Sparrow Hill Drive, Columbus Ohio. November 17, 2015. Photo by Dennis Dimick/flickr
My preferred seating location when traveling by air is by the window in case something interesting passes below. While traveling to Columbus, Ohio in November 2015 for a visit to Ohio University in Athens, this scene passed by as we approached the Columbus airport.
While it is understandable that local taxing authorities may seek to maximize revenue by packing as many houses as possible into the available space, I am struck by this tight arrangement of houses with negligible open space as part of the plan. Google reveals the main street as Sparrow Hill Drive.
Suffice to say in a world overwhelmed by media, still images retain an amazing power to distill and convey the essence of the human experience, and as seen in this picture above, how we have transformed the planet in our expanding journey across its face.
This power of still photography - the intersection of great ideas and emotional power - was a topic of discussion during my visit with Tom Hodson of WOUB Radio in Athens. My OU visit and slide-show lecture on the emerging Anthropocene epoch was part of GIS Day at the invitation of Geoff Dabelko, and was co-sponsored by the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, and the OU Department of Geography.
Further to this theme of planet transformation, I witnessed the scene below in March of 2015. This is Sun City, Arizona where we have colonized a very dry place on a very large scale, and survival here requires imported water from the Colorado River and from depleting aquifers.
The design and impact of our earthly arrangements can often be seen most dramatically from above.
Sun City, Arizona, March 10, 2015. Photo by Dennis Dimick/flickr
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