Paul Bogard's Let There Be Dark

Paul Bogard's "Let There Be Dark" provides a reasoned argument for the preservation of natural darkness. His claim is developed by the use of various literary elements, appealing to logic and emotion simultaneously. Throughout "Let There Be Dark", Bogard uses a potent concoction of factual evidence, anecdotes, logical reasoning, and simple persuasion.

Bogard begins his article by using an anecdote to form an appeal to emotion. "At my family's cabin on a Minnesota lake, I knew woods so dark that my hands disappeared before my eyes", stated Bogard. This powerful introduction establishes a sense of nostalgia in the reader. According to Bogard, 8 out of 10 children will never know a sky dark enough for the Milky Way. This statement, as a followup

to his previous anecdote, establishes his claim.
"And too little darkness, meaning too much artificial light, spells trouble for all," establishes Bogard.

Immediately following this idea, Bogard cites factual evidence from varying sources. The first two sources he cites are the World Health Organization and the American Medical Association, which appeal to a sense of authority. Factual evidence is consistently used throughout the rest of the passage. "The rest of the world depends... including nocturnal and crepuscular species of birds, insects, mammals, fish, and reptiles," claims Bogard. He establishes light pollution as a fairly recent problem in Paragraph 7.

"In the United States and Western Europe, the amount of light in the sky increases an average of about 6% every year," states Bogard. Although NASA photos show America as a "very dark country" as recently as the 1950s, today it is "nearly covered with a blanket of light".

No argument is complete without appealing to both logic and emotion, and Bogard does the latter very well. He describes darkness as providing "solitude, quiet, and stillness" (6). The use of a rhetorical question strengthens his argument further. "In a world awash with electric light... how would Van Gogh have given the world his "Starry Night"? asks Bogard. This question creates a sense of wonder and makes the reader think and feel simultaneously, appealing to

pathos.
In the first half of the passage, Bogard establishes a dire tone, assertively using words such as "trouble", "collapse", "bulldozer", "wrecking", and "disrupting". "Simply put, without darkness, Earth's ecology would collapse," claims Bogard. This highlights the situation's urgency. However, the author ultimately appeals to hope and describes the issue as "readily within our ability to solve". Simple solutions are proposed such as turning off lights after 2am, already adopted by Paris. However, his ultimate idea appeals to the reader's emotions, stating that we must appreciate darkness before the issue is fixable. Bogard ultimately outlines the problem, supports his claim about it, and proposes solutions, forming an effective argument.