It's a Night Thing: How Dispelling the Dark has Altered our World
Channel: Climate Action Evanston
Date: 17/02/2024

ABOUT THE TOPIC
Artificial lighting has chased away the dark with devastating effect on insects, birds, humans and other species.  Fireflies simply stop blinking rather than compete with lights, giving up their breeding success for our artificial lights. With Ken Walczak of Adler Planetarium and DarkSky Chicago, learn about the dark skies movement, ways to bring back the dark, and if brighter is really safer.  Could Evanston become a dark skies city?

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Ken Walczak is the Senior Manager of Far Horizons at the Adler Planetarium - a scientific research and engineering program engaging students, volunteers and the public in hands-on, participatory exploration. He has helped design and implement instruments for light pollution research from the ground and the stratosphere. He has coauthored numerous papers on the subject. He helped lead the designation of the world’s largest Urban Night Sky Place - the Palos Preserves - southwest of Chicago. He owned and lighting and furniture design company, studied photography and filmmaking and is an accomplished science and astronomy communicator. He is also a board member of DarkSky International and helped cofound the local DarkSky Chicago chapter.

ABOUT THE 2024 NURTURING NATURE SPEAKER SERIES 
Organized by Climate Action Evanston's Natural Habitat Evanston Program, and presented in collaboration with the Evanston Public Library, Rotary International and the Evanston Ecology Center, the Series consists of 10 presentations, one per month, kicked off in February with this presentation and running through November. Learn more at: 
https://www.climateactionevanston.org/natural-habitat/nurturingnature