A dark sky petition to the New Zealand parliament

In January this year I submitted a petition to the New Zealand Parliament, calling for national legislation in this country to reduce light pollution and promote dark skies.

The petition is on the Parliamentary website and anyone can view the petition and sign it to show their support. I would be delighted if Members and Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand could go on-line and support my petition. It is open at the above site until 20 April 2023. The more people that sign, the greater will the impact of the petition be. After the petition closes in April, it will go to the Petitions Select Committee and then be presented in the House.

Because of the very wide environmental, human health, economic and astronomical impact of light pollution, I am sure Members and Fellows of Royal Society Te Apārangi will in many cases feel compelled to support this initiative. Indeed, the recent Society publication Blue Light Aotearoa (by Royal Society Te Apārangi, 2018) has already brought many of the issues of light pollution to the attention of the New Zealand public.

The petition lobbies for New Zealand legislation to curb excessive light pollution to be introduced. There are four main benefits in having such legislation:

• Artificial light at night (ALAN) has an adverse impact on human health.
• ALAN is damaging to the environment.
• Poorly installed outdoor lighting, especially installations that allow light to be projected upwards, wastes electricity and hence there is an adverse economic impact.
• ALAN brightens the night sky and this makes it more difficult to see the stars.

In addition:

• Good outdoor lighting installations promote greater safety at night.

Several communities in New Zealand already have by-laws or lighting ordinances at local government level to curb light pollution, including in those dark sky places recognised by the International Dark Sky Association. At least two dozen communities in this country aspire to become accredited dark sky places. Five are already accredited dark sky places, the most recent being in the Wairarapa in January 2023. However, local government is not well placed to duplicate local legislation in each district or city council, given that lighting technology is complex and changing rapidly. This would entail giving complex technical advice dozens of times over to every local body in the country. Instead, we need a single Lighting Control Act for the whole country, following the lead of France and Croatia, which already have national laws for controlling light pollution.

The main provisions of a national law would be as follows:

• to take account of the adverse effect of ALAN on flora, fauna, human health, energy waste and observing the night sky,
• floodlighting of buildings is curtailed and subject to a curfew,
• the upward light ratio (ULR) from any luminaire must be less than 1 per cent,
• there is a reduction of glare,
• there is a reduction of blue light (CCT < 3000 K in towns; < 2400 – 2700 K rural),
• light trespass is banned everywhere,
• searchlights and lasers are banned or strictly controlled,
• illumination is less than 35 lux in towns, and less than10 lux in rural areas.

The Natural and Built Environment Bill, which is currently before Parliament, may be an ideal place to include light pollution legislation. I have already made a submission to the Select Committee considering this Bill, which is one of several bills which will in due course replace the RMA.