A cursory glance of some of the most stunning landscapes across the
world and how they have changed over the years reveals the vulnerability
of the environment to human activity.
No landscape can be
expected to remain a museum that fossilises a bygone age – any
environment where people live and work is inevitably subject to
transformation. However some man-made changes have been more discreet
than others.
Comparisons of “then” and “now” photographs of the Cotswolds show how rich undulating hills have been
encroached
by surfaced roads, airfields, and industrial farm buildings in the last
century. Cotswolds villages, once rural idylls, have expanded and
become sub-urbanised.
The Scottish Highlands, one of the great glories of Britain’s scenic heritage, are being irreversibly altered, from insensitive
golf course developments to expansive
wind turbine construction.
The locals of Caithness on Scotland’s north-west tip have recently seen
their remote and rugged landscape acquire 21 wind turbines, each 110
metres high, at Baillie Farm; while in the Aberdeenshire village of
Balmedie, tranquillity has been somewhat punctured by the development of
Donald Trump’s £100m golf course: the Trump International Golf Links.
It has been welcomed as a valuable investment providing essential
employment, but shows how vulnerable the natural environment can be in
the face of economic needs.
Whitelee Wind Farm with the Isle of
Arran in the background, Scotland. Whitelee is the largest on-shore wind
farm in the United Kingdom.
Further afield, landscapes are increasingly becoming a political issue
at European level, capturing the interest of developers,
environmentalists and government bodies alike.
Over the last
century, the dramatic scenery of the Alpine peaks has been intruded into
by the expansion of nearby cities such as Lyon, Milan and Turin. The
new infrastructures demanded by the tourism industry have left some
areas unrecognisable. Since ski lifts became de rigueur after the Second
World War, 10,000 transport facilities serve more than 3,400 km² of ski
areas in the Alps, enjoyed by upwards of 120 million tourists every
year. The impact on the landscape has been dramatic.
A ski lift in Val d'Isere, French Alps
Tourism can destroy the very value of a location, especially when
tourists’ needs are prioritised over environmental protection. It is
especially difficult for developing countries to stem the tide of
visitors and limit their impact on the environment. The once untouched
My Khe beach near Hoi An in central Vietnam is now awash with luxury
holiday resorts, with more under construction. My Khe was dubbed “
China Beach”
by Americans during the war, referring to the 30km sweep of beautiful
white sand that lay between Monkey Mountain and Hoi An. Today, the beach
has been encroached from the north by the city of Danang, and from the
south, Hoi An. What remained has since been divided up by giant hotel
companies.
A resort-hotel is under construction on China Beach, 2009
The panoramic Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, with its stunningly beautiful
array of limestone karsts and islands, attracts over six million
visitors every year. But mangroves and seagrass beds have been cleared
out to make room for tourist boats and the towering limestone caves that
characterise the location have been damaged by the impact.
Ha Long Bay in Vietnam
The
Giza Necropolis,
another UNESCO World Heritage site, has also developed beyond
recognition in the last one hundred years. Built overlooking the ancient
Egyptian capital of Memphis, the three pyramids now dominate the
skyline on the outskirts of modern-day Cairo. Since the British
occupation of Egypt in the early 20 century focused on the construction
of roads, streets and buildings in Giza, the renowned archaeological
site is now surrounded by new development.
Even protected landscapes, safeguarded from urban development, cannot escape the impact of climate change. In the US,
Glacier National Park
illustrates how the warmer weather has adversely altered the landscape
in less than a century: when the park was established in 1910, it
boasted a spectacular collection of 150 glaciers. Today it has only 25,
and that number is dwindling.
Repeat photography of the glaciers,
such as the pictures taken of Grinnell Glacier between 1938 and 2009 as
shown, help to provide visual confirmation of the extent of glacier
retreat
In California, Yosemite National Park is experiencing its lowest levels
of snow in the park’s history. The park’s most famous waterfall,
Yosemite Falls, is projected to dry up in June, two months earlier than
usual, and a bad fire season is expected in the summer.
These changes to our most celebrated landscapes make the Earth Day
campaign all the more critical, and its mission to protect natural land
and preserve the environment remains a constant challenge.
Earth Day: Pictures that show we are killing our planet
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