The Darkness Manifesto

This is a passionate, research-based book that is also very accessible to the layman and sets out both the problems that our light drenched world faces and a way forward that can benefit all life on earth, including ourselves. It is an argument that will undoubtedly face opposition, most obviously around questions of safety, but it is surely also something that we need to be discussing because there is a balance to be struck.

Whenever a conversation strikes up about the environment and human impacts upon it, there is a tendency to de-camp into opposing sides of all or nothing (in fact that is the case with many topics in the public sphere) but the reality is that solutions can be matched to local situations that suit both the human and non-human life that shares each space. It may be lighting at certain times and not at others, or a change in the lighting colour or direction to provide different types of light to suit the natural cycle.

We need to stop seeing the way that we live within the limits of the planet and alongside all other life as a battle between right and wrong, but rather as a dance in which all life is able to participate and flourish. Johan Eklöf achieves this in his Darkness Manifesto not by waging war on light but by working through the ways in which it helps and hinders us all, understanding the benefits of both light and dark on our wellbeing, and offering balance where we currently have excess. It is a model we could apply much more actively in our debates and actions.

The tagline to the book is “How light pollution threatens the ancient rhythms of life” and it can feel sometimes like human life is under attack from all angles, but in reality it is the case that we have simply allowed many aspects of the way we live to get out of hand. Our demand to be free of limits means that we have overstretched ourselves and we need to re-learn how freedom flows from limits rather than being restrained by them.

The chapters are small, presenting a series of essays on different aspects of the topic, and the language is straightforward to get along with. Eklöf works through the science behind his arguments but does not create a barrier with it and he closes with some simple ideas to consider in your personal journey. Coincidently, just last night, I was at a meeting of a local group of people interested in living more sustainably and the topic of streetlights was raised by a member of the group. It is clearly something that is on people’s minds and it was great to immediately be able to offer some supporting arguments from this book.

I’m also about to go on holiday and will be taking part in a dark walk on Exmoor, which is soon to celebrate its annual Dark Skies Festival, and feel all the more inspired to participate in the event and take that experience of darkness into my day-to-day life. The Darkness Manifesto is an engaging and timely book with a strong and positive message. I shall be recommending it widely and introducing its themes into both the conversations I have locally and my own personal experiments in trying to live more sustainably and in tune with the natural rhythms of the world.

This book really makes you think about light pollution. We take light for granted. but don't consider the effect it has on our wellbeing and the disruption it causes to our wildlife. It is apparent from the author's meticulous research that things are getting worse.
There appears to be a lot of unnecessary illumination these days. Possibly people feel less secure concerning darkness. Crime perhaps being part of the issue. Of more concern are disrupted sleep patterns caused by small screen and ambient street lights.
You don't imagine that you cannot see the galaxy so clearly unless you are in a dark sky area. The book is thought-provoking and yet again , we as a species are to blame. The author suggests various ways that we can all employ to reduce the effect of the problems of light pollution..
A very interesting read.

This is an interesting and thought provoking book about light pollution. i think that plenty of people don't know what the sky looks like if you are in the country or far from a town.
it's a marvellous sight and we are losing it.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine