Today not every person is aware of the horrible effects our lifestyle choices have on our environment. Sometimes even our words become superfluous. These images say more than a thousand words.
1. The view over the overdeveloped metropole of Mexico City (with more than 20 million inhabitants).
Pablo Lopez Luz
2. An elephant killed by poachers left to rot.
Kristian Schmidt/Wild Aid
3. The rainforest in flames – goats used to graze here.
Daniel Beltra
4. Trails of excessive air traffic over London.
Ian Wylie
5. A massive truck delivers a load of oil sands for processing. Oil sand is considered the energy source of the future.
Garth Lentz
6. A simple herd farmer can’t withstand the stink of the Yellow River in Inner Mongolia.
Lu Guang
7. A waste incineration plant and its surroundings in Bangladesh.
M.R. Hasasn
8. A fire storm plows through Colorado – increased incidences of wild fires is a result of climate change.
R.J. Sangosti/Denver Post
9. The scars left behind from the mining of oil sands in the Canadian province of Alberta.
Garth Lentz
10. A nighttime spectacle in downtown Los Angeles – the energy demand is incalculable.
Mike Hedge
11. In Oregon, this thousand year old forest fell victim to the chain saw for a new dam.
Daniel Dancer
12. The area around Almeria in Spain is littered with greenhouses as far as the eye can see – simply for a richly filled dinner table.
Yann Arthus Bertrand
13. Poachers pose proudly with the coat of a Siberian tiger.
Steve Morgan/Photofusion
14. The Mir Mine in Russia, the largest diamond mine in the world.
Google Earth/ 2014 Digital Globe
15. A dead albatross shows what happens when we litter. A living dumpster.
Chris Jordan
16. And yet another megatropolis – a bird’s eye view of New Delhi (over 22 million inhabitants).
Google Earth/2014 Digital Globe
17. Paradise almost lost: the Maldives, a popular vacation spot that is threatened by rising sea levels.
Peter Essick
18. The beginning of Black Friday at an electronics store in Boise, Idaho.
Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman
19. Tons (literally) of broken electronics end up in developing countries and are stripped for precious metals by using deadly substances.
Peter Essick
20. The blunder of the Brazilian rain forest is being repeated here in Canada.
Garth Lentz
21. A landfill for worn-out tires in the desert of Nevada.
Daniel Dancer
22. While the entire world watched the events of Fukushima, a massive heat and power station was burning just a few miles away. All attempts to extinguish it where fruitless.
Mainichi Newspapers/AFLO
23. This polar bear starved to death in Svalvard, Norway. Disappearing ice caps are robbing polar bears of both their living space and food.
Ashley Cooper
24. To the last drop: an oilfield in California and the merciless overexploitation of humans.
Mark Gamba/Corbis
25. A massive waterfall from melting pack ice. These masses are the only meltwater and the undeniable proof how swiftly climate change is advancing.
Cotton Coulson/Keenpress
26. A lignite power plant contaminates the air with its discharges.
Jason Hawkes
27. The Indonesian surfer Dede Surinaya rides a wave of filth and trash (Java, Indonesia).
Zak Noyle
“When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned, you will realize that you cannot eat money.”
These words are becoming a more and more brutal reality. But not every person is aware of the horrible effects our lifestyle choices have on our environment. Please share these evocative images with everyone.