“Mother Nature is the great equalizer. You can’t get away from it.” — Christopher Heyerdahl
Imagination helps us overcome our biggest obstacles, inspiring us to create new things and improve existing models.
Look, for example, at the automobile. According to Live Science, Karl Benz patented the first gasoline-powered car in 1886, but many before him, Leonardo Da Vinci included, had already envisioned self-propelled vehicles. Benz is credited as the inventor of the automobile because his practical model works like the cars we drive today. Most famously, however, is Henry Ford’s mass automobile production via a moving assembly line beginning in 1913. With the creation of the interstate highway system, we can commute to work and make cross-country road trips at our leisure.
In addition to cars, we have created several other modes of transportation and spaces for work, living, and entertainment. However, our problem-solving efforts have transformed the way the earth looks. There is less green on the ground and more gray in the air.
While there are eco-conscious people, Mother Nature has her way of fighting back. She reminds us of her existence in little ways, flowers growing through the cracks of sidewalks, for instance, and in much more significant ways, seen in the 30 photos below.
01. A Victorian tree house in Florida.
02. Visions of pink over an old railroad in Paris.
03. Tent of Tomorrow, initially built for the ’64 World’s Fair in Flushing, Queens.
04. Mall turned massive koi aquarium in Bangkok, Thailand.
05. Once a palace in Poland, this site is beginning to look like a forest.
06. Aggressive greenery envelops a deserted flour mill in Sorrento, Italy.
07. A house in Kolmanskop, Namibia’s most famous ghost town.
08. A striking contrast between growth and neglect in Hong Kong.
09. A natural gradient in Washington.
10. Life among peeling plaster in an abandoned railway station in Abkhazia, Georgia.
11. Charming railroad track at Taipingshan National Forest, Taiwan.
12. A sleeping goddess, ‘Mud Maid,’ at the Lost Gardens of Heligan in England.
Lost Gardens of Heligan
13. While bridges fall, nature still stands.
14. A fantastic performance by the tree.
15. Though in ruins, Ta Prohm is a popular tourist site in Cambodia, Angkor, and Siem Reap Province.
16. 102-year-old transport ship becomes a magnificent floating forest in Australia.
17. There is hope for this neglected church in France.
Jurgrossen
18. Okpo Land, an amusement park in South Korea, was closed after a series of accidents.
19. Abandoned cars receive some love from the earth.
20. I.M. Cooling Tower, part of a deserted power plant in Belgium.
21. This car in Taiwan is greener than a hybrid.
22. Shrubs sprouting throughout an abandoned factory.
23. Iguazu Falls, Argentina, looks like a ‘Castle in the Sky.’
24. A mysterious site in Vashon Island, Washington.
25. Moss surfaces a 160-year-old unused railway in Paris.
26. A green Ferris wheel.
27. A house of fall foliage.
28. Tree Roots Overcoming Brick Sidewalk
29. Pripyat, Ukraine, nearly 30 years after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
30. Greenery makes a comeback in an abandoned hotel room.
31. Abandoned Fishermen’s Town In Kamchatka, Russia
32. Abandoned Mansion Near Kilgarvan, Ireland
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