Just a few days ago we witnessed a lunar eclipse and in a few parts of the world the moon actually appeared to be red in color due to sunlight filtered through the Earth’s atmosphere before lighting up the Moon. Throughout this experience I was thinking, I wish the moon were brighter, so that I could have longer days. Oh wait, no I wasn’t. But someone at the FOREO Institute sure was.

A Brighter Moon to Save Electricity?

According to their website:

By increasing the reflectivity of the moon, the world can experience brighter nights and decrease the need to use electric lighting in the hours after sunset.

Somehow I am still waiting for someone to come along and tell me that this is a big belated April Fool’s prank, because seriously, WTF? This sounds like that brilliant idea you have when you’re drunk and you slur out, “yeaaaah duuuuude, we’ll just brighten the moon!! Peeeerfect!” But what doesn’t usually happen with these ideas is that you launch a campaign and raise US$52,896,400.

If this is for real, then this whole thing smells fishy, especially since FOREO Institute is connected to FOREO the beauty product company and not any, say, scientific groups who have been doing years of research in energy consumption. Their website is quick to tell us why we need a brighter moon:

“A brighter moon could mean brighter nights on Earth and a simple alternative to street lighting, as well as one significant solution to the global energy crisis. Think of how much individual people, as well as entire nations, could save on electricity costs, and how much the strain on struggling economies could be eased.”

BOOM! Problem solved!

A Brighter Moon to Save Electricity?

Obviously no problems to this solution at all. What happens when there is a new moon? Do we force the moon to be full all month long, laws of physics be damned? What about the changing tides of the oceans, interrupted wildlife migration routes, interruption of our own circadian rhythms, the fact that we will never be able to see the stars (screw the stars eh? Who needs em? Saps!) and other unintended side-effects?

What’s even scarier is that they’ve already raised over $52m and are moving forward with their plans. Uhm… I don’t know how these things work, but what if the citizens of the earth don’t want this? What if we wake up 30 years from now to a never-ending day? Do we even get a say in this? Not to mention who would even fund this. And what’s in it for them?

Now where do I go to start an anti-Disco-moon petition…

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