Earth Hour: Romanticizing darkness?

The link between electricity consumption and prosperity is so intuitive and appealing that some studies (such as this one) show how lights at night (as captured by satellite imagery) can play a crucial role in detecting changes in economic growth at the sub- and supra-national levels, especially in countries where official income data are unreliable and hard to obtain. Data on changes in the intensity and scope of lights can also be used to predict long-term trends in economic growth.