Gentlemen, the Earth does not correct man made changes to the environment on any regular and observable scale. The natural condition of the Earth, absent man, in this picture is darkness. (I don't judge the goodness or badness of that condition. It just is). As you can see, man has the ability to far out pace the Earth's ability to adjust to man made conditions. Sure, hurricanes and storms take down power lines, things rust and corrode, lights burn out under the Earths wear and tear. But we build and replace faster than the Earth reclaims it's darkness. We are able to impose our will on the Earth and make it light, where the Earth would otherwise be dark.
The claim that man can only "locally" affect his environment is baloney. One picture shows us the cumulative affect. Light escapes into space also...but it's affect on Earth is quite visible on it's way out.
The claim that the Earth somehow balances man's actions is also debunked with one photo. The Earth can't tear down the lights as fast as we can put them up.
Now, again, lights are a good thing. I like lights. I think it's a heck of an accomplishment we have here to look at from space. But it also stands to demonstrate the capacity of man to make enormous changes to his environment on a global scale. To think this is only possible with light is naive or ignorant or just plain hard headed. This is all just political grudge matching against AGW. The simple fact for anyone to understand with half a brain is that all sorts of things are possible and claiming that it's impossible to cause significant environmental impact on a global scale is foolishness.
