As solid and unshakable as we think our civilization is, its grip on nature is tenuous at best. If any cracks appear in the faces of our buildings or our machines, nature is quick to move in and take over. With this in mind, here are 21 photos of places and things that nature is in the process of reclaiming.
Quite a bit of thought has been given to the idea of what Earth might look like once we’re gone. Indeed, many books and TV shows on the topic have found that nature would take our places fairly quickly. Many cities would be re-colonized within a year or two, and many of our buildings would begin crumbling soon after without human maintenance or energy sources. The Life After People series on the History Channel has a comprehensive timeline of collapses detailing when various famous landmarks of human civilization throughout the world might give way to nature.
Image credits: Crackoala
Image credits: Romain JL
Image credits: messynessychic.com
Image credits: Ethan Welty
Image credits: Jesse Rockwell
Image credits: Jason Wallace
Image credits: Kyle Telechan
Image credits: Rosanne de Lange
Image credits: Marsel Van Oosten
Image credits: Pierre Folk
Image credits: AndyBrii
Image credits: worldbeyondyourown
Image credits: Wei-Feng Xue
Image credits: Sam Abell
Image credits: Ilya Varlamov
Image credits: brokenview
Image credits: englishrussia.com
Image credits: Pietro Bevilacqua
Image credits: Brad Grove
Image credits: Matthias Haker
Image credits: castlemaineindependent.org