18 real cases where civilization lost the battle against nature

People are constantly building something. Houses and roads, dams and bridges, ports, factories and entire cities at the expense of the environment. But nature is not going to give up its legal positions at all. On the contrary, she is determined to fight civilization to the bitter end, constantly proving how fragile the creations of human hands are. The most interesting cases of how Mother Nature, over time, confidently returns her own, further in the review.

This collection contains a whole series of photographs that are designed to show that nature is a force and must be reckoned with. After all, in the end, the world belongs to her. No matter how much humanity wants to think otherwise.

# 1 A tree that grew out of an abandoned pipe

# 2 Gatekeeper at the abandoned castle Putzar in Germany

One of the most revealing examples of how nature returns what is rightfully hers is Tikal. It is one of the most famous remnants of the ancient powerful Mayan civilization. As writer and journalist Alan Weissman was hiking in the region, he stumbled upon something interesting along the way. Then he said, “You are walking through this really dense rainforest, but in reality you are walking through the hills. Archaeologists say that we all walk in ancient cities that have not yet been discovered and excavated."

# 3 The tree found the strength to grow in this long-abandoned place

# 4 This Chinese fishing village was abandoned in the 1990s. Nature fixed it all (Houtuvan, China)

# 5 The old Shiva temple is surrounded by the sacred Bodhi tree in Bangladesh

The world only found out about places like Tikal because people went to great lengths to dig up and restore their remains. Meanwhile, countless other ruins remain reliably hidden by forests and layers of soil. “It's amazing how quickly nature can bury us,” Weissman said.

There are a lot of photos on the Internet that clearly show how our planet might look if there were no people left on it. Recently, this topic has been increasingly discussed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, in many places, strict quarantine restrictions have forced people not to leave their homes. This allowed animals to invade our quiet urban environment. Alan Weissman even wrote a book about it "The World Without Us". The writer spent several years talking with experts and systematically developing scenarios that could unfold on our planet if we suddenly disappeared.

# 6 This tree sprouted through the sign

# 7 Railroad tracks in the forest (Taiwan)

In his study, Weissman began by looking at the cities in which, in his opinion, the most dramatic and rapid changes should occur due to the sudden disappearance of a person. Without the humans to operate the rainwater pumps and rising groundwater, the subways in huge, populous cities like London and New York would have flooded within hours of our disappearance. “The engineers told me it would take about 36 hours to completely flood the subway,” Weissman said.

# 8 The sunken ship was restored by nature and turned into an island

# 9 Abandoned synagogue

Without human control, disruptions in refineries and nuclear power plants will go unnoticed.This is likely to lead to massive fires, nuclear explosions and devastating consequences as a result. “If we suddenly disappear, there will be a massive release of radiation. And this is inevitable. The consequences are almost impossible to predict,”the writer explains. After our disappearance, there will be giant mountains of garbage. After all, most of all waste is plastic. It is known to persist for thousands of years, which will have a huge negative impact on wildlife.

# 10 Abandoned castle in Ireland

According to Alan Weisman, with all of our polluting heritage, the water flowing underground in cities will corrode all metal structures. They support bridges, streets above underground transportation systems. As a result, entire avenues in cities will collapse, suddenly turning into rivers.

# 11 One person stumbled upon this on a camping trip

Further, winter will replace summer. Winter after winter, without all the anti-icing procedures, the roads and sidewalks will crack. Thus, giving a place for the germination of various vegetation. When the city streets are filled with lush, dense green growth, she will end the process of destroying all human structures. It will be the same with all other buildings - in a couple of hundred years it will be imperceptible that a person's foot has ever stepped in these places.

# 12 Roots grow according to the road surface pattern

# 13 A tree growing through a stone wall

A completely new habitat will be discovered. Nature will slowly but surely take over its territories. The former concrete jungle will become real. All of this will invariably cause the accumulation of dry organic material such as leaves and twigs. Fires and explosions will generate a lot of carbonized material. All this will cover the streets. They will eventually turn into small meadows and forests. This will take about five hundred years, according to experts.

# 14 Abandoned villa in Germany

# 15 Old abandoned trails

After hundreds of years of erosion and fire damage, the buildings will collapse, Vaisman said. The first to collapse are modern glass and metal structures. The former because of their fragility, the latter due to the fact that they will be eaten by rust. The buildings that are made of natural materials such as wood, clay, stone will survive the longest. In the end, they will become just hills, mixing with the soil. That Earth, which is so familiar to people today, will disappear forever.

# 16 Oak growing through the railing

The Earth has a chance to eventually become brighter and more diverse. However, do not forget that it is now experiencing global climate change. This is probably the most indelible consequence of human influence on the planet. Weissman says that making any predictions about how things will happen is by no means easy. For example, when explosions occur at industrial plants, at oil or gas wells, they will continue to burn for a very long time after people leave. Huge amounts of heat-trapping carbon dioxide will continue to be released into the atmosphere.

# 17 Become one with nature

Of course, carbon dioxide will not remain suspended in the atmosphere forever. The oceans will eventually consume it. Of course, there is a limit to how much the world's oceans can absorb. After all, his own waters are oxidizing to unhealthy levels. This, in turn, poses enormous potential harm to thousands of marine animal and plant species.

# 18 An overgrown boat that has become a part of nature

Looking at this not-so-beautiful imaginary future can inspire humanity to be more mindful of its actions. Many people believe that nature will be better without humans. But man is also an integral part of it. It's just that over time, people have lost that deep respect for mother nature, which was inherent in their ancestors.Even now, many people try to avoid such stories about the environment. This makes them feel quite ill. It is really scary to realize that people are causing such a global damage to the planet. It is also unpleasant to admit the fact that this hastens the death of humanity itself. Environmentalists have been saying for a long time that it is time to finally start not only talking about this, but also doing something. You don't have to go somewhere to save the world, you can just learn to respect nature where you live.

How animals return to cities that are closed for quarantine, read our article how the pandemic is helping our planet.