But any hope I have for a truly green-fueled nation is drying up like a California swimming hole. My bet is not on political will but epic disaster as the catalyst for truly altering our course — a perfect storm of events that will push us thisclose to the collapse of the very (and varied) ecosystems that spawned our species.
But I still find faith in the forces of nature, which may be why I am attracted to any images of the natural takeover of our failed or abandoned constructions.
![Picture](/uploads/3/2/3/1/3231701/528967.jpg?479)
I first saw this image by American artist Andrew Moore in a New York Times Magazine photo essay following the economic collapse of Detroit’s all-consuming auto industry. Where once business titans swaggered now was a thick carpet of moss.
The entire industrial complex may have caved in but as long as the moss still grows, well, I guess we have a chance. (Detroit is now shrinking, with derelict houses returning to forest.)
![Picture](/uploads/3/2/3/1/3231701/9737601.jpg?473)
It is the moss, the vines in these images that reveal human folly and frailty.
They are the green shoots of hope that cool the creeping drought — and doubt.