With earth week less than a week behind us, New York State
is striving to be the green state in the country. With many new green policies
including reducing water runoff from farms, increasing solar energy farms,
reducing paper waste, and limiting light usage, Governor Cuomo is showing he is
serious about the environment. The most recent push is limiting the internal
and external lights for commercial buildings at night.
For years, nearly 40,000
buildings in New York City have been using internal and or external lights at
nighttime. City officials are calling for a bill to limit these light usages
only when individuals are not inside the building. Reducing the number of
lights left on within and on the outside would have a significant impact on
curbing greenhouse gasses. Mayor deBlasio has articulated his support of
passing this legislation, which would also cut down on light pollution for
migrating birds.
While saving the environment is always a good thing, public
safety could be affected with an unpredictable outcome. When you reduce the
number of lights on the outside and inside of buildings, crime tends to
increase. The biggest effect this bill of limiting the light usage would be for
police officers of New York City. Police officers would no longer be able to
look into closed stores to see if anything illegal is going on. Also, the
quality on the security cameras would drop drastically because of the amount of
light. The resolutions of potential could become obsolete which has been a huge
source in identifying suspects.
This issue contains two sides with two very different valid
points. Maintain the safety of individuals in New York City or make progress on
the issue of global warming. Click
here to learn how New York is becoming greener.
