Hawaii County could save money and attract tourists by reducing light pollution, according to a presentation by a Big Island activist to be heard this week by the County Council.
Puna resident Michael Marlin will discuss with the council’s Committee on Climate Resilience and Natural Resource Management on Tuesday the value of “dark sky” initiatives, which are policies aimed at reducing light pollution to create clearer views of the night sky.
“What I like to say is that, as far as environmental pollutants go — and Mexico has named light pollution as an environmental pollutant — light pollution is the cheapest and easiest pollutant to mitigate,” Marlin said. “It’s way easier than something like Red Hill.”
Marlin — a longtime advocate for dark sky policies — said oversaturated and improperly positioned lighting has drastically reduced the visibility of the night sky throughout even moderately populated areas. But correcting those errors would not only be relatively cheap and easy, but could have long-term benefits for health and safety, he said.
“The thing everyone always worries about is safety,” Marlin said. “We need the lights, so we can be safe at night.”
However, Marlin said that unshielded lighting and LED lights are actually worse for nighttime visibility than properly shielded and balanced light.
“Our eyes evolved over thousands of years to detect sunlight, moonlight, starlight and firelight, but these bright LEDs overwhelm them — you end up blinded by them,” Marlin said.
Furthermore, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health &Safety determined in a 2010 study — and confirmed again in a 2019 followup — that shorter-wavelength lights such as LEDs are associated with “retinal toxicity” and can cause long-term health effects ranging from visual fatigue to deteriorating eyesight.
Meanwhile, lights that are lower on the Kelvin scale — which generally means warmer-colored lights, with longer wavelengths — are less harmful to people’s health, and generally are less light-polluting.
Marlin said the county or state could impose a “light trespass” law, such as one enacted in the United Kingdom in 2006, which would make excessive lighting a statutory nuisance. Under a law like that, instances of overly bright lights shining onto other people’s properties could incur a ticket and a fine.
Beyond that, Marlin said he is trying to get Ka‘u designated as a “dark sky reserve,” which he said requires residents to commit to only using certain lights and fixtures. But, he added, because less light-polluting lights also are generally more energy-efficient, the energy savings could pay for the cost of refitting and replacing lights within a few years.
By reducing light pollution, Marlin said Hawaii County could tap into a new form of tourism: astrotourism, wherein visitors seek dark skies in order to stargaze.
A 2019 study by Missouri State University researchers estimated that visitors to the Colorado Plateau, a dark sky destination, could generate $5.8 billion for the local economy over 10 years.
“See, when people come out to look at the stars, that means they’ve got to stay the night,” Marlin said.
But even beyond the financial benefit, Marlin said the having a clear night sky is crucial to cultures worldwide, and particularly Hawaii.
“Every culture in the world tells stories about the stars,” Marlin said. “If we lose the stars, we lose those stories.”
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.