Valuing City Sky-Spaces

 Valuing City Sky-Spaces

I’ve recently written a blog about the pleasures of living in villages. Many of us though have to live in towns. It might make life a lot easier, to get to work or to study, but there are other aspects of life that we loose touch with while living in large cities. Perhaps if we are aware of some of them we can visit those places where we can find some of the benefits of living closer to nature. For instance, we can take a walk in a park, or alongside a river. And perhaps we can also, if we have the opportunity, lobby to protect these precious city spaces.

 

Large Cities

Top Four

Shanghai, pop. 24,150,000

Karachi, pop 23, 500,000

 

Beijing, pop 21,516,000

 

Delhi, pop 17,060,307

 

Tokyo, is 19^th and London 23^rd.

 

China will see its number of megalopolises grow from 3 in 2000 to 13 in 2020. The rise and decline of great cities past was largely based on their ability to draw the ambitious and the restless from other places. China’s cities are on the rise. Their growth has been fuelled both by the large-scale internal migration of those seeking better lives and by government initiatives encouraging the expansion of urban areas.

 Loosing Touch with Stars

 

One problem of large cities is not just the population but that we loose touch with aspects of life that have always been important to humans. Light pollution means that we only large objects such as the Moon, the big planets, and some of the bright stars, not affected by light pollution.

Usually a 1 hour drive away from the city will bring you in a place with dark sky, free of light pollution - but even that depends on several factors. But if the place is a long way from the city, and the night is clear you should be able to see the Milky Way with your naked eye.

 

Myths of Sky

Nut, sky goddess

Zeus, Jupiter

Hera, Juno

The sky has important religious significance. While there are often multiple sky deities, sometimes this position is reserved for a deity who is conceived as reigning over the others, or at least is one of the most powerful. When the main sky deity was seen as feminine, she often held the title of the ‘Queen of Heaven’, Ancient sky goddesses who held the title "Queen of Heaven" included Isis, Astarte, Ishtar, and Inanna. (The title was later applied to the Virgin Mary, along with various other features and attributes of ancient pagan goddesses.) In some religions there is a Sky father and an Earth mother (for example, Zeus and Hera in ancient Greece), In some contemporary religions, the divine pair of sky deities are known as the "Heavenly Father" and ‘Heavenly Mother’.

 

Appreciating Parks and Rivers

We may not be able to see stars in city but weather is often an important element in the composition of skyscapes. The sky can be seen as many different colours such as a pale blue, deep blue due to sunlight reflected. But the patterns made by clouds can be seen in cities. There can be astounding. And if you can see enough of the sky you can tell where the weather is coming from and what might happen next. My Grand father was a sea captain and I always remember my Grandmother pointing out to me, when watching him sitting out in the garden, how he would raid his head and check the sky every now and then.

 

The benefit of skyscapes why open spaces cities, afforded us in parks and along riverbanks, are so important. Perhaps we don’t believe in the sky gods and goddesses, but the joy that sky-space affords is so important. It reminds us that our world is not all houses and buildings and takes our minds to places of creativity.