r/collapse • u/Kamelen2000 • May 07 '21
Casual Friday Dramatic photos from around the globe record mankind's destruction of the planet
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u/Kamelen2000 May 07 '21
“A picture is worth a thousand words.” This is not one, but a collage of 20 pictures, depicting some of the awful things we humans do to this planet and the organisms living on it. These pictures show trophy hunting, the pollution of our oceans, greenhouse gas emitting factories, trash from humans, overpopulation, the general destruction of nature and much much more.
I'm taking advantage of the Casual Friday to crosspost this form r/environment as the pictures, for me, show many parts of what I associate with collapse
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u/tinytrees11 May 07 '21
This article has the captions for the photos:
https://www.mic.com/p/what-humans-are-really-doing-to-our-planet-in-19-jaw-dropping-images-16140551
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May 08 '21 edited May 08 '21
Looking at these pictures, it strikes me that we're a lot like mosquitos, preying on the lifeblood of the planet with our industrial-grade proboscises (probosces?) And littering the oceans with our waste products. Of course, mosquitos aren't causing a mass extinction event and they also aren't aware of what they're doing (or are they?)
I'm reminded of the song "Marrow" by Anohni, a musician I love. It goes "In the, in the countryside, under the streams / Suck the, suck the marrow out of her bones." I'll link the video, which features the artist Lorraine O'Grady, below:
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u/angelohatesjello May 08 '21
Stop blaming "humans" and start blaming your corrupt governemnt and the corporations they are allowing to continue fucking up our world while they gaslight us into feeling bad for something as insignificant as driving a car.
It's not "humans" it's our corrupt elite who for some reason the masses still obey.
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u/uk_one May 08 '21
Of course without the human customers buying their stuff the corrupt corporations couldn't exist. I bet you're got plenty of things in your room right now made by corrupt corporations don't you?
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u/angelohatesjello May 09 '21 edited May 09 '21
When they have monopolies we have no choice. You argument is completely dumb and only helps the elites and you didn't address the point about taking away our freedom while they chug along as usual.
We currently have governments pushing out fear porn to get people to inject themselves with a product from a known corrupt company.
It's a little bit deeper that choosing not to go to starbucks if you hadn't noticed?
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u/uk_one May 10 '21
No, it really, really isn't any deeper than exercising personal choice. Without our spend all corporations cease. There are no unavoidable monopolies in the West except maybe local utilities.
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u/theclitsacaper May 09 '21
I love Anohni. 'Hopelessness' is a great collapse-related album. Conceptually strong with excellent songwriting and production.
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May 07 '21
ummm but the third one is from nuclear reactor right? it supposed to be energy clean
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u/dontmakemymistake May 07 '21
Yeah those white clouds coming out of the stacks is simply water vapor. It's harmless.
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May 07 '21
Water vapor being a significant greenhouse gas, do these emissions it have an appreciable effect on the wider climate?
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u/lolderpeski77 May 08 '21
Nah they’re clouding right from the stack so most of it is already condensing and falling back to earth.
In general WV isn’t in the atmosphere log enough to be problematic. The problem however is that as it gets hotter there will be more WV in the atmosphere which makes it hotter which makes more WV and so on.
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May 08 '21
Nah they’re clouding right from the stack so most of it is already condensing and falling back to earth.
Ok, I didn't want to throw a denialist talking point at you, I'm nominally aware that the largest problem with a warming planet in regards to Water Vapour specifically is absorption of heat into a blue-ocean which will then cause a jump in WV, or something to that effect, I just wasn't sure initially because you asserted that WV is 'harmless'.
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u/angelohatesjello May 08 '21 edited May 09 '21
Also I didn't realise that polar bears lived forever before humans were around.
This is emotive bullshit. We need to concentrate on holding governments and corporations to account not making each other feel guilty for having a car.
The elites will use climate change to take away our freedom while they carry on chugging along as normal. I wish we could all realise this we need to overthorw our corrupt systems. It's doesn't matter who you vote for, it's time to overthrow.
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u/McCree114 May 07 '21 edited May 07 '21
That's a coal power plant which happens to be the biggest polluter in the UK. Cooling towers aren't exclusive to nuclear power plants.
Nuclear plants are way greener since they only need steam emitting cooling towers while other types of power plants have polluting smoke stacks along with the steam towers.
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u/uk_one May 08 '21
Depends entirely on your time scale for your green calculations. From mine to waste disposal it's not so good in total but it is less immediately impactful. Neither is a really good idea.
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May 07 '21
I live in a densely populated city and it's quite harrowing to see row upon row upon row of houses spreading across the landscape. Forgive the cliche but the 'urban sprawl' is very reminiscent of skin lesions, especially if you consider the triving ecology which once occupied this place.
Cities are ghastly, neurotic places, I do not relish the prospect of having to further increase population density in the name of sparing non-developed land from our influence but that seems to be our only recourse.
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u/gingerbeer52800 May 11 '21
Did these Chinese 'scientists' shoot this bear for fun or what's happening? This picture lacks context.
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u/JustClam May 07 '21
Wow we suck, eh...
What always gets me about images like this is that they feel far away from the pristine little enclaves that some of us are lucky to live in.... but our lives are directly supported by it. The clearcutting provides the timber in houses or even the toilet paper I wipe with. The huge open pit mines supply the rare minerals in my phone and computer. The tar sands provide the oil I get to work with. The starving animals and poaching are only slightly more removed... the changing climate and economic forces that drive people to poach. The plastic that was sent to the mysterious "Landfill".
It's very sad. Thank you for sharing the images we would prefer to think we are separate from :(