My 30 New Collages Show The Parallel Universes That Today’s People Live In

Real heroes don't wear capes.

Photo by Mohammed Hamoud // Legs of civilian victims are seen at a hospital after they were killed by an airstrike of the Saudi-led coalition that targeted their homes on June 25, 2018, in Amran province, north Sana’a, Yemen.

Photo by Alessio Paduano // Members of the Spanish NGO @proactivaopenarms rescue Josepha, an African migrant from Cameroon, while the body of a woman lies on a piece of driftwood about 85 miles off the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean sea on July 17, 2018.

Photo by James Oatway // A child displaced by fighting in Bunia, Democratic Republic Congo in 2018.

Photo by Aris Messinis @aris.messinis // Migrants try to pull a child out of the water as they wait to be rescued by members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO in the Mediterranean sea, some 12 nautical miles north of Libya, on October 4, 2016.
The UNHCR reports that 373,652 refugees and migrants arrived by sea to Italy, Greece, Spain, Cyprus, and Malta in 2016. An estimated 5,096 people are dead and missing in 2016.

Many communities have become refugees or immigrants for political, religious, and economic reasons throughout human history. And they/we will continue to be.

Police officers are seen outside the Capitol Building in Washington, January 6, 2021. Chaos unfolded after Trump spent weeks whipping up his supporters with false allegations of fraud in the presidential election, culminating in a call to march to the building that represents democracy. Protesters fought through police barricades, stormed the building, and entered lawmakers’ chambers.

(U) President Donald Trump delivers his inaugural address on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2017, in Washington, DC. In today's inauguration ceremony, Donald J. Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States.

Photo by Carolina Rapezzi // This photograph was made in the Agbogbloshie scrapyard in Accra, Ghana, in 2018. Rashida is a water merchant, selling water mainly in the burning areas. Local workers burn scrap computer parts, wires, and other appliances in order to extract valuable raw materials like copper, aluminium and iron. Bags of pure water are used to extinguish the fires and cool down the metals after burning. One bag of pure water costs 1 Ghanaian Cedi, the equivalent of USD 0.20. Young men and women have migrated from the north of Ghana looking for better job opportunities, but they are now making a living from hazardous jobs, being constantly exposed to toxic emissions, with no health and safety regulations.

Discarders of electronic goods expect them to be recycled properly. But almost all such devices contain toxic chemicals which, even if they are recyclable, make it expensive to do so. As a result, illegal dumping has become a lucrative business. Agbogbloshie, a former wetland in Accra, Ghana, is home to the world’s largest e-waste dumping site. Boys and young men smash devices to get to the metals, especially copper. Injuries, such as burns, untreated wounds, eye damage, lung and back problems, go hand in hand with chronic nausea, anorexia, debilitating headaches, and respiratory problems. Most workers die from cancer in their 20s. via @guardian
Discarders of electronic goods expect them to be recycled properly. But almost all such devices contain toxic chemicals which, even if they are recyclable, make it expensive to do so. As a result, illegal dumping has become a lucrative business. Agbogbloshie, a former wetland in Accra, Ghana, is home to the world’s largest e-waste dumping site. Boys and young men smash devices to get to the metals, especially copper. Injuries, such as burns, untreated wounds, eye damage, lung and back problems, go hand in hand with chronic nausea, anorexia, debilitating headaches, and respiratory problems. Most workers die from cancer in their 20s. via @guardian

Photo by Rogerio Florentino // The elephant Ramba rests after arriving at the Brazilian Elephant Sanctuary located at the municipality of Chapada dos Guimaraes, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, on October 18, 2019. The Asian elephant that spent decades performing in South American circuses has started a new life in an open-air sanctuary in Brazil, after traveling thousands of kilometers by plane and truck from a Chilean zoo. The elephant, estimated to be more than 52 years old, worked in circuses in Argentina and Chile before she was rescued by activists in 2012.

Photo by Wissam Nassar // A Palestinian man holds a girl who medics said was injured in an Israeli shelling at a U.N.-run school sheltering Palestinian refugees, at a hospital in the northern Gaza Strip in 2014.

Photo by Diego Ibarra Sanchez // A man slept outside destroyed apartments in the quarantine neighborhood of Beirut, a city where the explosion the previous week killed over 150 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

The blast, which appeared to have been caused by a fire igniting 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate left unsecured in a warehouse, was felt as far away as Cyprus, some 150 miles (240 kilometers) to the northwest.

Photo by Halit Onur Sandal // The dead body of a migrant child lies on the beach near the Aegean town of Ayvacik, Canakkale, Turkey, on Jan. 30, 2016. A boat carrying migrants to Greece hit rocks off the Turkish coast and capsized, killing at least 33 people, including five children, officials and news reports said.

Photo by Ron Haviv // Arkan's Tigers kill and kick Bosnian Muslim civilians during the first battle for Bosnia in Bijeljina, Bosnia, March 31, 1992.

Photo by Sebastiano Tomada // Ahmed, the 8-year-old son of a Free Syrian Army fighter, stands in front of a barricade where he assists Free Syrian Army fighters in the neighborhood of Salahadeen on March 27, 2013.

Photo by G.M.B. Akash // A 12-year-old child laborer in a textile factory in Narayanganj, Bangladesh, is beaten by the owner for not completing his work on time in January 2005. The boy works for ten hours a day and earns around one US dollar.

Photo by Giuseppe Carotenuto // 146 people rescued by MOAS (the Migrant Offshore Aid Station) on 24 November 2016 in the Mediterranean Sea. They were disembarked in Pozzallo on the 27th of November.

Photo by Chris Hondros // Samar Hassan, 5, screams after her parents were killed by U.S. Soldiers with the 25th Infantry Division in a shooting on January 18, 2005, in Tal Afar, Iraq. The troops fired on the Hassan family car when it unwittingly approached them during a dusk patrol in the tense northern Iraqi town. Parents Hussein and Camila Hassan were killed instantly, and son Rakan, 11, was seriously wounded in the abdomen. Rakan, paralyzed from the waist down, was treated later in the U.S.

The pains of war have been visited on thousands of Iraqis, but even here Samar’s story stands apart. Three years after her parents were killed, her brother Rakan died when an insurgent attack badly damaged the house where she lives now. Rakan had been seriously wounded in the shooting that killed their parents, and he was sent to Boston for treatment after Mr. Hondros’s photos were published. An American aid worker, Marla Ruzicka, who helped arrange for Rakan’s treatment, was herself later killed in a car bomb in Baghdad.

Samar's older sister's husband, Nathir Bashir Ali, suspects his house was bombed by insurgents as retribution for sending Rakan to the United States. “When Rakan came back from America, everyone thought I was a spy,” he said.

Photo by K.M. Asad // Soyad Ali (75), in front of his makeshift tent at Thankhali refugee camp in Teknaf, Bangladesh on September 26, 2017.

With stay-at-home orders to contain the spread of the virus, women with violent partners increasingly find themselves isolated from the people and resources that can help them.

Emerging data shows that since the outbreak of COVID-19, violence against women and girls, and particularly domestic violence, has INTENSIFIED, resulting in a spike of around 30% in some countries. Less than 40% of the women who experience violence seek the help of any sort. via @unwomen

Photo by Marios Rafael Bikos // A refugee with their child carries their belongings after the fire in Moria Refugee Camp on September 22, 2020.

Photo by Alessio Paduano // A member of the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms carries a dead child about 85 miles / 137 km off the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean sea on July 17, 2018.

Photo by Joshua Irwandi // The body of a suspected COVID-19 victim lies in an Indonesian hospital. After the patient died, nurses wrapped the body in layers of plastic and applied disinfectant to help prevent the spread of the virus.

Photo by Afshin Ismaeli // A child flees the Moria refugee camp after fires completely destroyed the camp on September 9, 2020. Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes after a fire broke out in Moria camp, destroying their homes and belongings.

Photo by Paula Bronstein @pbbphoto // At an emergency hospital, Najiba holds her nephew Shabir, age 2, who was injured from a bomb blast that killed his sister in Kabul on March 29, 2016. Najiba had to stay with the children as their mother buried her daughter. Every year the UN comes out with their report documenting the unfortunate carnage from America's 2019 longest and most costly war in history. Along with the price tag estimated in the hundreds of billions, the human toll from a 2015 UN Assistance Mission To Afghanistan (UNAMA) report stated the number of Afghan civilians killed and wounded surpassed 11,000, which was the deadliest on record for civilians in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion more than 14 years ago.

Photo by Yann Libessart // A kid looks with his grenade launchers toy in Mpoko IDP camp at Bangui International Airport, the Central African Republic in 2014.

According to The UNHCR, of the 7.1 million refugee children of school age, 3.7 million—more than half—do not go to school. “School is where refugees are given a second chance,” said Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “We are failing refugees by not giving them the opportunity to build the skills and knowledge they need to invest in their futures.” via UNHCR

“We need to invest in refugee education or pay the price of a generation of children condemned to grow up unable to live independently, find work and be full contributors to their communities,” said Grandi.

Photo by Steve McCurry // Afghan Girl is a 1984 photographic portrait of a refugee girl, Sharbat Gula. It appeared on the June 1985 cover of National Geographic. Pashtun by ethnicity and from a rural background, Sharbat Gula's family fled their village in eastern Nangarhar during the Soviet Union's bombing of Afghanistan when she was around six years old. Along with her father, brother, and three sisters, she walked across the mountains to Pakistan to the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in 1984. Sharbat Gula was one of the students in an informal school at the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in 1984. Her photograph was taken by Steve McCurry.

The Soviet–Afghan War lasted over nine years, from December 1979 to February 1989. Insurgent groups known collectively as the mujahideen, as well as smaller Maoist groups, fought a guerrilla war against the Soviet Army and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan government, mostly in the rural countryside. The Mujahideen were variously backed primarily by the United States, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, and the United Kingdom; the conflict was a Cold War-era proxy war. Between 562,000 and 2,000,000 civilians were killed and millions of Afghans fled the country as refugees, mostly to Pakistan and Iran. via Wikipedia.

A doctor and a nurse wearing protective gear leave at the end of their shift in a corridor of the level intensive care unit, treating COVID-19 patients, at a hospital in Rome, on April 20, 2020.

Photo by Wathiq Khuzaie // U.S. marines climb up to topple a statue of Iraqi Saddam Hussein on April 9, 2003, at the al-Fardous Square in Baghdad, Iraq.

Photo by Amer Almohibany // Smoke rises from buildings following airstrikes on the rebel-held besieged town of Arbin, in the eastern Ghouta region, on the outskirts of the capital Damascus on January 8, 2018.

Photo by Felipe Dana // Refugees and migrants wait to be rescued by members of the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, after leaving Libya trying to reach European soil aboard an overcrowded rubber boat, north of the Libyan coast, Sunday, May 6, 2018. In total, 105 refugees and migrants from Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco, Ghana, Pakistan, Sudan, Libya, Eritrea, and Senegal were rescued in the overcrowded rubber boat.

Photo by Umit Bektas // Timur Xaligov carries his 10-months-old daughter, Narin, who was killed with five other relatives, including her mother Sevil, when a rocket hit their home during the fighting over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, in the city of Ganja, Azerbaijan October 17, 2020.

Nine-year-old Alladin collects used ammunition to sell as metal in Aleppo, Syria.

The UN projects that the global population increases from a population of 7.7 billion in 2019 to 11.2 billion by the end of the century. Population growth has unfavorable effects for the world and us.

Natural resources are not enough for us. For energy, it has to build more fossil fuel-powered power plants and be constantly operational. Sorry, but renewable energy sources are not enough for us. It will never be enough for us. You can see that these countries are the world's material production center when you look at the countries with high fossil fuel consumption. Why? To supply our needs and demands.

It causes changes in social and demographic balances. It causes significant inequality and problems such as income inequality, education, career, and job employment. The level of wealth and inequality at low population countries is less. In countries with a larger population, it is the opposite.

Reducing fertility is essential if future population growth is to be reined in. Cynthia Gorney wrote about the dramatic story of declining Brazilian fertility as part of @natgeo's 7 Billion series. The average family size dropped from 6.3 children to 1.9 children per woman over two generations in Brazil, the result of improving education for girls, more career opportunities, and the increased availability of contraception.

A paradox of lower fertility and reduced population growth rates is that as education and affluence improve, consumption of natural resources increases per person. In other words, as we get richer, each of us consumes more natural resources and energy, typically carbon-based fuels such as coal, oil, and gas. This can be seen in consumption patterns that include higher protein foods such as meat and dairy, more consumer goods, bigger houses, more vehicles, and more air travel.

We need educated and conscious generations when keeping the population low. Or IT'S NOT ENOUGH FOR US!

Girl cleans plastic on a beach in Bali, Indonesia. Plastic pollution in Bali, Indonesia.

According to of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), Over 300 million tons of plastic are produced every year for use in a wide variety of applications. At least 8 million tons of plastic end up in our oceans every year and make up 80% of all marine debris from surface waters to deep-sea sediments. Marine species ingest or are entangled by plastic debris, which causes severe injuries and deaths. Plastic pollution threatens food safety and quality, human health, coastal tourism, and contributes to climate change. Recycling and reuse of plastic products and support for research and innovation to develop new products to replace single-use plastics are also necessary to prevent and reduce plastic pollution.

Aurora, 13, waits for her groom to receive and marry her in an illegal Bosnian Roma camp called Monachina on the outskirts of Rome, Italy, where she lives, Oct. 10, 2010.

Brazil, which has the second-worst death toll worldwide with 146,000, and the third-most cases, with 4.9 Million, canceled its carnival parade, which usually takes place in February, for the first time in 100 years.

Photo by Wissam Nassar @wissamgaza // Children from the Al Atawna family are sitting amid the rubble of their destroyed house which was damaged during the last war of 2014, in the Al-Shejaiya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City.

Photo by Abdulmonam Eassa @abdulmonam_eassa // Wounded Syrian children cry as they wait to receive treatment following a reported airstrike on the rebel-controlled town of Hammuriyeh, in the eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, on March 25, 2017. At least 16 civilians were killed and dozens wounded in an airstrike on a rebel-held area outside Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Climate Change

Photo by Ivan Romano // A baby girl in the Moria refugee camp on January 31, 2020, in Moria, Lesbos Island, Greece. Fires completely destroyed the camp on September 9, 2020, in Moria Camp.

Photo by Ron Haviv // Senad Medanovic, the sole survivor of a massacre finds his home in ruins after the Bosnian army recaptured his village from Serb forces. He is standing on what is believed to be a mass grave of sixty-nine people, including his family. 1995.

Photo by Amer Almohibany // A Syrian government forces' MiG-23 fighter-bomber drops a payload during a reported airstrike in the rebel-held area of Qabun, east of the capital Damascus, on May 6, 2017.

Photo by Naoufel Dridi // Refugees leave their jerrycan in the queue to the water point on March 23, 2015 in Minawao Camp, Mokolo, Cameroon.

MSF intervenes in the Far North Region of Cameroon to provide medical assistance to Nigerian people who had fled the Boko Haram conflict as well as to the Cameroonian displaced population. MSF works in the district hospital of Mokolo (ITFC and pediatric care) and in the camps of Minawao and Gawar with water and sanitation activities in both camps, and also a provision of medical care in the second. MSF is the only organization in charge of water supply for both camps.

Photo by Ami Vitale @amivitale // A Tamil woman working for a NGO take out mines near one of the front lines of the brutal 26-year-war in Sri Lanka February 18, 2016.

According of the Landmine Monitor Report 2019, 3,789 people lost their lives due to mines in 2018. The vast majority of recorded landmine casualties were civilians (71%). Children accounted for 54% of all civilian casualties.

A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it.

The use of landmines is controversial because of their potential as indiscriminate weapons. They can remain dangerous many years after a conflict has ended, harming civilians and the economy. 78 countries are contaminated with land mines and 15,000–20,000 people are killed every year while countless more are maimed. Approximately 80% of landmine casualties are civilian, with children as the most affected age group. Most killings occur in times of peace.

With pressure from a number of campaign groups organized through the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a global movement to prohibit their use led to the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, also known as the Ottawa Treaty. To date, there are 164 state parties to the treaty. One state (the Marshall Islands) has signed but not ratified the treaty, while 32 UN states, including China, Russia, and the United States have not; making a total of 33 United Nations states not party.

Photo by Chris Hondros // An Iraqi man is held against a Humvee by a US Marine after being searched during snap vehicle checks on February 8, 2006, in Ramadi, Iraq. Marines of the 3rd Battalion, 7th Regiment frequently take to Ramadi's tense streets in Humvee convoys, randomly stopping vehicles to search for weapons and insurgents. Sniper attacks are common, so the Marines usually set off smoke bombs to screen them from attackers.

An Iraqi man comforts his 4-year-old son at a holding center for prisoners of war, in the base camp of the US Army 101st Airborne Division near An-Najaf. Photo by Jean-Marc Bouju

Bitcoin consumes “more electricity than Argentina”

Bitcoin uses more electricity annually than the whole of Argentina, analysis by Cambridge University suggests. "Mining" for the cryptocurrency is power-hungry, involving heavy computer calculations to verify transactions. via @bbcnews

The worldwide sources of electricity were coal and peat 38%, natural gas 23%, hydroelectric 16.2%, nuclear power 10.1%, oil 2.9%, solar/wind/geothermal/tidal/other 7.4%, biomass and waste 2.4%.

Naked detainees with bags over their heads placed into a human pyramid as Spc. Sabrina Harman, middle, and Cpl. Charles Graner Jr., above, pose behind them in late 2003 at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.

2020 is among the 3 hottest years on record.

Climate change continued its relentless march in 2020, which is on track to be one of the three warmest years on record. 2011-2020 will be the warmest decade on record, with the warmest six years all being since 2015, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

Ocean heat is at record levels and more than 80% of the global ocean experienced a marine heatwave at some time in 2020, with widespread repercussions for marine ecosystems already suffering from more acidic waters due to carbon dioxide (CO2) absorption, according to the provisional WMO report on the State of the Global Climate in 2020.

The report, which is based on contributions of dozens of international organizations and experts, shows how high-impact events including extreme heat, wildfires, and floods, as well as the record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season, affected millions of people, compounding threats to human health and security and economic stability posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the COVID-19 lockdown, atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases continued to rise, committing the planet to further warming for many generations to come because of the long lifetime of CO2 in the atmosphere, according to the report.

We realized how important hygiene is for us.

Kanyaruchinya refugee camp in Goma in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 20th October 2012.

“Just 25 doses have been given in one lowest-income country -- not 25 million, not 25,000 -- just 25. I need to be blunt: The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure,” Tedros said.

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus kicked off the WHO’s week-long executive board meeting by lamenting that one poor country received a mere 25 vaccine doses while over 39 million doses have been administered in nearly 50 richer nations.

“It’s right that all governments want to prioritize vaccinating their own health workers and older people first,” he said. “But it’s not right that younger, healthier adults in rich countries are vaccinated before health workers and older people in poorer countries. There will be enough vaccine for everyone.”

Photo by Darko Vojinovic // Plastic bottles and waste float at the Potpecko accumulation lake near Priboj, in southwest Serbia, Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. Serbia and other Balkan nations are virtually drowning in communal waste after decades of neglect and lack of efficient waste-management policies in the countries aspiring to join the European Union.

The global waste trade is the international trade of waste between countries for further treatment, disposal, or recycling. Toxic or hazardous wastes are often imported by developing countries from developed countries.

China once importing nearly half of the planet’s plastic recyclables. China banned the import of plastic waste in 2019. While the recycling of foreign plastic waste can be lucrative, lack of regulations and oversight has caused a myriad of problems in receiving countries. After China backed out, Vietnam and Malaysia became some of the biggest plastic waste importers in Asia, while Turkey also appeared on the scene as a net importer of European plastic waste. Most of the plastics arriving in Asia are routed through Hong Kong.

Most of the plastic waste comes from countries like Japan, the United States, and Germany, which were the biggest net exporters of plastic scrap and waste in 2019. According to data retrieved from the UN Comtrade platform, Japan shipped more than 550,000 tons abroad in the previous year, while importing almost no foreign plastic waste, resulting in net exports of around 530,000 tonnes. Germany was responsible for net exports of 413,000 tons, while the U.S. clocked in more than 317,000 tons. via @statista

The EU banned the export of unsorted plastic waste to poorer countries as of January 2021.

British soldiers check Iraqis leaving the southern Iraqi town of Basra, 30 March 2003.

Weapons seized by Iraqi security forces during recent operations in Sadr City, June 18, 2008. Photo by Khalid Mohammed

12-year-old Kurshida holds her drawing at a CODEC and UNICEF "child-friendly space" on September 21, 2017, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Photo by @allisonsarahjoyce

Hundreds of Rohingya people crossing Bangladesh's border as they flee from Buchidong in Myanmar after crossing the Naf River in Bangladesh, 10 September 2017.

Photo by Felipe Dana // Young drug traffickers pose for photos holding their guns at a slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 11, 2016.