While city lights at night serve as a good proxy for population density, North Korea provides a dark exception.
Via Seth Dixon
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Updated
May 17
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Aug 20, 2012
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Via Seth Dixon
Dean Haakenson's insight:
Amazing photo! Population density is a good issue but also political geography and economic geography as well. Delete the scoop?
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This cliché image of "North Korea in the dark" reinforces preconceived ideas about the "totalitarian" state and how terrible life must be without electricity. Well, one aspect of this political geography is the effect of US-backed sanctions against North Korea and the severe ecological and energy crisis under which it has struggled for the last two decades. Just as electricity is not simply a "natural" resource, neither is energe consumption nor shortage.
This image is appears to be a regional inset of the classic Earth at Night composite image however this nighttime remote sensing image was taken from Sept. 2012. The Earth at Night image is typically used in classrooms to discuss what this actually means for human geography (Population density? Development? Consumption? Where? How come?). However, this particular portion of the global image focused on the Korean Peninsula highlights two other specific issues:
the impact of a totalitarian state can actually be seen from space as South Korea has a per captia income level 17 times higher than that of North Korea. the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) can be seen in the Yellow Sea as fishing vessels form a line approximately 200 nautical miles off the coast of South Korea.Tags: economic, political, resources, water, sovereignty, coastal, territoriality, states, unit 4 political, remote sensing.