what WILL they think of us?

I have changed the header background image for this blog to a composite NASA image of the Earth at night, culled from several hundred images taken over the course of several months.

This image seems right because the main point of this blog is this:  If visitors from outer space did actually come upon planet Earth at night, they would see something like this (on the half of the globe that was in darkness).  They would be initially impressed, no doubt.  But once they investigated further, what kind of planet would we like to be able to present to them?  Not just how we dealt with our environment, but how we had organized our society both to create prosperity and to ensure just and ethical treatment of members of all species (including, of course, our own).  In other words, what would our best society and our best care for our planet look like to these aliens?  What would they think of us?