The darkness gets a stage this weekend. During the Night of the Night, from Saturday to Sunday, attention is drawn to the importance of the dark and the nuisance caused by artificial light. Tonight there will be activities in the dark throughout Drenthe. The Night of the Night is always held when the winter time starts again, like last night.
Reinder Hoekstra counts the number of lampposts on the business park on the south side of Assen, which is still under development. The director of the Nature and Environment Federation Drenthe is concerned about the large amount of artificial light. “A huge number of lampposts, and also a gas station with a huge amount of advertising with light and an advertising mast under construction,” Hoekstra sums up. “Lighting is fine, but if it all becomes very exuberant and we do it throughout Drenthe, we will no longer be left with darkness.”
In places where the landscape is bathed in artificial light, some (nocturnal) animals are disturbed. Amphibians for example: they avoid bright places. The more light there is, the smaller their habitat becomes. Artificial light disrupts the biological clock in moths and some bat species lose habitat, just like amphibians.
“If you look at the Netherlands from above, it is becoming the most illuminated spot in Europe. All that light hinders us. That is to say: people can no longer view a starry sky, can no longer experience darkness, but animals also suffer from it. from.” Hoekstra indicates that the development of more and more lighting seems to be stabilizing. Nevertheless, it remains a spearhead of the organization.
The light does not have to go out completely; he calls for smarter use of it: LED lighting, for example, more economical and more targeted lighting. “Then we can preserve the darkness – one of the primeval values of Drenthe. And darkness turns out to be a very valuable good, also for Drenthe. The strength of our province is partly ‘the primal’: rediscovering peace, just agreeing can enjoy a dark night.”
The Nature and Environment Federation has been fighting against too much artificial light since 2005. That year, more than a hundred volunteers set out to investigate light pollution. This resulted in the first light source map of Drenthe: a milestone for the NMF, which is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year.