To a kid with a hammer, everything he sees is a nail.
A more educated, balanced and useful view of the facts would be:
Had the shuttle been orbiting 120 years ago, when the primary source of power was coal and wood, would the view from space be better or worse?
That's the problem.
Had the shuttle been orbiting 120 years ago, when the primary source of power was coal and wood, would the view from space be better or worse?
120 years ago the human population was about 1 billion, today it's about 6 billion (off the top of my head but pretty close I think)...but our technology allows us to be much more efficient in the use of resources. Opposing trends but my guess is that environmental damage is much more severe today.