I actually LOVE the darkness, I like being able to view the heavens without loads of light pollution. However, there are very practical reasons why such a thing shouldn't happen, or not entirely. I have very immediate experience of people with very limited vision, where turning off all the street lights would effectively put them on a curfew. The next issue is security of course, especially in cites and towns, we all feel a bit safer when out late if we can actually see and that leads onto actual safety of course, as in actually seeing each other, being seen by passing traffic, etc. They are just immediate reasons, there are myriad more I am sure. However, I do think we could be far more clever about how we light, purely from a power use point of view which would have the knock on effect of improving that view of the skies at night. Obviously more energy efficient lighting for a start, plus a better design on street lights so that most if not all their light output is cast downwards where it is needed. I know many towns and cities have already invested in such ideas in some areas of their towns, but it is going to take time, financial investment and a lot of will for such lighting to be installed in place of every current street lamp across the country and for it to be good effective lighting - and that doesn't even take the rest of the world into account. However, with more clever lighting, you could also make an argument for needing less of them too, again improving things.
I would also like to see more businesses take it upon themselves to have their lighting [internal and external] using auto switch off methods when not needed. No, I don't want to see such ideas made law, we have enough bloody laws, rules and regulations to strangle business as it is, but I do sometimes wonder when I drive along a high street at 1am and see how many lights are still on in and/or above shops for example. Very few people are window shopping at that time and are unlikely to be paying much attention to your fancy signs either, so why not save yourself a few quid and a bit more of the earths resources by putting the whole lot on a timer and switching off for a few hours. Same thing goes for office blocks, on a far larger scale, why is it, especially in city centres, they have the lights on, on every floor, all night it seems sometimes. I understand about cleaners, night staff, etc, but I can't believe that every light needs to be on - I mean apart from when we are doing those lovely night time shots of course, then you need them all on to look really cool as part of that cityscape!
turn em off, if you need light to see where you are walking use a torch.
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