Light pollution is something that does not cross the mind of most Americans because not many people know what king of negative affects it is having on us as humans and most of all, animals and reptiles.  Light pollution is very quickly becoming out of control due to the rapid growth of the worlds population.  Out of all of the species in the world, there were two that were talked about being affected in The City Dark.  

The first species that was talked about was the sea turtles, and how they use the moonlight to find there was to the ocean after being born on the beach.  The filmaker of the movie had something to say about the sea turtles, "Every summer, tens of thousands of [Florida sea] turtles, already a threatened, are lost due to disorientation."  What his is saying is that each year thousands of sea turtles are hatched on the beach, and typically they use the reflection of moonlight off of the water to find there way to the ocean. What ends up happening is because there is so much city light that is around the are of the beach, the sea turtles basically get confused and may start going towards the city light instead of the ocean.  The problem with this is that the baby sea turtles will die of dehydration in a matter of minutes.  The most important problem with this is the fact that the sea turtles are already lacking in population, which is such a sad thing.

The second set of species that is talked about in the movie is the birds that are migrating threw Chicago, and in some cases some of the birds are just flying and not in route to warmer weather.  Chicago is not the only major city that is causing these migratory birds to collide with buildings, it is happening all over the United States.  Ornithologist, Susan Elbin from the Audubon Society says, "The estimate is that there are a billion birds killed across the United States every year by collisions into buildings."  This is terrible in many ways, on one note there are tons of birds crashing into windows and buildings in heavily populated areas, which can obviously be unsanitary.  Also, not that these migratory birds are under populated but there are being billions killed and not do to the cycle of life, but to overpopulating humans leaving lights on all night all over the world.

Besides the reptiles and animals being killed due to the pollution of light, some people also believe that is is ruining natural habitat too.  In The City Dark, Chad Moore, of the National Parks Service says, "When we add light to the environment that has the potential to disrupt habitat, just like running a bulldozer over the landscape..." Basically what he is saying, is the light pollution can cause what is normally a very dark and peaceful wooded area at night to become lit up and mess up the cycle for many species.  When is comes down to it, the amount of light pollution in the world today is growing night by night and something needs to be done about it because it is causing harm to many species around the world.

As a child, the night sky never really interested me when I was growing up, and my family never really said muh about it to me.  Although it seems that the older I get, the more fascinating the night sky ans stars are.  Living in Mont Belvieu, which is a somewhat rural town located a few miles east of Baytown, we have some pretty dark nights despite the many refineries that surround the gas rich town.  Here lately I have found myself cranking up the hot tub many nights, and just relaxing and staring up at the stars.  Now granite, there are a select number of stars that are visible to the human eye from my backyard, but they are clear enough to see some of the bigger constellations, and my favorite the satellites slowly making their way around the world.  Besides the occasional sitting in the hot tub, there is a memory of stars I have from this past deer season.  I can remember all of the stars like it was yesterday because of how bright they seemed compared to here at home.

After selling his ranch in Beeville Texas, my uncle got on a deer lease in Incinal Texas, which is just Northeast of Laredo on the border of Mexico.  Last deer season I had the privilege of going down there several times.  And it was not until my fifth and final time to go that my cousin an I looked up as we were sitting around the fire, only to notice thousands of bright shinning stars lighting up the night sky.  The amount of stars in the sky was just unreal compared to anywhere around home.  We became so interested that we downloaded an app that supposedly shows you what constellation is what when you point your phone at the sky.  Whether the app gave us an accurate reading or not, we don't know, but it still kept us in awe at the amount and brightness of stars.  Even knowing we had to get up at five the next morning to go hunting, we still stayed up until around eleven just looking at the stars and watching shooting stars.

The sad thing is that I have been to Canada and even some U.S. states that are very rural and not full of bright city lights, I just never paid attention to the stars.  Now that I realize how interesting the stars really are, I wish I could go back in time and take the time to look at the stars in those far away places.  Thanks to that one late Laredo night, I would love to go back to Canada to see the night sky, especially the northern lights which are another phenomenon itself.  We do have a farm in the small town of Raywood, which is only thirty minutes from my house, but it is away from all of the city lights.  I may have to make a trip up there this week just to admire the stars.

In choosing two poems to compare towards each other with the same author, I chose Carol Ann Duffy. I did not pick this author for any particular reason, I picked her because I procrastinated to write this blog and she was the first Author i found in the table of contents twice.  Although the poem "Mrs Darwin" is an extremely short poem consisting of only five lines, I believe it greatly compares to Duffy's other poem "Valentine".  They both compare someone of interest to something that some people would consider nasty or not highly thought of.

To start off, the poem "Mrs Darwin" is my new favorite poem because of the fact that it is very short and simple to read, but the poem does make sense and can be compared to "Valentine".  In the poem "Valentine" the narrator is clearly describing Valentines, not only because the title says, but in the first line it says "not a red rose or a satin heart"(Duffy 1), which are the most popular Valentine day gifts.  In this poem the narrator is explaining giving their Valentine an onion because it can help explain love better that anything else.  In my opinion I do not believe the narrator is literally giving their Valentine an onion, but explaining that if they gave them an onion it would show how the love they share goes.  On the other hand, in the poem "Mrs Darwin" not much can be talked about because it is such a short poem, but there is still a connection between the two.

Now although this poem is not talking about giving anyone a gift, and it does not happen on Valentines day, they can be looked at in the same way if you do not look at them in a literal way.  In "Mrs Darwin" it says, "I said to him / Something about that Chimpanzee over there / reminds me of you" (Duffy 3-5).  Now clearly the narrator in this poem is a female, and in the poem "Valentine" I also believe it is a female because of the way the onion is explained in great detail, and typically men do not think that way.  The comparison of the two poems is the way the narrator compares the onion to love in "Valentine" and the way the Chimpanzee is compared to a person in "Mrs Darwin".  The only reason that these two poems are not mirror images of each other is because "Mrs Darwin" is such a short poem, it does not go into great detail of how the Chimpanzee is being compared.  Therefor, it is up to the reader to put the pieces together and understand what the author is saying.  In my opinion she is comparing the Chimpanzee to the man in the way he acts, this could be in a bad way or in a good way. In respect to the author Carol Ann Duffy, these are both two well written poems and both keep your mind thinking because of the many meanings they can have.