Christina Seely photographed the 43 brightest cities as determined by NASA's map of Earth at night. The US, Western Europe and Japan use around two-thirds of the world’s resources and create about half the world's CO2:
More often than not, urban light is unnecessary and often unappealing. At the same time electric light is used to enhance the identity of cities. It’s used outline the Eiffel Tower in Paris, or the bridges in the San Francisco Bay Area, or to accentuate the changing maple leaves in Kyoto in the fall. When it’s thought of as beautiful, we are looking at it and considering the city as place. When it’s thought of as pollution, we are looking beyond it and considering what it it might be blocking out, what we are no longer connecting to—natural night, natural rhythms.
(Photo: Metropolis 35°00’N 135°45’E (Kyoto))
The Dish 