The power of human destruction

In France, there is a red zone since the end of the World War I. This area is full of unexploded shells, some of them with poisonous gases, ammunition already rusted with the passage of time and grenades.

Soil can contain everything from lead, mercury, chlorine, arsenic... to animal and, of course, human remains.

As a result, the area was declared unviable for human presence after the conflict, and access to the 1,200 kilometers of the area was prohibited. With the passage of time, the exclusion area has been shrinking thanks to the clearing of the land, but it will still take 7 centuries, if the clearing continues at the current pace, and let nature do its work before the area can be visited by humans again.

This human and environmental disaster is the result of the battle of Verdunwhich took place during 10 months in 1916and in which died between 700,000 and 1,250,000 people.

100,000 killed during the battle still lie buried.

The battle took with nine villagessix of which have never been rebuilt, and the other three have only been partially rebuilt. The area was so environmentally damaged that it was impossible to recover it, hence the law prohibiting entry into the worst areas.

Nature, and the current environmental crisis, is capable of wreaking havoc in our environment, something we have recently experienced in Spain, and provoking humanitarian and environmental crises. But let the memory of the battle of Verdun, 108 years ago, serve to make us aware of how human beings can become infinitely more cruel and destructive than nature itself.

This information is extracted from Paul Cooper's thread, where you can see stunning images of this area, at https://x.com/PaulMMCooper/status/989100350044082176