Dark Sky Reserves

Earth Law Center has launched a new campaign to recognize Nature’s inherent right to dark skies. We are joined in this project by leading Rights of Nature advocate Myra L. Jackson and other innovative thinkers in the field.

With the Rights of Nature being recognized throughout the world, we must begin to promote holistic ecosystem health as a right. Though lesser-known than other environmental needs, dark skies are fundamental to the well-being of both ecosystems and humans.

Light pollution has significant, measurable negative impacts on both nighttime ecosystems and humans. For example, due to light pollution, sea turtles lose their way to the sea, migrating birds to become confused and strike buildings, and plant seasonal cycles become disturbed. It also affects human hormone cycles, our sleep cycles, and wakefulness. Using light carelessly also wastes energy and interferes with our ability to view the night sky.

Crestone Embraces Dark Skies

In May 2021, the Town of Crestone, Colorado was designated an International Dark Sky Community by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA). Crestone joins 30 other International Dark Sky Communities globally. Notably, Crestone became the world’s first city to both become an International Dark Sky Community and to adopt a Rights of Nature resolution.

Earth Law Center and partners worked with Crestone to pass a 2018 resolution recognizing the Rights of Nature. Once embedded into a community, The Rights of Nature provides legal and ethical support for implementing actions to protect local ecosystems and to strengthen our deep interconnection with Nature.

Crestone is nestled along the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which enclose one side of the San Luis Valley—the world’s largest alpine valley and a region renowned for its natural beauty.

Ecosystems have a fundamental right to dark skies such that they can thrive. Earth Law Center will promote this right through new laws and policies at all levels of government. Stay tuned for announcement of the first community in the world to recognize and implement nature’s right to dark skies. Read more about light pollution in on our blog.

For more information on the connection between Dark Skies and Rights of Nature, see Who speaks for the night? The regulation of light pollution in the ‘Rights of Nature’ legal framework by John Barentine, Ph.D., Director of Public Policy for the International Dark-Sky Association.

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Header Photo: Unsplash / Federico Beccari