The Top Man Made Events That Changed The Planet

The planet is an incredible place filled with all kinds of things to see and explore. While plenty of them can be put down to Mother Nature, others are thanks to humans. Of course, not all of our contributions to the world have been so great and the effects of some are still felt today.

Not all events are planned to create such global change. Still, that hasn;t stopped some from going down in the history books as the top man made events that changed the planet. The question is, will it ever get to a point that they disappear, or will they forever be a part of the history books? Only time will tell.

The Amazon deforestation project, Amazon Rainforest

There was once a time when Brazil was almost entirely covered by the Amazon Rainforest. Tragically, one of the worst man made events in recent history has seen 20% of the forest be destroyed in the last four decades. The forest is responsible for soaking up 600 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, meaning that losing the trees is having a huge effect on the planet. Apparently, the Amazon Deforestation project wanted to see what would happen if a large chunk of the forest was deliberately cut down - and the results were bad. Now, around 137 species are made extinct a day.

Red Soil, Madagascar

There was once a time that ships would use the Betsiboka River to travel up into Madagascar from the ocean. Why did it stop? All the sediment. 100 years of coastal mangroves and heavy logging in the area means all the heavy rain had nowhere to go but to wash away the land, with some estimating up to 112 tons per acre disappear from the island each year. To make matters even creepier, the soil that’s left behind is bright red, leading some to think it looks as though the land is bleeding.

The Louisiana Sinkhole, Louisiana

The Gulf of MExico once provided an incredible freshwater lake in Louisiana. That was until they realized there was a saltmine sitting under the surface just waiting to be explored. In 1980, workers set about creating an oil rig in the hopes of finding black gold somewhere below Lake Peigneur. The drill reached 1,200 feet until something seized and they knew it was time to bail. The problem? 50 miners were still in the salt mines. The lake turned into a churning whirlpool while all the miners - somehow - managed to escape. It turned out the drill had gone through into the mines. Eventually, it sucked in a tugboat and 11 barges as well as emptying 3.5 billion gallons of water into the sinkhole.

The Bingham Canyon Mine, Utah

Believe it or not, but the Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah is so large that a 200-story skyscraper could be placed in the middle and it still wouldn’t reach the top. It’s filled with over 500 miles of roads and is the biggest copper mine on the planet, producing over 19 million tons of copper so far. Sadly, the mine also became home to the largest man made landslide back in 2013 as the avalanche reached speeds of up to 100 mph while bringing 160 million tons of rocks down with it. Now, a large chunk of it still remains buried.

The top man made events that changed the planet have done a lot for humans in the last few decades. Even though some of the projects started with the best of intentions, it appears that humans trying to take advantage of the world might be one of the biggest undoings of it all.