New! Earth Art for Earth Day: City Lights Worldwide

We were too excited about Earth Day and today’s out-of-this-world release to keep it from you. Get a little global perspective with our newest Space Edition, City Lights Worldwide.

 

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As you’re probably well aware by now—or will soon learn!—20x200 HQ is populated by space nerds. But even those among us who aren’t constantly looking skyward were struck by City Lights Worldwide. Seeing our planet in rich blue hues reminds us how very tiny we are, while the speckles of yellow-white light show the (literal) power we have.

City Lights Worldwide was created by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, used by NASA as a way to study the urbanization of the globe. Homes, streetlights, and businesses glow brightly at night; in more urban areas, the joined lights blossom into a bright gleam more easily pinpointed from farther distances. As we peer at ourselves and our planet, it’s easy to spot New York, Paris, and Tokyo, but it’s also fun to discover the Trans-Siberian railroad as it crackles its way through Russia, the bright snake of the Nile, and the latticework of the highways across the United States. Compare this to the dark navy blue of Antarctica, the South American rainforests, and the Sahara Desert. We’re reminded both how varied and how vast our planet is—and how little of it we inhabit.

Looking at City Lights Worldwide, you might feel a kind of kinship with the lights. Light represents our known quantities, civilization, human life. Not unlike our earliest ancestors, we gravitate toward sources of light; the urban sprawl now stands in for paleolithic campfires. As you celebrate Earth Day later this week, and each time you turn on a light in your own home, may you be reminded that although we are far-flung on this fragile planet, we are connected through the power of light.

With art for everyone,
Team 20x200

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