Featured Image Credit: fotograzia / Getty
Our planet goes through countless changes on a yearly basis across many of the biggest cities and largest natural sites, yet there's one major global shift that you might not have noticed, yet is abundantly clear when observing Earth from space.
Even in the last decade alone the world has changed so much, as cities continue to expand and evolve and nature shifting on a yearly basis thanks to deforestation efforts and the threat of climate change.
Looking at areas like Antarctica over the past few decades you can see how much the pollution produced by humanity had caused an irreversible shift, and it has even resulted in hidden areas becoming visible thanks to centuries of ice melting away.
Some of the most impactful changes can only be seen from space though, and you might even only notice them once you look at comparison photographs, and that has blown the minds of many on social media when presented with a comparison.
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As shared on the r/geography subreddit, one image shows the difference that the transition from sodium lights to LEDs has produced on birds-eye images of cities, with Chicago in 2011 and 2024 serving as this particular reference.
The image on the left from 2011 is not only far more vibrant but also unmistakably orange or yellow in its hue, so you're not remembering wrong if you've thought that street lights used to be a lot warmer in color in the past.
Comparatively, the image from this past year shows lights become sparser and pure white, to the point where it almost looks like a monochrome photograph when placed next to the vigorous color of the previous photo.
Sodium lights have been replaced with LEDs due to a number of reasons, including greater energy efficiency – producing the same lumen level at a far lower wattage – alongside a longer lifespan and more immediate light after being turned on.
While this is undoubtedly a positive change, many have lamented that there's something just not quite right about the new white LED bulbs, preferring the classic look of sodium street lamps in comparison.
"I just don't think you can beat the warm yellow glow of that soft light on an evening, looks so awesome on a dark night," writes one post comparing the two bulb types, adding that the LED replacements are "so harsh."
Another in the comments section of the original post added: "I know light pollution isn't great but I have core memories of playing outside in the slow in the suburbs and the entire night sky was lit up by an orange glow reflected from downtown. That doesn't happen anymore."
The fact that most people didn't notice this change until seeing it from above shows how much can go on underneath our noses though, and so much can evolve in such a short period of time without anyone even noticing.
