Why we need more dark skies
New Zealand is a world leader in the fight against light pollution, the damage caused by street and other outdoor lighting.
The problem has been 100 years in the making, but only in the past two decades have we become acutely aware of the adverse effects on human health, on the environment and on stargazing, not to mention the wasted electricity that is needed to send light into the sky where it serves no purpose.
The New Zealand Starlight Conference, which opened in Tekapo yesterday, explores the theme ‘‘Towards a dark-sky nation’’.
The conference will explore all these issues and will be a multidisciplinary meeting involving astronomers, stargazers, astro-tourism operators, lighting engineers, environmentalists, health professionals, park rangers and local government officials. There are 112 participants from New Zealand and 16 from overseas.
We hope to visit the new Dark-Sky Project building with the restored Brashear Telescope.
New Zealand has become a world leader in dark-sky protection and astro-tourism, thanks to our dark skies, especially in the Mackenzie region of the South Island.
About 150,000 astro-tourists come here for stargazing annually. Many are from China, Japan and the megacities of Asia, where light pollution means these city-dwellers never see a beautiful, star-studded night sky.
The Aorangi Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve was the first dark sky place recognised here when it was established in 2012 by the International Dark-Sky Association of Tucson, Arizona.
Representatives from the association will be at the conference to guide a dozen or more aspiring dark sky communities in this country towards future accreditation.
So far there are three places with dark-sky accreditation in New Zealand – the other two are Aotea/Great Barrier Island and Rakiura/Stewart Island.
In a few years there could be more than a dozen, emphasising New Zealand’s leadership in this new environmental protection.
Earth’s artificially lit outdoor area grew by 2 per cent a year between 2012 and 2016, according to a study by the GFZ German Research Centre for Geoscience. About 80 per cent of the world’s population live under lightpolluted skies.
‘‘It is [a problem],’’ sleep researcher Dr Neil Stanley told The Daily Telegraph earlier this month.
‘‘Light and dark are key to our circadian rhythm [body clock] and therefore our sleep. As the sun sets, we release melatonin and, somewhere between one to three hours after that, we go to sleep.
‘‘We are exquisitely sensitive to the dark-night cycle,’’ he said. ‘‘The problem is we now have the ability to conquer the night.’’
Norwegian writer Sigri Sandberg told the paper: ‘‘Human beings are diurnal animals that need day and night, light and darkness, activity and rest. Darkness has, since the start, given us this fantastic opportunity to do nothing, and to rest,’’ said the author of An Ode to Darkness.
‘‘And darkness, along with silence, is necessary for us.’’