The Night’s Thousand Eyes

Written By: Lance Hardin - Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust | Issue: May 2024 | Photograph By: Andrew Renfro

Human imagination has long been stirred by the night sky.  Scientists recently determined that cave art dating up to 40,000 years old depicts not animals as originally believed, but rather star constellations.

In Cherokee lore stars were living creatures covered with luminous fur or feathers. More recent observers have tried to capture the mystery in artistic terms; poet Francis Bourdillon reminded us that “the night has a thousand eyes, and the day but one.”

And of course, most are familiar with Vincent Van Gogh’s painting “The Starry Night,” capturing the view from his asylum window as he struggled with mental illness, a work that “assigns an emotional language to night and nature.”

Indeed, almost every human culture has charged the heavens with powers both mystical and scientific.

But what if humans and other species could no longer discern the stars and other heavenly bodies?

For billions of years creatures evolved with the rhythmic cycle of light and darkness, and thus a dark night sky is vital to many organisms’ intrinsic functions.

Birds and other pollinators use celestial references to navigate during migration. Bats, who feed during the night, find their habitat shrinking. Circadian rhythms drive the reproductive and nourishment cycles, as well as provide predator protection, for amphibians, birds, mammals, insects, and plants.

And it’s not just the animals; studies increasingly indicate that artificial lighting and absence of adequate cyclical darkness can impair human melatonin production, immune and endocrine systems, and result in increased risks of diabetes, depression, and certain cancers.

A quick internet search will result in numerous maps that show the pervasive progression of artificial light’s impacts with staggering effects in only a few decades. Scientists now estimate that only 20% of the people in world can see the Milky Way.

The good news is that communities and organizations are increasingly aware of this trend and taking corrective steps. North Carolina now has three certified international dark sky parks, two in Western North Carolina.

And of course light pollution is the easiest to mitigate – just turn off unnecessary exterior lighting at your house, and urge your neighborhood and community to do the same.

The Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust works to conserve the natural resources of our special place; for more info please see hcltnc.org and follow us on Instagram and Facebook.

by Lance Hardin, Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust
photo by Andrew Renfro