When was the last time you revealed the night sky with its full stars? Some new Mexicans who live in remote areas can see the cosmos in all their fame every evening, as clouds allow. But those who live in population centers, including many small cities, cannot be able to do because of artificial lighting.
In contrast to many countries, New Mexico has a state law that limits light pollution. Jon Holtzman, emeritus astronomy professor at New Mexico State University, said that the 1999 New Mexico Night Sky Protection Act is due thanks to changes in the light bulb technology for an update. More about that a little.
Holzman spends some of his personal time to work for it Darksky InternationalAn organization that focuses on preserving the untouched night sky in the world.
“Only a small part of the US population lives somewhere where you can even see the Milky Way, so that people don't even know what it is,” said Holtzman. “And people start in darker places for a new type of tourism called astro tourism, and New Mexico is a good goal for this. Therefore, it actually has some economic effects by maintaining our dark sky.”
However, tourist collar are far from the most convincing reason to protect the dark sky. The flawless night sky is important for Migrating birds. Holtzman also said that people benefit.
“There are some indications that light pollution affects human health“, Said Holtzman.” And then there is also the simple argument of energy and money. The glow in the sky where it is not used wastes energy and costs additional money. “
Darksky is committed to the lighting to just go where it is useful or necessary.
“I think it is important that the goal of organizations like Darksky is that not all of their lights spend,” said Holtzman. “It should do what we call a responsible light. When lights are installed, the light on the floor seems to be where it is needed, and not in the sky, where it is just good for anyone and does a lot of damage.”
New Mexico Darksky has been an active chapter of the international organization since June 2023. However, the legislation of this state for the protection of dark sky was written when the incandescent lamp lighting was the norm.
“Now the prevailing type of lighting is LED lighting,” said Holtzman. “And people used to talk about how light light was in relation to Watts, which is an energy measurement, not about measuring the brightness.”
The energy-efficient LED lighting uses fewer watts, so that intensely light lights can fall well in the now Aarchaian wattabenzenkungen. New Mexico Darksky tries to restrict the New Mexico statute rather than watts.
Although Darksky heralds a lobby for legislation, the main focus of the organization is on education and the public in public, said Holzman. Darksky offers Resources for homeownersCompanies and public authorities who want to make their lighting more friendly.
“The basic principle is that you use protected lighting outside so that you basically make sure that all lights you set up do not put light in the sky and do not put any light in your neighbor's courtyards,” said Holtzman.
“Sometimes excessively light light can generate excessively dark shadows that people can remain invisible, and if they look out or look outside or look outside, light lights can actually make them blindly. In a process, we call blend … It is difficult to see an intruder if there is an additional shine,” said Holtzman. “So responsible lighting can actually be safer.”
In the case of home needs, Holtzman recommends that if possible and, if necessary, set the lights outdoors of movement sensors.
New Mexico Darkky has teamed up with several public and private units to form them Dark for the Park AllianceA joint effort to protect the dark sky near the Carlsbad Cavern National Park in the southeast of the state and the Chaco Culture National Heritage Park in the northwest of New Mexico.
In Carlsbad at the beginning of this year, the Franklin Mountain Energy AA, based in Denver, equipped it Production pageWith the result of a 99 percent reduction in the sky in or the appearance of the brightness in the night sky. The changes also reduced the electricity consumption of the lighting system by 60 percent, said the company.
Projects to combat light cases, such as This one Published by David Lorenz, researcher at the University of Wisconsin, shows the dramatic effects of oil and gas production in the night sky in the Perm Basin.
Darksky also has a program for setting up recognized Dark Sky locations with different certifications for different types of locations. New Mexico currently has nine Certified Dark-Sky locations, including the Gila National Forest's Cosmic campsiteThe only place in North America that brings itself to the highest rank of Darksky International, that of the International Dark Sky Sanctuary.
In addition to nature conservation and consciousness, Holtzman also recommends that only the beauty of a really dark sky in New Mexico have never done this lately.
“New Mexicans are lucky and we should see it,” said Holtzman. “Many people in this country don't have what we have, so we should appreciate it and we should keep it.”