Mexico wants dark skies

At a national level, only the municipality of Ensenada, Baja California, has a law to protect the right to dark skies yet last April 26 a federal bill was passed at the Lower Chamber to reduce light pollution .

According to Deputy Tania Victoria Arguijo, Secretary of the Science and Technology Commission of the Lower Chamber, the initiative was born at an international forum in 2016, in which several national and international institutions participated, such as the National Autonomous University of Mexico ( UNAM ) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation ( UNESCO ).

Legislator Arguijo said during an interview with the Scientific and Technological Advisory Forum that the road to get the bill passed wasn't an easy one and it took them two years to get the project green-lighted.

Now, they expect that within 10 years, all municipalities in Mexico will switch from traditional street light to LED street light – reducing by 80% the energy consumption of the country and reducing light pollution.

“We have to give the next step, not only in favor of a new technological era but also an environment-friendly era,” said the legislator.

For his part, José Franco, General Coordinator of the Scientific and Technological Advisory Forum explained that “excess of street lights in cities has an impact not only in our economy but also in the health of human beings and biodiversity,” adding that an excess of light can disrupt the cycles of plants and animals.

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