A new survey reveals that in America's national parks, darkness no longer descends upon the land Midnight in Yellowstone National Park.
Meteors flare, the Milky Way glows, and geysers shoot up like silvery, vaporous ghosts.
In the faux glow, even the moon itself vanishes. Lovers of darkness call this light pollution, and although it's been wrecking night skies for decades, only recently have environmentalists started worrying about its effects in pristine areas. Last March, the National Parks and Conservation Association, a private watchdog group, released the results of its first analysis of light pollution. While the effects of this newly recognized pollution can be a real mood-killer for tourists, the impact on park denizens can literally be lethal. In Hawaii's Haleakala National Park, endangered dark-rumped petrels become so disoriented by streetlights that they dash themselves against the windshields of passing cars.