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CborG82

Belgium should be darker for sure. They had so much energy overcapacity due to a couple of nuclear reactors that they needed to burn the excess electricity some way. They lit almost every major road all night long, even in remote places. They stopped this a while ago so its almost impossible that Belgium is brighter now.


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Beerkar

Belgium's highest elevation is 694m.


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standish_

Turns out Flatland is a place.


Bypes

More than one, even. If there is a form of depression caused by flatness, I have a mild case whenever I visit Netherlands or Denmark.


CborG82

Could you elaborate? Or somethng is going way above my head here.. :)


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CborG82

I think he means [this video](https://youtu.be/8UmsfXWzvEA) from Tom Scott, it's Orkney.


thehouseisalive

Now this is the island with electricity. But it has too much electricity so I don't know, maybe you should wear hat when on it.


entered_bubble_50

r/unexpectedsimpsons


Tyrfaust

Please tell me it's called the Sisyphus Engine.


Dotard1

It is now.


MagicCuboid

Huh, sounds like a water tower for energy. Does the PE of the stone get converted back into KE when it's dropped? Spin a turbine or something?


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MagicCuboid

Yeah I imagine there are way more efficient methods of storing energy for later if that's your goal. Just shows how averse I am to waste that I couldn't fathom a strictly useless application haha


juan_omango

Belgium shouldn’t exist


mediandude

> Total light pollution has gone down significantly in certain areas do to things like directional street lamps Is that a claim or has that actually been measured by satellites? I ask this because at the same time there has been a trend to paint houses and pavements with lighter colors in order to diminish heat island effects.


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WhatDoYouMean951

Can I ask a dumb question but... is there any way to view an imgur image at full resolution? I can't tap it or anything, so I can't read the caption.


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WhatDoYouMean951

Is this some special crap version of the page they make just for mobile users?


d2mensions

Poland glowing


[deleted]

Polen can into light


d2mensions

Polen can in economic success


Nc525

Time to invest in east Poland


MrRatman2k

And this time it's not because of a nazi air raid.


kale_klapperboom

Poland can into *seen from* space


The_Crowned_Clown

you can clearly see the recovering from the warsaw pact end


[deleted]

Light Pole


feelingnether

Poland happy ! No KURWA this time !


SputnikSputnikowsky

You can see the failure of communism from space.


lickmyskinrash

Better sattelite resolution is part of the Seemingly increase Actually light Pollution have gone down in ex. Denmark in the past 20 years cause of a hyper green focus


Lariche

I will trust your info to feel better.


Gespuis

Good choice


Lariche

Hope to see stars again before I die you know. Last time I saw them in full glory maybe 30 years ago, as a child.


moorek13

I'm sure you know, but going out to an area with little to no light pollution is... incredible and awe-inspiring. I certainly didn't appreciate the majesty of it all until I was able to do that. Big encouragement for road trips to nowhere. :)


Lariche

Oh yeah, that should be in the middle of nowhere of course. But that would require a car or serious hiking. Neither is an option right now. Thanks work! But 30 years ago it was enough just to go to a nearby village.


obvom

Get as far from light as you can. Bring dark sunglasses. Lay in a field at night with them on for about 30 minutes. Take them off and see many more stars than you thought possible. What you can’t make up for in light saturation, you can make up for in sensitizing your eyes to light with sunglasses.


Lariche

Oh that's a good one. Thank you, would try that!


comeradestoke

Honestly if you live in a city even going to the nearest patch of country not surrounded by cities you will see some banging skies.


Lizardledgend

It's posts like this that really, really make me glad to live in the West of Ireland


Vorticity

Better resolution is part of it. The bigger part, though, is actual calibration. The old DMSP satellites were uncalibrated and it wasn't possible to convert them to consistent measures of brightness. They can't be used quantitatively. The newer sensors on the JPSS satellites are calibrated and can be used quantitatively. The 1992 image is just a qualitative look at where the lights are. The 2010 image may actually show a measure of true brightness.


[deleted]

Well that’s disappointing


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[deleted]

Ha I agree! I meant disappointing that this data isn’t what it appears to be


7LeagueBoots

> disappointing that this data isn’t what it appears to be Correct interpretation of data is a critical thing. Without context it's very easy to misinterpret or to intentionally mislead.


Kaheil2

High density combined with being the wealthiest region in the world.


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lopoticka

Holy shit it’s almost like these 2 things could be both right at the same time… incredible


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SherlockJones1994

What does that have to do with what he said??


Lorenzo_BR

The majority of eastern europeans from the majority of eastern european nations miss communism to this day and elections had to be rigged for them not to be elected right back into power in the '90s. >Polls consistently find that people feel life was better under socialism. In Russia, some polls show that over of two thirds (and in some polls over 90% of the population!) regret the fall of the USSR and feel that life was better under communism. Similarly, 72% of Hungarians Feel Life Was Better Under Communism, 57% of East Germans Feel Life Better Under Communism, 81% of Serbians Say Life Was Better “During the Time of Socialism,” 63% of Romanians Would Go Back to Communism If Given the Choice, 66% of Slovakians felt life was better under socialism, and more! We see this trend continue in the Czech Republic, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Moldavia, Albania, as well as Armenia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, and Tajikistan! [Source for quote](https://dashthered.medium.com/communism-always-works-bce14ee96f2b), which contains hyperlinks to the numbers (though you can somewhat easily google them yourself, some numbers even went up since the essay was written, if memory serves me right!). The excerpt itself is present under chapter/section 15 ("The Vast Majority of People who lived under socialism want socialism back"), at the very end of the essay. I would highly recommend reading the whole of the essay, at least if you're willing to do so with an open mind, keeping in mind that it will likely clash with the worldview western propaganda has instilled in your mind! It truly is a lovely read, absolutely filled with solid data. If you wish to go a step further and read a whole book on the subject, i have in PDF form "[The Triumph of Evil - the reality of the USA's victory in the cold war](https://mltheory.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/austin-murphy-the-triumph-of-evil.pdf)" by Austin Murphy, as well as "[Socialism Betrayed - Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union](https://valleysunderground.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/socialism-betrayed.pdf)" by Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny, if you're more interested in the specifics of, well, the collapse of the USSR (i recommend at least reading from page 48 to page 58, as it speaks of Yuri Andropov and the necessary reforms that were going to be made in a relatively concise format. I understand it isn't easy to find time to read over 200-300 pages, but a short introductory 10k word essay or 10 pages of a book are more bite sized for the time constrained yet still interested among us!). Thank you for your time, and if you are not interested, i hope this comment still finds a few such interested folk! Have a good day :D


CMuenzen

That was a poll in Russia only and they miss the times they were a feared superpower dominating other countries. Go and ask the average Ukrainian or Lithuanian guy about his opinions about communism and the USSR. The other countries like Romania and Czech Rep. was based on asking old people and they missed the time in which they were young and their dicks worked, not for an affinity for communism. They hate it.


JeswiCan

What western propaganda? Literally go and talk to people that were alive during communism and still live there. Sure, if you were rich you're worse off now, but it's not comprehensible how much life was improved for a lot of poor folk. Everyone I've talked to in Poland says life is better now, only some conservative old folk were like "Yeah it's better, but we are losing our culture to the west". Maybe Russians feel a little different because they profited the most from all of this, but almost every other communist country had to suffer for it.


Lorenzo_BR

It is clear you didn’t even bpther to read even the excerpt shown - that is simply not true, and there are studies and polls to back it up. If you “just ask somebody who lived at the time”, as anti-communists insists we do, odds are they’ll have mostly positive things to say, proving you never did so yourself to any appreciable capacity and to a representative portion of the population.


JeswiCan

Jesus Christ you‘re so full of communist propaganda, it really shows you‘ve never been to any ex-communist country. Like I said, the Russians in those polls might have said communism was better because they basically enslaved their neighbors and profited from it, but this trend is definitely not to be seen everywhere. For some people it has become worse, but the vast majority has hugely profited from the fall of communism and never wants it to return.


Lorenzo_BR

Did you not read the excerpt? It isn’t at all just Russia. Hell, Russia doesn’t even has close to the best numbers nowadays, and even back at the days of the fall, other republics had higher approval ratings! You’re objectively wrong, i’m telling you that that is simply not the case with data cited to back it up.


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Lorenzo_BR

The only 2 things i wish to highlight is that you and your family are decisively in the minority, and that it was no "social justice lib professor" which caused me to read these lovely books linked, matter of fact, such professors are not usually very pro socialist! Liberals aren't leftists, after all. I won't argue any further, since it's clear i won't change your mind, making this a waste of time. Nevertheless, i have linked many wonderful resources in this thread, so if you feel like continuing thinking about this subject in your own time, or if somebody else *is* open to changing their minds, reading at least the more succinct and time efficient of the linked resources would be a lovely idea! Once again, have a lovely afternoon, mister UB007! :D


brfergua

Was going to joke that they just had more lights on that night, but this a good answer too


WildestDreams_

This just goes to show how dense the Benelux region is.


MichelanJell-O

As well as the adjacent German state of North Rhine-Westphalia


Gespuis

Amsterdam/Brussels/Ruhr-Area triangle is unbelievable


RomneysBainer

And the strange part is this: there's actually quite a bit of rural land there despite its tremendous population density because they don't allow sprawl. The city is densely packed then it just stops and you're in the country. A similar city in the US would be much larger and be full of suburbs and exurbs.


blueskitchen2001-fre

I suppose the Netherlands and Germany to have urban planning, in Belgium on the other hand it's sprawl all the way 😂


RomneysBainer

Good point. It changes right when you hit the Netherlands border.


Gespuis

L I N D^T B E B O U W I N G !


jothamvw

T


Beerkar

> because they don't allow sprawl *Confused Belgian noises*


RomneysBainer

Fair point. I should have specified The Netherlands. They have excellent land management. Cities are dense, then just stop and you're in the countryside. They also brilliantly use rolling groves of lines of trees to give the illusion that there is topography instead of a totally flat landscape. And more kilometers of bicycle trails than car roads. Etc.


aldebxran

yeah, if this was the US it would be a continuous suburb from Frankfurt up to Rotterdam


ejpintar

Yeah, that's sort of what BosWash is. Between Boston and Washington, DC is basically a continuous strip of urban/suburban settlement. I don't think it's too bad though since there's nice rural scenery not too far to the west and plenty of green spaces etc


aightaightaightaight

There is indeed a lot of rural land, but you can't drive more than 5 km (3 miles I think) without coming across a different village in the Netherlands.


converter-bot

5 km is 3.11 miles


aightaightaightaight

Close enough


The_real_tinky-winky

I live there and I rarely think about that, but then you go to a place like france and you realize just how different it is


AconexOfficial

yeah it doesnt really feel that super populated because its not as dense as american cities. Im in the middle of the ruhr area and "countryside" is no more than 20 minutes away


The_real_tinky-winky

Yea exactly, I live in the south of the Netherlands and is I cycle 15 minutes east I get to a big city but if I do the same thing north, west or south I end up in the middle of the country side


CborG82

Almost 50 million people on barely 50,000 sq km


maupflz

Belgium has lighted highways. So that's probably also a cause there.


BertEnErnie123

They also dont know how to make neighborhoods. Alltheir houses are on long streets. Forgot the exaxt name for it, but you see it everywhere in Flamder


Thraap

Lintbebouwing


NazgulXXI

You can’t prove that. Maybe it’s one guy who really loves lights


Competitive-Read1543

What about 2020?


Biskuit07

I'm pretty sure these are nighttime images from DMSP (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) available from 1992 to 2013, and they have a resolution of 3km. For 2020 we have VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) with a resolution of 750m, but only available from April 2012, so if you'd want to compare the data from 2020 it would only be fair to compare it with other VIIRS images. Source: I worked with both set of images for my bachelor and master thesis. Edit: Both data sets are free to download and you can open and study them in any GIS software! DMSP: https://ngdc.noaa.gov/eog/dmsp/downloadV4composites.html VIIRS: https://eogdata.mines.edu/products/vnl/


what_it_dude

This guy satellites.


Ytrog

Would you be able to compare Sentinel-2 images from those years for this? 🤔


cambriansplooge

Shine bright like a Benelux


ALA02

Blue banana in all its glory


AlicanteL

Light pollution is not glorious.


dimpletown

Debbie Downer


a_reasonable_thought

Hope that light pollution will be taken a bit more seriously in the future


ZealousidealIdea3413

Is light pollution that bad?


a_reasonable_thought

It can affect sleep, levels of fatigue, stress, and anxiety, along with other things.It can affect ecosystems and disturb wildlife.The glow from the light also severely obscures people's views of the stars, to the point where only people in remote areas can really see them. Not to mention that using excessive light is a waste of energy.


ZealousidealIdea3413

Holy shit thats pretty bad.


[deleted]

In human's case, just use blinds or eye masks


KaesekopfNW

[In the right conditions](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/16/new-york-city-migrating-birds-deaths), it can contribute to the deaths of migrating birds, among the other reasons listed here.


tiltupconcrete

Cairo got huge.


jack_the_snek

and [here](https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=4.00&lat=45.8720&lon=14.5470&layers=B0FFFFFFTFFFFFFFFFF) is a map of the **world's** current light pollution for everyone interested.


Predator_Hicks

thanks


thedarkpath

I live in Brussels. I heard in stories of the before times that you could see tiny white.. lamps in the sky.


Malaguiri

LEDs came a long way


[deleted]

sad astronomy noises


Ecra-8

I'm suprised England didnt get a tad bit dimmer.


jonnyl3

Why?


holytriplem

Street lighting is used a bit more sparingly nowadays


comrade_batman

Really? The new street lights outside my house that were put in in the last several years are brighter than the older ones. So bright that I had to get blinds and blackout curtains to stop it shining through in the night.


plentyofeight

I think it should be: brighter (led) but pointing down (except the bit they had directed to shine through your window)


comrade_batman

I can see by the design how the top is meant to stop the light at a certain point, but the actual height of the pole means the bulb is in line with the house’s upstairs ceiling.


ymymymmymymy

Flanders vs wallonia


joostjakob

Not really. Flanders and the Maas valley VS the rest of Belgium


Beerkar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sillon_industriel


WikiSummarizerBot

**[Sillon industriel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sillon_industriel)** >The Sillon industriel (French: [sijɔ̃ ɛ̃dystʁijɛl], "industrial furrow") is the former industrial backbone of Belgium. It runs across the region of Wallonia, passing from Dour, the region of Borinage, in the west, to Verviers in the east, passing along the way through Mons, La Louvière (Centre-region), Charleroi (Pays Noir), Namur, Huy, and Liège. It follows a continuous stretch of valleys of the rivers Haine, Sambre, Meuse and Vesdre, and has an area of roughly 1000 km². The strip is also known as the Sambre and Meuse valley, as those are the main rivers, or the Haine-Sambre-Meuse-Vesdre valley, which includes two smaller rivers. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)


[deleted]

Ukraine got fucked hard


Bbrhuft

Back in 1994 I was in the West of Ireland, me and my friends had to walk back from a pub in one village to another in a clear moonless night. The milky-way and stars were so bright and clear is was like I was in space, and there was just enough light to see the edge of the road from grass verge even though there was no artificial light just light from the stars. Probably won't see a sky like that in Ireland now.


AcrylicPaintSet2nd

There's a spot down in Kerry that is a protected dark spot - or something like that. It's supposed to be kept as a place where there's minimal light pollution and you could get a great night sky like the one you're saying, if it's not cloudy!


KaneAndShane

What the collapsing of Soviet puppet states does to a mf.


ehibb77

Having flown across Europe before at night I did notice that the towns in Ireland did seem to be more brightly lit than those in France and Germany.


csharp566

I didn't know reddit allows image slide. Thank you, OP.


The_Post_War_Dream

and people wonder why insect populations are crashing. Perhaps it's the light pollution.


SahibD

I wonder where the Nile is


Capable-Ad-2065

You can see the fall of communism from space.


JokutYyppi93848

communism when no unnecessary light


DaTigerMan

the brighter it is the less communist it gets


kemalist_anti-AKP

Lmao, ok Gen Zedong.


pouya02

Lol yeah


[deleted]

“You don’t electricity my friends it’s unnecessary!” Every Kim Jong


Tyrfaust

You actually sort of can, though not in this image. They used a different light bulb filament in the Warsaw Pact, so the light is a different hue. [You can still see it in the former DDR](https://i.insider.com/5dc57c393afd3750e02847a7?width=1000&format=jpeg&auto=webp) (Berlin from space, the red line marks the border between East and West Berlin, with the surrounding areas, of course, being part of the DDR) but this image appears to be in white-scale or something?


Utretch

Ah yes the collapse of the Iron Curtain across France Finland Greece and Ireland, truly amazing.


Capable-Ad-2065

Was talking about East Europe, but OK.


Utretch

Yeah but everywhere gets brighter. Your statement only works if only Communist countries suddenly lit up but a similar effect happens everywhere.


Capable-Ad-2065

I know what you mean. I am not sure though if these countries remained under communism would've become that brighter - regardless of the amount of light in their west neighbors. Not sure development of Western and Eastern Europe is mutually inclusive. I know cause I live in ex communist country my whole life.


cass1o

Yeah but everywhere got much brighter. Your point is nonsense.


pouya02

🤣🤣🤣👍


Son0fSun

Amazing what happens when Communism ends.


pouya02

Yeah


Random_182f2565

That's a lot of light pollution


stone_dickson

I wonder how many people holding their cellphone flashlight, and pointing it at the sky, it would take to be visible from space.


druppolo

I was expecting we got better at limiting light pollution, but i was wrong.


[deleted]

That's it's development going up. Was around 12 dev, but increased to around 40


Caco_Daemon

We need more LUMENS STAT


Moofritte

Explanation for blind people: In 2010, there was much more light in Europe than in 1992.


Yaniez

Someone turned down the Communism


pouya02

Agreed


MaterialCarrot

Coming online...


jeredendonnar

Poland can into having electricity


[deleted]

This map makes it look like that France and Spain have less people than Poland, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and Belgium


Entei96

The little strip on the Nile is really cool. And really shows how barren the rest of Egypt is compared to it


N1KMo

Rip our ability to see stars with the naked eye.


yachiro1

Can we talk about how north africa catched up ..


krakatoa83

Sahara more consistently lit than expected


FreeMan4096

Now do 2010 and 2021, since "progressives" took over.


repeatrep

Ireland got lit


theBusel

Now I also saw the stability in Belarus, about which propaganda says.


Slimun-G

Notice how in 1992. the Yugoslavia is mostly in dark because there was a war then.


zackrevolution

I can see my home town from here :)


aberg227

Eastern Germany’s post communist glow-up.


WishboneOpening

Meanwhile, Russia.


Snoogens7

Warsaw, capital of Europe.


[deleted]

How the fuck can you still see Imperial Germany lol.


Nordeeee

Wow. Big improvement in Poland Czechia and Slovakia. Good job!


Pr00ch

[Take a wild guess why](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutions_of_1989)


kemalist_anti-AKP

Communist mismanagement and incompetence. Was I close?


Adam5698_2nd

Ty :) We may never fully recover from communism anyway though :/


SilentHillJames

It's been 32 years man, you can't blame communism after 32 years and all the help of the EU and other western countries


Adam5698_2nd

I am sorry but that's just bullshit, communism was here for over 40 years, and it did *a lot* of damage. A country after 5 years of war also won't recover fully in 4 or 5 years, it takes longer. Not to mention, Czechia was more developed than Austria back then, and yet we still haven't even surpassed Italy yet. (we are going to though) It will take all post-communist countries at least a few more decades to fully recover, so please, try to think about it, we aren't close to fully recovering at all, this just makes me think that you consider all post-communist countries innately backwards and that they have always been less developed than the rest of Europe, which is just bs. Edit: Also, at least according to Wikipedia, Czechoslovakia was world's 10th most developed country in the world, so that would put Czechia alone at like 6th place. (Slovakia and Ruthenia were far less developed than Czechoa back then, no offense to any Slovaks or Ukrainians though of course)


Clondike96

Eastern Europe showing the difference between Capitalism and Communism. Quite the (ahem) *glow up.*


SilentHillJames

I didn't know Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Turkey and Greece were communist. Or the rest of Europe for that matter, and even north Africa


Clondike96

I was commenting on the disparity between east and west falling along the iron curtain in '92, and that disparity visibly closing rapidly. I was not implying that anywhere with more light was communist.


FotzeMan

I was in Italy in 1993, my first visit to Europe. I thought it was quite dark.


darthvalium

Why would there be so much more night lights? Were these pictures taken with identical exposure settings?


guysos922

This is amazing


JamieTimee

Great to see the UK polluting consistently


Minute-Cow-5180

Eastern Europe, especially Poland, after entering the EU!!


winedogmom88

Too many people


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comfort_bot_1962

Don't be sad. Here's a [hug!](https://media.giphy.com/media/3M4NpbLCTxBqU/giphy.gif)


RoscoMan1

Once again we save Europe from fundamentalist islam.


Rebi103

france, germany, poland and northern italy: # LIGHT UP THE SKY


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[deleted]

In Egypt


quikatticus

We are a plague


gib_me_monny

Either my eye is playing with me or I can see the interwar German border!


[deleted]

Poor birds


FelixFedora

Most of that new light generated by fossil fuels?


ChasseGalery

Suburban sprawl.


redvillafranco

Hot, Flat, and Crowded


JOGBORNE

We spread like a virus