Reconnecting Indigenous people to a sacred site
1. The desert at night
“The great concepts of oneness and of majestic order seem always to be born in the desert”
John Steinbeck, one of California’s Nobel laureates in literature, wrote this about the Mojave Desert: “At night in this waterless air the stars come down just out of reach of your fingers. In such a place lived the hermits of the early church piercing to infinity with unlittered minds. The great concepts of oneness and of majestic order seem always to be born in the desert. The quiet counting of the stars, and observation of their movements, came first from desert places.”
These words are from his Travels with Charley: In Search of America (1962).
Like many thoughtful people who have spent time in the Mojave, Steinbeck was of two minds about it. In this book and in his novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939) he calls the Mojave Desert “frightening” and “terrible,” a “wasteland.” But he has great respect for the organisms that live there. He writes in Travels that the desert “is a good school in which to observe the cleverness and the infinite variety of techniques of survival under pitiless opposition. Life could not change the sun or water the desert, so it changed itself.”
Light pollution is a problem in the Mojave Desert. Streetlights, car headlights, brightly lit signs, and other kinds of artificial outdoor light not only interfere with astronomy and enjoyment of the stars, but most desert animals are nocturnal: Light pollution affects their migration patterns, predator-prey relationships, and circadian rhythms.
The United States National Park Service explains: “Light scattered through the atmosphere brightens the night sky, causing stars and faint objects to be rendered invisible due to the reduced contrast. Light pollution also prevents the human eye from fully dark-adapting and reaching its maximum sensitivity. Sometimes, the more light there is at night, the less we can see.”
Light pollution takes two forms: Sky glow, also known as fugitive light, is the brightening of the night sky from human-caused light scattered in the atmosphere. Glare is the direct shining of light into our field of vision that prevents our eyes from adapting to the dark. Light trespass is light shining where it isn’t needed.
NPS continues: “Both of these forms can impact human perception of the night sky, natural landscapes, and other faint features of the night. Light pollution tends to be most acute in urban environments, where glare can result in light trespass, have pronounced ecological effects, and potentially influence human circadian rhythms.
“However, in a remote or otherwise dark environment, the eye adapts to the ambient light level and its sensitivity increases. This results in visual impacts from light pollution being perceived at long distances. Even though the aggregate city light seen from a remote park 50 miles away would seem quite dim to a city-based observer, it is enough to cast obvious shadows and impede visibility for a park-based observer.”
A growing movement led by astronomers and conservationists is promoting ways of cutting back light pollution. The U.S. National Park Service’s Night Skies program has been a leader globally among public agencies. Its website is full of scientific and technical information about light pollution: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nightskies/index.htm. The International Dark-Sky Association has certified Death Valley and Joshua Tree national parks as International Dark-Sky Parks: https://darksky.org.
THE MOJAVE DESERT AT NIGHT
ABOVE: The Milky Way seen from the floor of Death Valley. BELOW: In floodlight: Mountain lion (Puma concolor), Townsend's big-eared bat (Crownophanes townsendii).
In ultraviolet light: Mojave Desert sidewinder rattlesnake (Crotalus cerastes cerastes)
About the series
In this series we tell true stories about places we call Points of Inspiration that can serve as beacons to inspire people to do whatever they can for greater justice and sustainability. The inspiration can take many forms and isn’t always obvious.
The Oasis of Mara story is about human rights. So is an account of the writer Mary Austin (The Land of Little Rain, 1903) never forgetting how people were mistreated in the towns where she lived in the Owens Valley — women, Indians, immigrants, miners — and using the fame she gained as an author to press for human rights in books, articles, and public lectures.
And so is John Steinbeck writing a powerful story (The Grapes of Wrath, 1939) about the neglect and abuse of dust bowl migrants because he wanted to put a “tag of shame” on those responsible. His bestselling novel and the award-winning film based on it changed attitudes and led to reform.