Tcentrepreneur

Some ideas don't announce themselves with flashing lights. In fact, this one is about what happens when the lights aren't there at all. This week on Inconvenient Ideas, I found myself talking about Tucson, Arizona — a place my wife Karen and I once called home for nearly sixteen years — and a current news story that stopped me cold. An elderly woman has gone missing in Tucson. She happens to be the mother of a very well-known broadcaster, which is why the story caught national attention. But what really caught my attention was something deeper, quieter, and frankly more unsettling. Light pollution. Or rather… the lack of it. If you've never lived in Tucson, you might not know this: much of the city — especially the desert communities — is intentionally dark. No streetlights. Limited exterior lighting. Strict rules designed to protect the night sky. Tucson is one of the great stargazing cities in the world, home to observatories, astronomers, and people who truly treasure the stars. When Karen and I moved ther