This is the widely circulated image on how the earth looks like at night. It is a composite of hundreds of pictures taken by orbiting satellites on 27th of November 2000.

This is one of my favourite picture. I love it so much that i set it as my wallpaper because it is absolutely stunning. Just look at the distribution of city lights across the entire globe. Much of the city lights were concentrated in North America and Europe with a large part of Africa and Australia having little to no light at all. It shows the clear distinction of economic development between different regions. Many people in the African countries are living without light at night!

This image was taken 8 years ago. So how does our earth at night looks like now? I’m willing to bet it will definitely be brighter than this one taken in year 2000, especially in the Asia region.

Now just imagine one day, you can’t see the dark blue regions anymore. Everywhere on the map are bright spots. Wouldn’t it be a scary thing to think of?