21st Century Landscapes: Juxtaposition

A year ago, I put together a series of satellite views of 21st Century Landscapes—areas where humans had completely reshaped their environment since the year 2000. The things is, humans are an industrious species, and we just won’t stop building things (or, occasionally, rehabilitating things). Here’s a set of images highlighting the links between development from Antarctica to Sub-Arctica Canada, Shanghai to Midway Island.

Each image was collected by one of Planet Labs’ SkySat high-resolution Earth observation satellites. At full size—2500 by 1406 pixels—each is 0.8 meters per pixel and 2.0 kilometers by 1.1 kilometers (1.2 miles by 0.70 miles), north up, and displayed in true color. All images ©2018 Planet Labs, Inc. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lithium Mine. Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. December 11, 2018.

Tesla Gigafactory. Sparks, Nevada, USA. June 14, 2018.

Reclaimed Land. Shanghai, China. September 14, 2018.

Dust Abatement, Owens Dry Lake Bed. California, USA. October 25, 2018.

Jeddah Tower. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. August 16, 2018.

Salesforce Tower. San Francisco, California, USA. June 23, 2018.

Subdivision. Dubai, United Arab Emirates. August 8, 2018.

Subdivision. Plum Grove, Texas, USA. November 16, 2018.

Plantation. Mato Grosso, Brazil. May 28, 2018.

Selective Logging. Democratic Republic of the Congo. September 14, 2018.

European Gravitational Observatory-Virgo. Tuscany, Italy. December 15, 2018.

Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. Livingston, Louisiana, USA. February 10, 2017.

Airport. Dirkou, Niger. September 2, 2018.

Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. United States. November 24, 2018.

Caval Ridge Mine Project. Queensland, Australia. September 30, 2018.

Port of Gladstone. Queensland, Australia. September 14, 2018.

Dalian Bay Coal Terminal. Liaoning, China. April 15, 2018.

Power Plant. Nanxiong, China. October 1, 2018.

Alpensia Ski Resort & Sliding Center. Pyeongchang, South Korea. February 13. 2018.

Whistler Sliding Center. British Columbia, Canada. August 27, 2018.

Border Crossing. Mexico—United States. December 10, 2018.

Border Crossing. Afghanistan—Pakistan. October 15, 2018.

U.S. Route 121. Sophie, West Virginia, USA. November 4, 2018.

Øresund Bridge Toll Plaza. Malmo, Sweden. June 15, 2018.

Saltpeter Mine. Antofagasta, Chile. December 4, 2018.

Irrigated Fields. Ica, Peru. October 1, 2018.

In Situ Extraction, Athabasca Oil Sands. Alberta, Canada. July 26, 2018.

Oil Wells. New Mexico, USA. November 25, 2018.

Astronomical Observatories. La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. December 12, 2018.

Concordia Research Station. Dome C, Antarctica. February 23, 2018.

Artisanal Gold Mine. Madre de Dios, Peru. January 20, 2016.

Grasberg Mine. Papua, Indonesia. August 4, 2017.

Airport and Beachfront Hotels. Wonsan, North Korea. October 14, 2018.

Urban Redevelopment. Damascus, Syria. November 26, 2018.

Tianjin, China. May 26, 2015.

Tianjin, China. August 21, 2015.

Tianjin, China. August 2, 2018.

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