We’ve made fun in the past of the lack of basic electrical infrastructure in North Korea, comparing its light footprint from space with the anti human progress Earth Hour, and with good reason – It’s really a dark country in more ways than one.
This is from NASA Earth Observatory:
City lights at night are a fairly reliable indicator of where people live. But this isn’t always the case, and the Korean Peninsula shows why. As of July 2012, South Korea’s population was estimated at roughly 49 million people, and North Korea’s population was estimated at about half that number. But where South Korea is gleaming with city lights, North Korea has hardly any lights at all—just a faint glimmer around Pyongyang.
On September 24, 2012, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured this nighttime view of the Korean Peninsula. This imagery is from the VIIRS “day-night band,” which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe signals such as city lights, gas flares, auroras, wildfires, and reflected moonlight.
acquired September 24, 2012
The next image is also interesting.
The top, wide-area image shows the Korean Peninsula, parts of China and Japan, the Yellow Sea, and the Sea of Japan (also known as the East Sea). The white inset box shows the lights of fishing boats in the Yellow Sea, and many of the boats appear to form a line, as if marking a watery boundary between nations.
Following the 1953 armistice ending the Korean War, per-capita income in South Korea rose to about 17 times the per-capital income level of North Korea, according to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Worldwide, South Korea ranks 12th in electricity production, and 10th in electricity consumption, per 2011 estimates. North Korea ranks 71st in electricity production, and 73rd in electricity consumption, per 2009 estimates.
Learn more about the VIIRS day-night band and nighttime imaging of Earth in our new feature story: Out of the Blue and Into the Black.
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References
- CIA World Factbook. (2012, November 13) North Korea. Accessed November 29, 2012.
- CIA World Factbook. (2012, November 14) South Korea. Accessed November 29, 2012.
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Black is the new green. The warmunists want us all living like the Chosen ones.
So light pollution and wasted energy are a good thing ?
Why is the ability of satellites in orbit to measure upward light levels a sign of progress ?
Its a sign of waste.
North Korea is a crass example irrelevant to the debate.
Ok some upward light to space is from reflection, but a lot is wasted light from badly designed lighting and lights left on for no functional reason.
Using good design and control its perfectly possible to have quality low energy lighting and minimise light pollution. Given that a lot of public lighting is paid for by taxpayers I would have thought that would be a good thing.
[Reply: Did you forget to add a “/sarc” tag? — mod.]
NK is a model for all that the warmists want. Very little fossil fuel use, everyone except the the political elite are poor (share the wealth actually means everyone equally poor), and a carbon footprint to be proud of.
I think it would be a fine idea for everyone advocating for a return to the personal carbon footprint of the 1800’s to visit NK permanently. I’m sure that if they brought all their worldly possession with them, young Kim would let them stay.
A low carbon economy is a third world economy. Thank goodness for fossil fuels, coal in particular (which has been expanding in use recently). Up yours Hansen.
Life expectancy in North Korea is lower than Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html
Warmists are like North Koreans. They will hang onto an ideology no matter what the contrary evidence. But at the end of the day they will lose because they are wrong. Sceptics did well to resist the cries of the pant wetters after the ‘hottest decade on the record’. Global warming hiatus after massive emissions of CO2.
January 2013 – Some North Korean parents resort to cannibalizing on their children due to food shortages.
http://www.livescience.com/26677-north-korea-cannibalism.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2269094/North-Korean-parents-eat-children-driven-mad-hunger-famine-hit-pariah-state.html
Jokes aside, North Korea might one day make a mistake and land bombs on enemy home territory.
But North Korea is leading the way forward for humanity. It is
RedGreen!James Abbott April 10, 2013 at 4:34 pm
Are you suggsting that NK is SO efficient in their energy use, that they avoid waste? That they have the same number of fishing boats out there in the China Sea, that do not show on the satellite because their magical black light enables them to see without wasting energy?
Abbot, you are an NK bot.
Of course, the Greens will have palaces with lights, cars, SUVs and Gulfstream V aircraft so they can get out and preach to us schmucks.
“1953 armistice ending the Korean War”
Sort of. There was no peace treaty.
“The East is
RedDim.”One of the fun things to try is to go to GOOGLE Earth, zoom into the streets of Pyongyang, and try to find cars. Given that this is a major city in North Korea, one would expect to find lots of cars, BUT it’s not easy to find 100 cars. You have to do a lot of looking. Pick any other major city in the world and you can find lots of cars. Hate traffic, move to North Korea, where traffic is NEVER a problem. ;-))
– Agenda 21 stands for “The Agenda for the 21st century”
– Put forth a UN “Earth Summit” in Rio in 1972
– Bush 41 signed the US as a supporter in 1992 w/o input from Congress
– Consists of 5 sections
– How many have heard of ICLEI – 1990 – “International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives”
In addition to partnering with all of the UN’s Enviro groups it partners with such groups as:
– C 40 – “Cities Climatic Leadership Group” – partner with Clinton Climate Initiative
– Resilient Cities – NYC & Bloomberg major players in this org. – this was program behind
recent non-smoking, no salt, “healthier” directives
– World Mayors Council on Climate Change
– CCP – “Cities for Climate Protection”
– UCLG – “United Cities & Local Government”
– ICLEI – charged with implementing Agenda 21’s agenda – not a UN agency and it’s plan of action calls for
Circumventing the world’s national governments and going directly to the local Govts.- cities & counties
– 1200 cities are members – over 500 in US – over 200 in CA
– It charges that changing unsustainable patterns of consumption & production is essential requirement for sustainable development
– Aim is to “anchor” sustainability principles within all municipal decision-making
– Provides MGT tools for local Govt sustainability initiatives including budgeting
Software called ecoBUDGET ( includes SUS (sustainable) principles in preparing budgets),
TBL – Triple Bottom Line ( best practices SUS
SUS Inventory system
Melbourne Principles – a planning kit for Local Govts to use to ensure SUS is included in all planning processes.
Fascinating image of the fishing boat lights, Anthony. This raises all kinds of questions – eg the distribution of fish in those waters. Have the Chinese fished out their side? Is this political aggression? I note that fishing vessels that are presumably South Korean are keeping a great distance away. Wow!
trendyhammer says: “What is ‘Agenda 21′ please Jonathan?
Jonathan: Am I surprised that you do not know of Agenda 21? In short no I am not. See Agenda 21 has been a bit of a secret (Not) Well I mean they would like to keep it that way and cover up its implementation through other means. Agenda 21 is deep and far reaching, The Greens have tried their best to white- wash it. Just have a look at you local Council website and you will see it there. Here is mine:
“Cities for Climate Protection program
Find out about the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder’s participation in the Cities for Climate Protection Australia program, and our strategic plans for both corporate and community action.
The City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder is a member of the Cities for Climate Protection™ (CCP) Australia program, an international program that assist local governments in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.In Australia, the program is delivered by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives and the Australian Greenhouse Office (now part of the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency).
The program is based around 5 Milestones:
1. Conduct an inventory and forecast for community and corporate (Council) greenhouse gas emissions.
2. Establish an emissions reduction goal.
3. Develop and adopt a Local Action Plan.
4. Implement the Local Action Plan.
5. Monitor and report on achievements.”
As as example for you this is typical Agenda 21, hiding through 1. The Council. 2.CCP. ICLEI, Dept of Climate Change and of course the UN and the IPCC. The whole lot is interconnected, but it gets a lot more complex and sinister than that.
See the Buzzwords above (about 20 of them), that is always the sign, they really can not help them selves. As this is they way they talk. Now of course it is in the schools. The brainwashing has been going on for some time. My son comes home with it.
Watch out for Agenda 21 Buzzwords you will see them every where , here are some “S’s”; “Scenic views and vistas, School to work Sensitive Lands, Smart growth,Smart Streets, Social justice Stack and Pack Housing ,Stakeholder, Sustainable Communities Initiative
Sustainable communities partnership,Sustainable communities strategies
Sustainable development,Sustainable Economic Development”: More Buzzwords http://nwri.org/2013/02/agenda-21-buzzwords/
Have a read of Rosa Koire: BEHIND THE GREEN MASK: U.N. Agenda 21
http://www.amazon.com/BEHIND-THE-GREEN-MASK-Agenda/dp/0615494544
No surprise that the shape of the peninsular is a bottleneck geographically, which is a prime candidate for political opportunists/criminals to impose self serving ideologies/policies. People can’t go north, people can’t go south. If you impose an ideology, even better, people can’t go anywhere.
Same as any crime syndicate targeting weak points of distribution in a system, points of entry, etc etc. I get the same sort of thing every time I go to a nightclub in 3rd world countries, you have to get past the taxi mafia, the door mafia, the bar mafia, etc etc to get anywhere. And don’t even mention the port down the road, have to bribe just to get a bunk on the ferry that I already have paid for with a valid ticket.
Who ever said geography doesn’t affect human culture?
If I’m reading this chart right:
That line of boat is on the China side of the China exclusive economic zone, but smack up against the Korea line. I.e. The Chinese are ‘fishing out’ the waters on the edge with Korea and back toward their shore. Oddly, not fishing out the N. Korean waters (that may already be fished out…)
http://www.livestream.com/channelnk
North Korean television (foreign propaganda broadcast, mainly). The kind of comedy you just don’t get on the Comedy Channel.
You know, where you laugh out loud at the absurd statement, then you suddenly realize that if you did that in North Korea you’d be mulched for fertilizer.
The only good news is that China seems to be tiring of their shenanigans. Not that freeing a people that badly brainwashed won’t be a gigantic task. Even assuming they survive their hostility toward everyone around them, it will probably be a couple of generations before they settle down.
Really one of the saddest places in the world today.
Merovign:
I think you raise an important issue when you write in your post at April 11, 2013 at 2:17 am.
It will probably require much longer than “a couple of generations”.
You have raised the problem of understanding a culture from outside that culture. This problem is why governments spend so much money and effort in training their diplomatic and intelligence organisations. And it is why there is great risk in mentioning politics in a foreign country; one knows what one said and intended by what one said, but one does not know how that is heard and what it is understood to mean by the hearer.
For example of the power of a culture, consider the case of China which you mention.
China has been totalitarian for two thousand years during which time it has had several different governments operating several different political philosophies. There is no reason to suppose that replacement of China’s communist government with another form of government will stop China being totalitarian. And there is good reason to suppose it would not.
The Chinese people have been isolated within the Walls for thousands of years. They obeyed the Emperor (in whatever form the Emperor had) or they died. They had no other options because they were enclosed in the Walls (both real Walls or geographical distance) and could not ‘run’ to somewhere else. Hence, people learned ‘at their mother’s knee’ to obey the government without question or dissent. This learning is a cultural imperative which most people in China do not know they have.
Changing such a cultural imperative can be achieved. For example, in Japan following the Second World War. But it is not easy and requires destruction of cultural icons (which is e.g. why the Taliban destroy statues). A culture which has existed for thousands of years will probably take a long time to change.
Importantly, the people need to be given a desire to change their culture if a cultural imperative is to be displaced. And every culture has cultural imperatives. For example, Americans have ‘Respect For The Flag’, the English have the ‘English Disease’ which inhibits their retaining learning of other languages, etc..
Changing cultures can be rapidly achieved when the circumstances are right, and this is demonstrated by the Japanese experience following the Second World War. It seems likely that North Korea may reach such circumstances and obtain rapid cultural adjustment in decades to come.
But it is difficult to see a combination of circumstances short of thermonuclear war which would alter China’s ingrained culture of totalitarianism. Unless, of course, you know different.
Richard
We could offer to make Pyongyang glow in the dark but I don’t think they would want to take us up on it.
I thought the first image at the top of the page was the Scottish-English border region – they do look remarkable simliar. Maybe it’s prescient based on Scotlands determination to rely totally on wind power!
I noticed that as well. But thought of a different angle – how many are “fishing” and how many are waiting for a go from Kim jong Un. I doubt fish are so obedient as to observe territorial waters.
Vince Causey says:
April 11, 2013 at 4:05 am
I thought the first image at the top of the page was the Scottish-English border region – they do look remarkable simliar. Maybe it’s prescient based on Scotlands determination to rely totally on wind power!
For all Alex Salmond’s manifestly bad ideas, that’s not one of them; there’s no intention to have Scotland rely on wind power, only to farm the subsidies and sell the output into the National Grid.
Re. those fishing boats, I was reminded of trying to navigate a 500,000 tonne tanker through them as a very young officer – terrifying!
Pyongyang is the strangest place. Next to no traffic and on the trip from the airport to the centre we passed maybe six cars. At night the only lights seem to be individual lights in peoples houses shining out of windows. It is the only place where there is no neon, no advertising etc. All the stuff you see in the rest of the world just is not there. Looking out the window of my hotel all I could see was large black shadows of tower blocks with little square lighted windows and nothing else. It reminded me of the background of a stage play in which the designer had been in a bit of a hurry and shown little imagination. Just black oblong towers with little yellow squares. It looked fake and if it had been for a stage play you would have commented on how fake it looked.
Industrial production seemed to have halted and factories were being pulled apart and sold to China for scrap.
The green utopia.
Pyongyang is an attractive and populous city. It’s my understanding what the satellite view records is a cultural norm – they indeed do not light up the night. The website ‘wandering camera’ contains a photo collection reflecting a visit there some years ago. Take a look, and be at least a little skeptical of how we most often characterize the city and N Korea generally.
Altogether now – “How do you solve a problem like Korea”