1. Java, Indonesia
Most of us don’t usually think about how our daily actions impact the world around us. A few plastic bags here, a water bottle there. It’s difficult to visualize any immediate changes to our surroundings.
However, when you look at the fact that the average person generates more than four pounds of waste every day, you can imagine that it would start to add up. These shocking photographs show the horrifying results of increasing population growth and endless waste generation, and they are absolutely jaw-dropping.
This photo is of a man surfing amidst garbage in a bay in Java, Indonesia. Residents of the area do not have a system for waste disposal, so they are forced to discard their trash into the water.
2.
3. eath in Africa
Typhoon Usagi 
People watch as Typhoon Usagi hits the shore in Guangdong province, Philippines in 2013. Climate change has caused an increase in the amount of severe weather events worldwide.
Changing weather conditions, including droughts and floods, are threatening both the people and wildlife in Africa.
4.
5. Oil Spills
Bangladesh 
A large amount of the world’s goods and clothing are manufactured in Bangladesh to make use of the cheap labor. The country is filled with sweatshops where children spend long hours sewing clothes.
Several large scale oil spills have taken place in the last few decades. These catastrophic incidents leave countless animals dead, and many more in horrible condition.
6.
7. Plastic Moves Up the Food Chain
Amazon Jungle 
This photo from Brazil shows the Amazon Jungle burning to make space for grazing cattle. By 1995, 70% of the forest had been destroyed and converted to cattle ranching.
In both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems: plastic moves up. The tiny and not so tiny pieces are eaten by animals which are themselves then eaten: it moves up the food chain. With all the microplastics in our oceans and water: do we really think this isn’t reaching us?
9. Mass Fish Death
8. The Yangtze Turning Red
Whether due to microorganisms or industrial pollution: this is certainly a bad sign for the ecosystem. There is reason to believe that when enough small ecosystems collapse, the global biosphere will become destabilized and mass extinction will intensify.
Numerous fish died in an Indonesian lake after being poisoned by sulfur. Changes in weather which led to severe storms caused the stirring up of the element.
11. Willamette National Forest in Oregon Now a Wasteland
10. India Water Shortages
Residents of West Bengal, India face water shortages because of intense droughts, as well as many other harsh climate changes.
This photo is of the Willamette National Forest in Oregon, or what’s left of it. The forest was leveled for reservoir development. Keep in mind that the prices demanded for exploitation of Federal/public lands is pennies on the dollar for the ecological costs and profit the companies make. They demand so little that the Navajo were able to sue them for exploiting their lands and not returning even close to market price.
13. Starving In Antarctica
12. Ghana
Accra, Ghana is where electronic waste from around the world is sent to. There, local residents break apart the machines for parts or burn them.
This image of an emaciated polar bear wandering on a thin patch of ice has shocked people worldwide. The situation for this species is only getting worse.
15. Sea of Cell Phones
14. Mountain of Phone Chargers
Our lust and desire for smartphones, and next-generation technologies of all kinds, are fueling conflict and loss of life the Congo.
16.
17. Sea of Trash
United Kingdom 
Here you can see a coal power plant in the United Kingdom billowing plumes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
18. Animal Agriculture
Animal agriculture, as a whole, requires tremendous amounts of resources and is a leader in environmental degradation, responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions (more than all transportation combined).
19. Nevada Waste Disposal
Clearing land for animal agriculture, and the food it requires, accounts for 91% of amazon deforestation.
As a whole, we usually trust in the services society provides us, like waste disposal. But that trust dissipates with images such as this one of tires thrown out in the middle of the desert in Nevada.
21. Vancouver Island, Canada Deforestation
20. Norway Global Warming
In Svalbard, Norway, as well as other places around the world, the increasing global temperatures are melting ice caps and causing drastic rises in sea levels.
Here you can see extensive deforestation on Vancouver Island in Canada. Humans have destroyed an immeasurable amount of natural habitats and ecosystems throughout history.
22.
23. Los Angeles, California
Redondo Beach, California 
With our population already at 7 billion people and overconsumption rising at a terrifying rate, this is something serious that many people have a hard time picturing. The truth is shocking, and when I look at these photos I can only imagine all the heart-wrenching images of environmental destruction that go unseen by most humans, the scenes which lay unvisited in the mountains or in the hearts of what were once forests.
This is a birds eye shot of Los Angeles at night. The city’s population is nearing 19 million.
24. The Deepwater Horizon Crisis
Approximately 5 million barrels of oil (almost a million cubic meters) spilled into the ocean.
25. Oil filters in Seattle, 2003
In response to this disaster, BP sprayed Corexit (which is so poisonous that the US government demanded they stop) onto the oil to get it to disappear from sight. Millions of barrels of oil still lay on the bottom of the Gulf, rendering hundreds to thousands of square miles devoid of life. Meanwhile, BP got off with a slap on the wrist and a connected high-ranking Halliburton manager who destroyed evidence was fined only $1,000.
26. Ghoramara Island
Ghoramara Island in West Bengal, India has been experiencing severe sea level rises because of the effects of global warming.
27. Yellow River, China
Since the 1980’s, more than 50% of the land has been washed away.
China’s Yellow River has been deemed unsafe for use of any sort of use because of its extremely high levels of pollution. Discharge from factories along the river has this man turning away in disgust.
28.
29. Junkyard Full of Metal Scraps
Mexico City, Mexico 
People watch as Typhoon Usagi hits the shore in Guangdong province, Philippines in 2013. Climate change has caused an increase in the amount of severe weather events worldwide.
30. Russia
This image shows the Mir Mine, the world’s largest diamond mine, in Russia.
31. California, USA
Diamond mining is devastating for the land, as this photo illustrates perfectly.
This photograph is of the Kern River oil field in California. It is the fifth largest oil field in the United States.
32.
33. Alberta, Canada
Almeria, Spain 
The main industry in Almeria, Spain is marble quarrying. The infrastructure stretches endlessly across the landscape.
Open pit mining and tar deposit in this region of Alberta, Canada takes up an area so huge that it can be seen from outer space.
34.
35. Kowloon City in Hong Kong
New Delhi, India 
The population of New Delhi, India and its surrounding areas is around 25 million. India is known for its severe overpopulation problem.
Hong Kong is still one of the most densely populated cities on Earth with 6,650 people per square kilometer. When Kowloon City still stood, it housed 33,000 people in a single city block.
36. Port au Prince, Haiti
