Christchurch's light-bulb moment...

Why does the red zone, and Christchurch, and in fact all of New Zealand need to re-establish its relationship with darkness? It's not just because it's nice to see stars at night. (Though of course it is!).

The primary driver for the red zone dark sky park has always been health. Human health and ecological health.

We know that disrupting our circadian rhythm can have negative effects on sleep and mood and diet - we know that from shift-workers for example. But exposure to blue light at night - our phones, our lap-tops, LED streetlights - has other harmful effects we are only now beginning to understand. 

The major one for human beings is the interruption of melatonin production. This critical hormone not only regulates sleep - the lack of which in itself has many negative impacts (impaired learning, weight gain, low mood etc) - but in a Harvard study of more than 100,000 nurses, its absence was shown to increase breast cancer risk in women. 

Naturally we have found that blue light affects wildlife too. Attracting all the wrong bugs, derailing migratory birds and confusing predators to name a few observations. 

If we think of all human history - millenia upon millenia - we have always lived with that rhythm of day and night. Light and dark. Go back further, all life on earth, for billions of years, has lived and evolved in that rhythm. And then suddenly we invent artificial light. A split second ago in geological time. Nature can't adapt that fast, but there is no need to.

There are many reasons to support full cut-off amber lights that respect our health and environment - reduced light pollution, reduced energy use, even star tourism such as we see in Tekapo - all worthwhile, but there are genuine health risks too. The time to act is now, when almost every council in the country is contemplating a municipal lighting refit. 

The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) are offering a hefty discount for councils that pick up blue LEDs. 85% off! They claim they are environmentally-friendly, because they use less power. But the truth is there has been no environmental impact study done in NZ.

Maybe NZTA picked up a cheap job-lot? All around the world where these lights have been installed, individuals, neighbourhoods and cities are lobbying to have them removed. Recently NZTA agreed to extend their special offer from 2018 to 2021 – giving councils longer to ponder all the evidence coming to light (pun intended!).

The Dunedin Dark Skies group are currently compiling information for NZ's local councils, before we are all committed to prison yard exteriors and sleepless nights. Did you know Dunedin is hoping to become a dark sky city? Christchurch is perfectly placed to do the same. And doesn't a dark sky country sound even better...?

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