These gruesome pics show the dark side of human life on earth

THEY say a picture paints a thousand words. What these pictures say will shock you to your core. Warning: Some graphic images.

WARNING: Some graphic images.

THEY say a picture paints a thousand words.

So in sending a message about overpopulation, environmental group Global Population Speak Out decided to do it with a book of photographs.

Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot (OVER) aims to open the world’s eyes to the perils of overpopulation on the planet. The free e-book shows a series of powerful photographs along with expert commentary from human rights, population and conservation experts. Check out a sample of the compelling pictures below:

Dead Polar Bear

Dead Polar Bear: The western fjords on Svalbard, Norway, that normally freeze in winter, remained ice-free all season. This bear headed north, looking for suitable sea ice to hunt on. Finding none, it eventually died. Pic: Ashley Cooper.

Ice Waterfall

Ice waterfall: In both the Arctic and Antarctic regions, ice is retreating. Melting water on icecap, North East Land, Svalbard, Norway. Pic: Cotton Coulson/Keenpress.

“The Arctic situation is snowballing: dangerous changes in the Arctic derived from accumulated anthropogenic greenhouse gases lead to more activities conducive to further greenhouse gas emissions. this situation has the momentum of a runaway train.”– Carlos Duarte.

Shrinking Island

Shrinking Island: One of Earth’s most vulnerable nations to climate change, the Maldives Islands are severely threatened by rising sea levels. Pic: Peter Essick.

“The island is full of holes and seawater is coming through these, flooding areas that weren’t normally flooded 10 or 15 years ago. There are projections of about 50 years [before the islands disappear]. After this, we will be drowned.”– Paani Laupepa.

Storm from Space

One of the most powerful and disruptive storms in U.S. history, Hurricane Katrina (2005) strikes land. Pic: NASA.

Airplane Contrails

Airplane Contrails: Globalised transportation networks, especially commercial aviation, are a major contributor of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Photo of contrails in the west London sky over the River Thames, London, England. Pic: Ian Wylie.

Toxic Landscape

Toxic Landscape: Aerial view of the tar sands region, where mining operations and tailings ponds are so vast they can be seen from outer space; Alberta, Canada. Pic: Garth Lentz

Circles and Squares

Circles and Squares: An industrialised landscape — centre pivot irrigation grid among square fields in West Kansas, USA. Pic: Google Earth/Image Landsat.

Drain Pipe

Drain Pipe: Tar sands-related tailings ponds are among the largest toxic impoundments on Earth and lie in unlined dykes mere meters from the Athabasca River in northern Alberta. Indigenous communities downstream are fearful of being poisoned by toxic seepage into the food chain. Alberta, Canada. Pic: Garth Lentz.

“Think of Alberta as the Nigeria of the north. (Well, there are a lot more white people in Alberta, and Canada’s military hasn’t killed anybody to protect the oil business.) Both economies have been increasingly dominated by oil. In 2009 Nigeria exported around 2.1 million barrels of oil per day; Canada exported 1.9 million barrels per day. Environmental regulation of the oil industry in both Nigeria and Alberta is lax, and the industry has been actively opposed by native people — the Ogoni, in particular, in Nigeria and the Cree in Alberta.” – Winona LaDuke and Martin Curry.

Oil Spill Fire

Oil Spill Fire: Aerial view of an oil fire following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, Gulf of Mexico. Pic: Daniel Beltra.

Container City

Container City: Shipping containers, indispensable tool of the globalised consumer economy, reflect the skyline in Singapore, one of the world’s busiest ports. Pic: John Stanmeyer

Big Hole

Big Hole: The Mir Mine in Russia is the world’s largest diamond mine. Pic: Google Earth/ 2014 Digital Globe

Oil Wells

Oil wells: Depleting oilfields are yet another symptom of ecological overshoot; Kern River Oil Field, California, US. Pic: Mark Gamba/Corbis.

Clear-cut

Clear-cut: Industrial forestry degrading public lands, Willamette National Forest, Oregon. Pic: Daniel Dancer.

Computer Dump

Computer Dump: Massive quantities of waste from obsolete computers and other electronics are typically shipped to the developing world for sorting and/or disposal. Photo from Accra, Ghana. Pic: Peter Essick.

Smokestacks and Garbage

Smokestacks and Garbage: Brick kilns dot a dystopian landscape of trash in Bangladesh. Pic: MR Hasasn.

Night-time Grid

Night-time Grid: Los Angeles, California, population 15 million typifies America’s consumption-oriented and car dependent culture. Pic: Mike Hedge.

“American suburbia represents the greatest miss-allocation of resources in the history of the world. the far-flung housing subdivisions, commercial highway strips, big-box stores, and all the other furnishings and accessories of extreme car dependence will function poorly, if at all, in an oil-scarce future.” – James Howard Kunstler

Satellite Dishes

Satellite Dishes. The rooftops of Aleppo, Syria, one of the world’s oldest cities, are covered with satellite dishes, linking residents to a globalised consumer culture. Pic: Yann Arthus-Bertrand.

Urban Scene

Urban Scene. Central area of Barcelona, Spain, population 5 million, density 16,000 per square mile (41,400/km2). Pic: Google Earth/NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO.

“Faced with a world that can support either a lot of us consuming a lot less or far fewer of us consuming more, we’re deadlocked: individuals, governments, the media, scientists, environmentalists, economists, human rights workers, liberals, conservatives, business and religious leaders. On the supremely divisive question of the ideal size of the human family, we’re amazingly united in a pact of silence.” – Julia Whitty.

Dead Bird

Dead Bird: On Midway Island, far from the centres of world commerce, an albatross, dead from ingesting too much plastic, decays on the beach; it is a common sight on the remote island. Pic: Chris Jordan.

Wave of rubbish

Trash Wave: Indonesian surfer Dede Surinaya catches a wave in a remote but garbage-covered bay on Java, Indonesia, the world’s most populated island. Pic: Zak Noyle.

City Night

City night in London: Large urban areas like London, U.K. (population 13 million), represent a huge amount of embodied energy in their infrastructure as well as require massive ongoing inputs of energy. Pic: Jason Hawkes.

Tire Dump

Tire Dump: End of the road for these tires is a desert dumping ground in Nevada, USA. Pic by Daniel Dancer.

Book cover from Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot (OVER).

Originally published as These gruesome pics show the dark side of human life on earth