Published 2011-04-05T17:48:00Z”/>

Serena Cervantes

Whenever I try to study in Meriam Library I feel like I’m on an examination table in a surgery room. Either that or in a jail cell or a mental institution.

The lights are overly bright and they make a buzzing noise that interferes with my ability to concentrate. I’ve stopped going.

Recently, Chico started installing light-emitting diode, or LED, bulbs that are more energy efficient by lasting longer and using less energy to produce light than the typical bulbs.

This will save the city money each year on energy costs.

It’s a part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 that mandates that light bulbs will need to be roughly 25 to 30 percent more efficient than the light bulbs used before. In fact, the manufacturing of the regular incandescent bulbs will be banned, while LEDs will be the norm. LED-type lights are expected to be installed from 2012 to 2014, except California is getting a head start and installing the bright lights now.

Green guilt aside, I’m going to miss the yellow, halo-like streetlights that I and others have grown up with for decades. There will be a time in the future when we will have nostalgic memories of the yellow streetlamps. I’ll forever remember my mom warning my brother and I to come home when the streetlamps came on.

An artist in the bay area even utilized San Jose’s low-pressure sodium-oxide streetlights as a defining characteristic in his realist paintings. San Jose is infamous for its 65,000 murky yellow streetlights that will soon be replaced by LED bulbs, according to the city’s Metroactive weekly newspaper.

Now, whenever I walk up the Esplanade to get home at night, I notice that the LED bulbs cast a sharp bluish-white light that brightens the whole street. I understand that peripheral visibility will greatly increase for drivers, but they are just too bright.

They remind me of Meriam Library but on greater scale.

If these energy-efficient bulbs take over streets and even in-house lighting, you have to ask yourself – do I want everything around me to feel like a night game of football or baseball?

What’s worse is that these lights will affect space observatories in cities across America, causing an effect that doesn’t seem be taken as serious as when smog from cars damages air quality. That effect is called light pollution.

LEDs are actually more dangerous than the old incandescent bulbs because they cause a glare for drivers and create more shadows, said Kris Koenig, director of the Kiwanis Chico Community Observatory.

“Cities are going to want to open light again where they’ve been restricting light for decades,” Koenig said, in a phone interview. “There are even studies that show that light at night causes sleep problems for humans and animals.”

Ultimately, Koenig hopes the effects of LEDs will be an issue that goes before the Chico City Council, he said.

“We’re not just concerned about the observatory, but for the safety of the whole community,” Koenig said.

Energy-efficient bulbs can come in warmer, softer hues similar to the incandescent lights for in-home lighting, The New York Times reported. But it is unclear whether these eye-pleasing and energy-efficient bulbs can be used for outdoor lighting, but it would be worth considering.

It would also be worth contemplating whether facilities such as Meriam Library could recreate their environments to be more inviting, audibly and visually, instead of causing excruciating annoyance.

The library should have the quality of a dimly lit den, yet be bright enough to read well. The library, like lighted streets at night and even stars are sanctuous in that they bring us clarity in the midst of darkness. We should have more respect in preserving darkness while at the same time illuminating only that space that is given to us.

<strong>Serena Cervantes can be reached at</strong>

<em>[email protected]</em>