Our home planet is under extreme stress — it's unfortunate that phrases like this have become clichéd because the stakes are now higher than ever.
Humans are harming this beautiful planet in more ways than we know. In a book titled Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot (OVER), more than 170 images paint a picture of a landscape so depressing, it might just encourage some attention and change. From overcrowded megacities to oil spills and devastating deforestation, it depicts the impacts that humans have on the Earth.
"We have passed a crucial tipping point," the book says. "Our quest for greater and greater material prosperity is now impoverishing future generations. The Global Footprint Network estimates further that by 2030, we will need two planets to sustain us. Further growth simply deepens the crisis of ecological "overshoot" as we draw down Earth's carrying capacity, and it comes at the direct expense of our own children and grandchildren."
“Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.” —Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Indonesian surfer Dede Surinaya catches a wave in a remote but garbage-covered bay on Java, Indonesia, the world’s most populated island.
IMAGE: ZAK NOYLE
- Shanghai, China is a sprawling megacity of 24 million.IMAGE: MIKE HEDGE
- Massive haul trucks support surface mining operations in the tar sands region of Alberta, Canada, one of the largest known deposits of unconventional (in this case bitumen) oil resources.IMAGE: GARTH LENTZ
- “Even as a waste disposal site, the world is finite.” —William R. Catton Jr.Massive quantities of waste from obsolete computers and other electronics, like these in Accra, Ghana, are typically shipped to the developing world for sorting and/or disposal.IMAGE: PETER ESSICK
- “Throughout history human exploitation of the earth has produced this progression: colonize—destroy—move on.” —Garrett HardinGround zero in the war on nature—cattle graze amongst burning Amazon jungle in Brazil.IMAGE: DANIEL BELTRA
- “If our species had started with just two people at the time of the earliest agricultural practices some 10,000 years ago, and increased by 1 percent per year, today humanity would be a solid ball of flesh many thousand light years in diameter, and expanding with a radial velocity that, neglecting relativity, would be many times faster than the speed of light.” —Gabor ZovanyiSprawling Mexico City, Mexico, population 20 million, density 24,600/mile (63,700/square kilometer), rolls across the landscape, displacing every scrap of natural habitat.IMAGE: PABLO LOPEZ LUZ
- “One of the great challenges today is the population explosion. unless we are able to tackle this issue effectively we will be confronted with the problem of the natural resources being inadequate for all the human beings on this earth. . . . the only choice—limited number . . . happy life . . . meaningful life. too many . . . miserable life and always bullying one another, exploiting one another.” —His Holiness the Dalai LamaMass rallies and other cultural events are only possible in a mass society. The “Love Parade” in Tiergarten Park, Berlin, Germany.IMAGE: YANN ARTHUS-BERTRAND
- “If you’re overfishing at the top of the food chain, and acidifying the ocean at the bottom, you’re creating a squeeze that could conceivably collapse the whole system.” —Carl SafinaA 120-meter-long pelagic trawler fishes off the coast of Mauritania in the Atlantic Ocean to support the ever-growing demand for fish protein in the world diet.IMAGE: CHRISTIAN ASULND/GREENPEACE
- “Do you think you can take over the universe and improve it? i do not believe it can be done. the universe is sacred. You cannot improve it. if you try to change it, you will ruin it.” —Lao TsuTheMir Mine in Russia is the world’s largest diamond mine.IMAGE: GOOGLE EARTH/ 2014 DIGITAL GLOBE
- “I don’t understand why when we destroy something created by man we call it vandalism, but when we destroy something created by nature we call it progress.” —Ed Begley, Jr.Depleting oil fields are yet another symption of ecological overshoot; Kern River Oil Field, California, U.S.IMAGE: MARK GAMBA/CORBIS
- “Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: as one dies, so dies the other. all have the same breath . . .” —Bible, Ecclesiastes 3:19On Midway Island, far from the centers of world commerce, an albatross, dead from ingesting too much plastic, decays on the beach; it is a common sight on the remote island.IMAGE: CHRIS JORDAN
- “All of our current environmental problems are unanticipated harmful consequences of our existing technology. there is no basis for believing that technology will miraculously stop causing new and unanticipated problems while it is solving the problems that it previously produced.” —Jared DiamondAerial view of the tar sands region, where mining operations and tailings ponds are so vast they can be seen from outer space; Alberta, Canada.IMAGE: GARTH LENTZ
- “The arctic situation is snowballing: dangerous changes in the arctic derived from accumulated anthropogenic greenhouse gases lead to more activities conducive to further greenhouse gas emissions. this situation has the momentum of a runaway train.” —Carlos DuarteIn both the Arctic and Antarctic regions, ice is retreating. Melting water on icecap, North East Land, Svalbard, Norway.IMAGE: COTTON COULSON/KEENPRESS
- Aerial view of New Delhi, India, population 22 million, density 30,000 per square mile.IMAGE: GOOGLE EARTH/2014 DIGITAL GLOBE
- “We will find neither national purpose nor personal satisfaction in a mere continuation of economic progress, in an endless amassing of worldly goods.” —Robert F. KennedyAggressive bargain hunters push through the front doors of the Boise Towne Square mall as they are opened at 1 a.m. on Black Friday in Boise, Idaho, USA.IMAGE: DARIN OSWALD/IDAHO STATESMAN
- “Not until man sees the light and submits gracefully, moderating his homocentricity; not until man accepts the primacy of beauty, diversity, and integrity of nature, and limits his domination and numbers, placing equal value on the preservation of natural environments as on his own life, is there hope that he will survive.” —Hugh H. IltisThe rooftops of Aleppo, Syria, one of the world’s oldest cities, are covered with satellite dishes, linking residents to a globalized consumer culture.IMAGE: YANN ARTHUS-BERTRAND
- “Prophesying catastrophe is incredibly banal. the more original move is to assume that it has already happened.” —Jean BaudrillardThe western fjords on Svalbard, Norway, that normally freeze in winter, remained ice-free all season. This bear headed north, looking for suitable sea ice to hunt on. Finding none, it eventually collapsed and died.IMAGE: ASHLEY COOPER
- “The “poster child” for negative impacts from biofuel production is palm oil biodiesel. . . . Greenhouse gas emissions from the conversion of Asia’s lowland peat forest into palm oil plantations are astronomical, accounting for nearly 8 percent of the global total.” —Rachel SmolkerIncreasing demand for biofuels is linked to increased deforestation as native habitat is converted to palm oil production in Indonesia.IMAGE: YANN ARTHUS BERTAND
- The Bagger 288, largest non-stationary machine in the world, removing “overburden” prior to coal mining in Tagebau Hambach, Germany.IMAGE: ACHIM BLUM
- “The island is full of holes and seawater is coming through these, flooding areas that weren’t normally flooded 10 or 15 years ago. there are projections of about 50 years [before the islands disappear]. after this, we will be drowned.” —Paani LaupepaOne of Earth’s most vulnerable nations to climate change, the Maldive Islands are severely threatened by rising sea levels.IMAGE: PETER ESSICK
- “The immediate relief problems and earthquake casualties would be much less with a smaller population. the size of population now, with the scale of the problems it creates, leads to an increasingly chaotic situation. more population exacerbates any efforts needed to solve humanity’s problems, anywhere, be they immediate or long term.” —Walter YoungquistPeople jostle for food relief distribution following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.IMAGE: CAROLYN COLE/LATIMES
- “Despite the industry’s spin, caFOs [concentrated animal feeding operations] are not the only way to raise livestock and poultry. thousands of farmers and ranchers integrate crop production, pastures, or forages with livestock and poultry to balance nutrients within their operations and minimize off-farm pollution through conservation practices and land management. . . . Yet these sustainable producers, who must compete with factory farms for market share, receive comparatively little or no public funding for their sound management practices.” —Martha NobleIndustrial livestock production in Brazil.IMAGE: DANIEL BELTRA
- “We must realize that not only does every area have a limited carrying capacity—but also that this carrying capacity is shrinking and the demand growing. until this understanding becomes an intrinsic part of our thinking and wields a powerful influence on our formation of national and international policies we are scarcely likely to see in what direction our destiny lies.” —William VogtAerial view of an oil fire following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, Gulf of Mexico.IMAGE: DANIEL BELTRA
- “We are slaves in the sense that we depend for our daily survival upon an expand-or-expire agro-industrial empire—a crackpot machine—that the specialists cannot comprehend and the managers cannot manage. Which is, furthermore, devouring world resources at an exponential rate.” —Edward AbbeyAs far as the eye can see, greenhouses cover the landscape in Almeria, Spain.IMAGE: YANN ARTHUS BERTRAND
- “So the big question about nuclear “revival” isn’t just who’d pay for such a turkey, but also... why bother? Why keep on distorting markets and biasing choices to divert scarce resources from the winners to the loser—a far slower, costlier, harder, and riskier niche product—and paying a premium to incur its many problems?” —Amory LovinsA 2011 tsunami prompted a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Station in Japan, galvanizing the world’s attention. Lesser known was tsunami-related damage to Japan’s fossil fuel energy infrastructure, including this facility near Tokyo.IMAGE: MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS/AFLO
- “Human domination over nature is quite simply an illusion, a passing dream by a naive species. it is an illusion that has cost us much, ensnared us in our own designs, given us a few boasts to make about our courage and genius, but all the same it is an illusion.” —Donald WorsterSometimes called the Brazil of the North, Canada has not been kind to its native forests. Image of clear-cut logging on Vancouver Island.IMAGE: GARTH LENTZ
- “Think of Alberta as the Nigeria of the north. (Well, there are a lot more white people in Alberta, and Canada’s military hasn’t killed anybody to protect the oil business.) both economies have been increasingly dominated by oil. In 2009 Nigeria exported around 2.1 million barrels of oil per day; Canada exported 1.9 million barrels per day. environmental regulation of the oil industry in both Nigeria and Alberta is lax, and the industry has been actively opposed by native people— the Ogoni, in particular, in Nigeria and the Cree in Alberta." —Winona LaDuke and Martin CurryTar sands-related tailings ponds are among the largest toxic impoundments on Earth and lie in unlined dykes mere meters from the Athabasca River in Alberta, Canada. Indigenous communities downstream are fearful of being poisoned by toxic seepage into the food chain.IMAGE: GARTH LENTZ
- Shipping containers, indispensable tool of the globalized consumer economy, reflect the skyline in Singapore, one of the world’s busiest ports.IMAGE: JOHN STANMEYER
- Air pollution, C02, and water vapor rise from that stacks at a coal-burning power plant in the U.K.IMAGE: JASON HAWKES
- Source : MasHable
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