Bright lights and darkness, a human condition

I came across something interesting yesterday... perhaps you did too... a video of composite pictures of Earth at night assembled by NASA. link to video


The narrator remarks on the natural geographic boundaries seen and on the political boundaries. The most obvious one being the Korean Peninsula with North Korea in darkness (for the most part) and South Korea a sea of light.

It also shows the United States with a lot of light east of the Mississippi River and dwindling in the west until you near the coast. Another interesting shot shows the Nile River as a ribbon of light from the delta on the Mediterranean Sea meandering south into the African continent.

The lights reflect human habitation more than wealth or civilization. Although relative wealth is clearly a factor. Civilization, however, is often confused with that...


I wanted to embed the full video to save you from having to link away to it but could not find a way to do it. I did find this, a shorter silent version: