Planet Earth is a true miracle. She managed to preserve on her agitated surface such a variety of contrasts that it can serve as a true museum of the distant past, the fast-flowing present and the approaching future.
On our Earth, all stages of its formation exist simultaneously. From the birth of an unknown volcanic island from the boiling depths of the ocean to the complete death of an almost forgotten civilization.
Somewhere in the region of Iceland, under the pressure of the titanic forces of an underwater eruption, a new island rises from the depths of the sea in fire, clouds of steam and flakes of volcanic ash. He is still lifeless. Even microbes have not yet had time to populate its incandescent mass. But he is already a prototype of what our planet was billions of years ago at its birth. This emerging scrap of the planet still has everything to do. Everything is ahead … And the first bacteria. And the green of the grass. And the first birds on the rocks. And the first traces of animals that will ever wander here.
And somewhere thousands of kilometers away, but in the same hemisphere, stone relics of a dead civilization were cut into the thickness of the planet. The columns of the temples of Luxor in Egypt are stunning.
Here life has already passed, and only the hot winds of the Sahara have been gnawing a stubborn stone, once processed by human hands, for centuries.
The mighty walls of the temples remember the rise and fall of the richest civilizations, the mysterious spells of the priests, the jubilant cries of warriors and the triumph of the pharaohs drowning in gold. But everything is already behind … Everything has disappeared into oblivion, melted in space and time, leaving behind only the silvery dust of memories.
And next to it are the stone remains of a long-dead civilization that has completed its life cycle
And again the endless desert is before our eyes.
Promotional video:
Sands … sands … A space scorched by the fierce sun, which seems to have no end and edge.
There are no trees, no grass, no water, no clouds. Sea of sand and sun.
Here is the realm of heat. The sandy soil of the planet heats up to 80 °. That is why the famous Gobi desert in Mongolia.
But even here, in the burning furnace of the planet, life exists. Let her drop, a tiny dash on the orange background of the sands. But still this is life!..
And somewhere on the planet the frantic greenery of plants, the blue miracle of water, triumphs. A sort of "dolce avita" - "sweet life" - a kind of symphony of pleasures of life, presented to us by wasteful nature. And thousands of thousands of human faces, sometimes from horizon to horizon …
And it is impossible to combine this cruel asceticism of the desert with the luscious generosity of the Earth …
But both pieces of the planet are almost close!
AN UNFORGETTABLE CONTRAST. Photo of empty Gobi, where life is faintly glimmering, and a spilled sea of human heads on the same planet
Here's another contrast. Endless icy distance stretching for thousands of miles from horizon to horizon.
Not a blade of grass, not a piece of greenery, not a tiny island, not a stone that broke through the ice. All around the blinding white of snow, bluish blocks of ice. This is the whole continent of the planet - Antarctica. It is not inhabited, this vast area of the Earth … Only a few research stations of different peoples have settled here, at the cold pole, where the temperature sometimes drops to minus 86 °.
Any movement through this frost-bound, fantastic expanse turns into an expedition.
And at the same time, modern life rejoices and rages on the busy streets of cities distraught with traffic flows. Thousands of soaring buildings filled the entire visible earthly space. Hundreds of thousands of cars zip through this artificial geometric cramp, created by the generous and talented hand of many generations.
Contrast of lifeless Antarctica and a large city
Closely … Each square metric of area has its own immutable purpose here.
And there is nowhere to go from this business tightness, which we call in the short word "life".
Oh, home planet, generously forgive us for what we have done!
Author - V. Dmitriev