Book Review
“All living things on Earth need
and deserve a night sky.”~ Kellie Pendoley
Lights Out Bend (LOB) is a volunteer education
and advocacy project. Our mission is to educate resi-
dents and business owners to turn off all unnecessary
lighting, especially during Spring and Fall songbird
migration seasons (April-July and August-November).
Turning off lights allows migratory birds a safe, suc-
cessful passage through urban environments. Millions
of birds and insects fly overhead, navigating with
great precision by starlight, landmarks and Earth’s
magnetic field. Artificial lights disorient birds causing
birds to circle lights, collide into windows and build-
ings or fall out of the sky resulting in injury or death.
Collisions cause up to a BILLION bird deaths per year
in North America.
“Many species, including humans,
need darkness to survive and thrive.”
American Medical Association Council.
Due to light pollution, we rarely experience truly
dark nights. Research suggests “artificial light at night
can negatively affect human health, increasing risks
for obesity, depression, sleep disorders, diabetes, and
breast cancer.” (International Dark Sky Association).
Artificial light disrupts circadian rhythm, our biologic
clock and suppresses melatonin, a hormone that induc-
es sleep, boosts the immune system, lowers cholester-
ol, helps thyroid, pancreas, ovaries, testes and adrenal
glands function properly.
What can you do? Turn off all unnecessary
lights! Close curtains / blinds at night. Utilize motion
sensors or install low intensity lighting.
Rights of Nature A Legal Revolution That
Could Save The World
By David Boyd
Around the globe, a growing movement supports
the idea that humans are not the only ones who
deserve rights in this world. Lawyers are current-
ly fighting for the rights of chimpanzees, rivers,
forests, whales and Standing Rock Reservation to
name a few. If nature has rights, then humans
have responsibilities to uphold those rights. My
favorite example in this book was the lawsuit be-
tween Disney and Sierra club over a resort that
would have caused environmental calamity for the
Sierra Nevada Mountains. Supreme Justice Wil-
liam O. Douglas, a passionate outdoorsman ruled
in favor of preserving nature, ͞if corporations can
have rights then surely there should be rights
for valleys, alpine meadows, rivers, lakes, moun-
tains, beaches and all forms of nature and life
should have these same rights from the pileated
woodpecker, to trout in streams, to the land it-
self including soils, waters, plants and trees. For
even air feels the destructive pressures of modern
technology and modern life.͟David Boyd paints
a powerful portrayal of hope for protecting our
planet, he is an Environmental Lawyer, Professor,
and advocate for the right to live in a healthy
environment, a right worth fighting for.
Go to: lightsoutbend.com and find us on Facebook.
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BEND HEALTH GUIDE | Spring 2018
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