all, how can views of the radiant Milky Way help solve our seemingly intractable problems — nationalism, racism, fascism, border walls, climate disruption, and proliferating anti-science worldviews, all happening amid a global pandemic?
Yet, these very issues point to why the world’s largest International Dark Sky Reserve is an important signpost for a species lost in the skyglow of its 24/7 electric civilization. This Dark Sky Reserve brings together nature and science, ecology and cosmology, and peaceful cooperation along a contentious border—all quietly pointing toward a new philosophy for the human species. In a culture filled with collapse and despair, this gives me hope.
Backstory: Electric Light and 24/7 Civilization
We take electric light for granted as a neutral technology with little or no effect on how we think or view the world, yet electric light is a media technology that has utterly transformed the modern world. Electric light subtly massages and shapes our consciousness. When night arrives, we flip the light switch, and the lightbulb immediately glows in our homes, as if we have our own personal star to fend off the darkness. With electric light, we are the center of the nighttime universe. Electric light has produced a 24/7 planetary civilization that displaces the Milky Way with an electric galaxy of lightbulbs, floor lamps, streetlights, neon signs, and LED lights. This has led to an escalating profusion of light pollution.
Electric light makes possible the electronic screens of our computers, tablets, and mobile phones—with screens made of tiny electric lights. Without these lights, the internet and social media would cease to function. The glowing screens are shoving us together in a spew of photons and colliding images, where our gaze turns inward. Tribes counter tribes, vying for domination of thought and action or merely in competition for our shrinking attention spans. We are a species that inhabits orbs and webs of glowing light, and because of this we are insulated from the cosmic darkness—filled with stars that twinkle impersonally and perpetually against the infinite of deep space. All of the above is why electric light has had three profound effects.
1] Electric Light Created a 24/7 Civilization
Electric light has produced a 24/7 electrified and mediated civilization, an awe-inpiring achievement, surely symbolic of human ingenuity and our technological prowess.
2] Electric Light Erased the Night Skies
Electric light has erased the night skies from daily life, making the stars and universe seem irrelevant to human existence.
3] Electric Light Countered the Effect of the Telescope
By displacing the night sky, electric light has countered the profound effects of the telescope, the media technology that removed Earth and humanity from the center of the universe. Electric light has reinstated our cosmic narcissism, individually and collectively—the everyday stance that we humans are at the center of everything, the center of all value, purpose, and meaning.
In effect, electric light returns us to a pre-Galileo worldview, a pre-telescope world where we are the center of the universe. Humans and human existence are what matters, and what’s beyond is largely meaningless except for the occasional curiosity value of a pretty planet or strange galaxy. Trapped in our skyglow metropolises, who looks at the night sky with awe and wonder?
Awe and Wonder in the Desert
In far west Texas, the light pollution threatens the dark skies essential to the Big Bend National Park, the Big Bend Ranch State Park, and the McDonald Observatory (no connection to McDonald’s hamburger chain). The Big Bend National Park is one of the largest and most spectacular national parks in America, featuring 801,000 acres of the Chihuahuan desert. Administered by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Big Bend Ranch State Park is the largest state park in Texas and also features spectacular desert landscapes. Combined with the Chinati Mountains Natural Area, the Big Bend Ranch State Park Complex contains 355,000 acres. The two Big Bend Parks will be the central core of the International Dark Sky Preserve.
Operated by the University of Texas at Austin, the McDonald Observatory is one of the premiere astronomical facilities in the world and home to the Hobby-Eberle Telescope, the fourth largest optical telescope in the world. Many kinds of epic research are conducted at the facility, including studying the expansion rate of the universe caused by dark energy and searching for habitable exoplanets.
McDonald Observatory is also home to its legendary “Star Parties” (three nights per week). For $25, visitors are permitted to gaze at the stars, planets, and galaxies through very powerful telescopes. During my many visits to the Star Parties, I have gazed upon all kinds of cosmic phenomena in the Milky Way. Plus, I have had great views of the Andromeda and Whirlpool Galaxies, neighbors of the Milky Way. Andromeda is over two million light years from the Milky Way, while the Whirlpool Galaxy is at least fifteen million light years away.
Imagine seeing the tilted spiral of Andromeda, with photons from one trillion stars traversing the voids of the cosmos for two million years — light leaving that galaxy long before any human walked on Earth! Though infinitesmal in relation to the cosmos, I felt the exaltation and affirmation of human existence, the power of human reason to grasp what I was seeing and sensing as Andromeda’s photons merged with my neurons. It is likely I have never felt more inspired and at peace in the same moment.
The International Dark Sky Reserve
All of the awe-inspiring wonder is in danger from light pollution. Below are three graphics. The first is the West Texas Dark Sky Reserve as it was in 2012; it was largely established to protect the dark skies for the McDonald Observatory. The second graphic highlights the light pollution from the fracking fields in the famed Permian Basin, home to one of the largest oil and gas fields in the world. The third graphic illustrates the massive increase in light pollution between 1997 and 2014, especially from the fracking fields.
Seems more than ironic that significant skyglow is coming from fracking for fossil fuels, spewing light to power our cities. I could not find a current light pollution map for the area, but I can assure you from my own direct observation: the light pollution is now massively more from the fracking fields, the very issue prompting the creation of the reserve.
Efforts to protect the dark skies from light pollution are being led by the Bill Wren at the McDonald Observatory, Amber Harrison at Big Bend State Park, Big Bend National Park, and the Big Bend Conservation Alliance.[1] As shown in the graphic below, these organizations are seeking to create the largest International Dark Sky Reserve, which will have to be officially designated by the International Dark Sky Association (IDA). The designation will require a great deal of coordination across the Big Bend and border areas. There has been a very high degree of interest from partners in Mexico, including the Areas de Proteccion Flora y Fauna in Maderas, Ocampo, and Santa Elena. Obviously, the towns of Alpine, Marfa, and Presidio within the Dark Sky Reserve will need to be in compliance with Dark Sky rules to protect the night skies across 15,000 square miles. Fort Davis already follows Dark sky lighting practices.
Pragmatic Benefits to Protecting Dark Skies
Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park are official IDA “Dark Sky Parks” and have among the very darkest skies in America. Naturally, the two parks benefits from eco-tourism and astro-tourism, where visitors seek to immerse themselves in the radiance of the Milky Way and often bring their own telescopes. The light pollution is caused by massive amounts of wasted light, spewing upward into space on a global scale. According to the IDA, at least “30 percent of all outdoor lighting in the U.S. is wasted… That adds up to $3.3 billion and the release of 21 million tons of carbon dioxide per year! To offset all that carbon dioxide, we’d have to plant 875 million trees annually.” So the wasted light is increasing C02 emissions and adding to climate disruption, while also disturbing the rhythms of birds and nocturnal animals, on land and in nearby seas.
Obviously, the IDA deserves enormous credit for leading the way in protecting dark skies. But, I think the International Dark Sky Reserve in Texas and Mexico is a powerful philosophical signpost, precisely because it counters the skyglow of fracking, spans a border in conflict, and unites ecology and cosmology with peaceful cooperation.
1. An International Border Grounded in Ecology and Cosmology
Just imagine President Trump’s border wall running along the Rio Grande, cutting through some of the most spectacular and pristine environments in North America. It’s a wall grounded in racism, nationalism, and militarism, along with the failed Drug War.
In contrast, imagine a peaceful international, non-militarized border in a Dark Sky Reserve that protects nature and the night skies, while welcoming visitors from all over the world. Within Big Bend National Park, visitors are permitted to cross the Rio Grande and visit Boquillas in Mexico.
In terms of overall philosophy, this Dark Sky Reserve is grounded in science, ecology, and peaceful cooperation along the border, while also embracing the night sky cosmology that is central to grasping humanity’s origins and destiny. If we’re intellectually honest, we can see that’s a powerful concept and implies a bold new narrative for the human species.
2. A New Narrative for the Human Species
If we are to ever overcome our protracted problems, then perhaps we should embrace our actual place in the universe. After all, we humans share 99.5–99.9% of the same DNA and our bodies are made of the most common elements of the universe — oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, etc. Why shouldn’t we have a planetary narrative for the human species grounded in our shared cosmic origins?
Every day, our screens shove us together in the glow of electric light. Its an inward, implosive existence, as if we are the center of all desire and destiny on Planet Earth. All of this becomes a mirage when we consider the International Dark Sky Reserve and the most radical media technology of all-time — the telescope. To grasp the significance of the telescope, we need to understand it’s full effects, which are in stark contrast to screens and electric lights. Think hot and cool, heat and chill!
Hot Media in the Skyglow (Inward Gaze)
In “Dreaming Hot and Cool in the Time of Corona” (a quasi-spoken word essay curated in the Poetry section of Medium), I contrasted the world of screens and telescopes:
It’s a world of screens, filled with high densities of image, information, and energy. Phone gets hot in my hand, laptop heats on my desk. Screens are instant proximity to all events, getting hotter every moment. Corona spreading, death count climbing, some claim hoaxing. Hot screens, hot takes, hot planet. System overload.
I scroll through my Twitter and Insta feeds. NASA and the world’s telescopes bring deep space into my eyes. Nebulae, galaxies, the expanding universe. Everything is far away. My mind cools, wanders, wonders. So I chill on our tiny rock in a big universe, while stuck at home in a pandemic on a hot planet.
As shown in the canvas below, we’re all surrounded by hot media in the electric metropolises. Street lights, electric lights, LED signs. “Grids” cover the surface, “Clouds” move above. Acceleration, short attention spans, instant feedback loops in the inward gaze. Temperatures are higher, tempers are hotter.
The Dark Sky Reserve offers a temporary escape from the skyglow and hot media conditions of electric light.
Cool Media Beyond the Skyglow (Outward Gaze)
As seen at the McDonald Observatory and all the other observatories around the world, “cool media” are technologies with an outward gaze, peering away from humans and beyond the skyglow. Cool media include the world’s telescopes, but also satellites and space probes. Planet Earth is below us and the starry skies are beyond us. Though filled with information, cool media confront lower densities, lower friction, and more distant or remote events. There is less light and more cosmic darkness. Temperatures are lower, tempers are cooler, and the mind wanders and wonders. We soon realize we’re not the center of everything. In fact, we’re the center of nothing. That is the ultimate chill for the human species.
With cool media, we are forced to view ourselves through the eyes of our species, to see our existence as a single species sharing a tiny planet. It’s the same with using our naked eyes alone to gaze into the Milky Way in places like Big Bend National Park. Its a cool media experience, far unlike the hot screens.
Via all the Hubble images on our screens, our daily existence collides with our cosmic existence. In “Hot and Cool in the Media(S)cene” (our international award-winning essay which inspired our art exhibit), Julia Hildebrand and I wrote:
In the cool gaze, events slow, attention spans grow, reflection trumps reaction, the species supersedes the tribe, borders and wars become artificial and absurd. Micro-particularities and hot affective conditions are not visible, but large-scale patterns, movements, and locations become more apparent. The more distant, aerial, and heightened perspective — beyond the thick, hot, reactive layers closer to us — opens up larger views and visions. Google Earth, Hubble Deep Fields, Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The cosmic web of galaxies. […] Voids, holes, and emptiness in outer space and our philosophies become visible. We are the center of nothing. […] The universal over the tribal. Terrestrial heat replaced by the cosmic chill. There are no widely-accepted politics or political narratives in the cool. Hot politics freeze in the cosmic background temperature.
The Dark Sky Reserve privileges cool media experiences over hot media entertainment.
The Choice: To Grow Up or Not
These are the choices we face. We can embrace a peaceful and sustainable planetary civilization grounded in the scientific understanding of our origins and shared destinies, with universal-equal human rights for everyone. And I mean everyone! Or we can continue the anti-science, anti-environmental narcissism of endless consumption and entertainment in the skyglow, along with the tribalism and nationalism which dominates America and most other nations of the world.
Why not embrace our true place in the universe, as revealed by our most powerful observatories and telescopes on and off Earth—such as the Hubble Space Telescope or the forthcoming James Webb Space Telescope? We are a single evolutionary species, sharing a tiny planet with millions of other evolving species, in a vast and majestic universe of two trillion galaxies and untold numbers of planets, life forms, and black holes, along with vast empty voids — all stretching across 100 billion light years. The universe is too awesome to pretend we’re the center of it. To me, that’s liberating and exhilirating. Yet, secular philosophy in popular culture has largely failed to keep up with this universe.
We face the paradox of our greatest intellectual achievements — we have discovered a vast and majestic universe in which we are insignificant and perhaps meaningless as a species. Or are we? Since we are made of the most common elements of the universe, we are self-aware stardust, we are one way the universe is aware of itself (as the late Carl Sagan said). And in that idea is hope for a better future for our species and the other life forms on Earth. That idea is also deeply embedded in the world’s largest International Dark Sky Reserve.
And that’s the philosophical challenge we face, to reconcile our tininess with our braininess in the awe-inspiring universe revealed by cool media. To paraphrase the great astronomer Jill Tarter, we humans are what happens when hydrogen atoms evolve for 13.7 billion years to wonder where they came from and where they are going. When are we going to grow up?
Imagine a future planetary civilization with metropolises practicing Dark Sky policies, along with vast wildernesses and Dark Sky regions away from the cities, with telescopes for viewing the Milky Way and beyond.
We can’t block out the starry profusion forever and hope to survive, no matter how much we surround ourselves with bright screens and electric skyglow. It’s time for a chill future that embraces the awe and wonder of cool media in grasping our place in the vastness. That’s the philosophical starting point made visible by the International Dark Sky Reserve in Texas and Mexico. It’s the real world version of the “explosion of awareness” in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. If there is to be long-term future for the human species in a peaceful and sustainable civilization, there must be a secular philosophy that spans borders and peoples as it unites our diversity with ecology and cosmology—to connect us to nature and the universe from which we emerged, to give us hope as the enlightened beings we yearn to become.
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1] Much thanks to Amber Harrison, resource interpreter at Big Bend Ranch State Park and J.D. Newsom, former executive director of the Big Bend Conservation Alliance. Amber and J.D. both shared their vast knowledge of the Dark Sky issues in far west Texas.
