In past blogs, I have expressed my love of flying and my conviction that it is the best way to appreciate our natural landscape. Flying at night provides a different perspective.
Our flight from Tampa to St. Louis began an hour after sunset; the route took us up the west coast of Florida to Tallahassee and then northwestward to St. Louis. Low clouds obscured many of the towns and cities across Florida but, by central Alabama, the night sky was clear. Birmingham was the first large city to light up the darkness while, off to its northeast, the glow of Atlanta stretched across the horizon. After crossing the dark swath of the Appalachians, the lights of Jackson and Nashville, Tennessee, sprawled beneath us and the distant galaxies of Chattanooga and Knoxville beamed from the east. Further north, the shining clusters of Bowling Green and Elizabeth-town, Kentucky, led toward the faint glow of Louisville.
While daytime flights reveal how man has altered the natural landscape with his dams, plows and irrigation systems, night excursions offer the best picture of our residential sprawl. There are few areas east of the High Plains or west of the Sierras where cities and towns do not shine from the darkness. And where there is light, wilderness has died.
