Tekapo global stage for dark skies

New Zealand could be the most likely to not only become a dark sky nation, but to help spread the preservation and promotion of dark skies globally, delegates to the New Zealand Starlight Conference in Tekapo heard yesterday.

About 100 people from across New Zealand and beyond registered for the four-day event entitled ‘‘Towards a Dark Sky Nation’’ to listen to experts from around the world talk about the health, environmental, cultural and economic benefits of dark skies.

Ruskin Hartley, executive director of the International Dark Sky Association (IDA), explained 80 per cent of people live under light polluted skies and can’t see the Milky Way, and only 1 per cent of those know they’re missing anything. Light pollution was growing at a rate of 2 per cent – double the population growth, he said.

‘‘It’s not difficult to solve, we have the technology,’’ Hartley said. ‘‘We can turn lights off, we can dim them, we can literally fix the problem at the speed of light.’’

In the next five to 10 years, more needed to be done to increase awareness of light pollution, protect dark places through IDA’s certification programme, engage communities in reducing light pollution through responsible lighting policies, and implement co-ordinated, intentional and scalable actions to slow, halt and reverse light pollution, he said.

New Zealand has three IDA accredited places: Aoraki/Mackenzie, Aotea/Great Barrier Island and Stewart Island.