Our Beautiful Green World

ALL IMAGES AND CAPTIONS TAKEN FROM HERE. At this time in the States it is almost Thanksgiving and we thought these images might put into perspective what it really means to be thankful. These images astounded us, as all images like these should and brought into perspective how amazing the field of Architecture and Landscape Architecture truly is in changing lives. We are just as amazed and enthralled by contemporary design as the next person, but even more astounding is when the design field can change peoples lives like the ones pictured below. We hope these images inspire you (inspiration comes in many forms) and open your eyes up as much as they opened ours.

A cow grazing amidst the piles of rubbish in Dhaka. With over 8000 slums, thousands of people work everyday in the polluted environment of Bangladesh’s capital. The city is known to have the 2nd most polluted water supply in the world, contaminated by industrial waste and human excrement. The local authorities in Dhaka do not consider waste disposal a priority and as a result, rubbish accumulates in large piles around the city before it is finally removed

Volunteers try to clear a dam which is filled with discarded plastic bottles and other garbage, blocking Vacha Dam, near the town of Krichim on April 25, 2009.

Volunteers try to clear a dam which is filled with discarded plastic bottles and other garbage, blocking Vacha Dam, near the town of Krichim on April 25, 2009.

Kosovo albanians work at an open coal mine near the town of Obilic on April 24, 2009. Air pollution in Pristina has passed all legal norms of environmental pollution regulations. While in the world’s developed countries air pollution is permitted to pass its limits only 18 times during a year, Pristina reaches this limit within three months. Experts at the Institute for Public Health warn that this pollution factor is decreasing people?s life expectancy.

Indian scavengers look for coins and other valuable items from among the offerings of devotees in the Ganges at Varanasi on April 5, 2009. More than 400 million people live along the Ganges River. An estimated 2,000,000 persons ritually bathe daily in the river, which is considered holy by Hindus. In the Hindu religion it is said to flow from the lotus feet of Vishnu (for Vaisnava devotees) or the hair of Shiva (for Saivites). While the Ganges may be considered holy, there are some problems associated with the ecology. It is filled with chemical wastes, sewage and even the remains of human and animal corpses which carry major health risks by either direct bathing in the water (e.g.: Bilharziasis infection), or by drinking (the Fecal-oral route).

Thousands of scrapped taxis are abandoned at a yard in the center of Chongqing city on March 4, 2009. Traffic congestion and pollution have worsened dramatically in Chinese cities as the country’s long-running economic expansion has allowed increasing numbers of consumers to make big-ticket purchases such as cars.

A polluted creek covered with trash in Manila, Philippines on 01 March 2009. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources reported in 2008 that the Philippines hosts 50 major polluted rivers, with a majority of pollutants coming from domestic waste.

A man collecting dead fish in Guanqiao Lake in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province, which died due to the polluted lake water and the sizzling weather in the city.

An Indian boy searches for coins in the polluted waters of the Yamuna River in New Delhi.The national capital is a major culprit in the pollution of the Yamuna, accounting for about 79 per cent of the total waste water that is poured into the river by the major towns along its banks. Despite the Indian government spending millions on trying to clean up the river, most of it going to waste-treatment stations, pollution levels continue to rise.

Top

Home