"These fields in New Mexico seem to be slowly eroding away into barren wasteland. At 30,000 feet one can more easily see geographic transitions like this and it's one of the reasons I find flying so enjoyable." from https://www.flickr.com/photos/richardspics/152869566/
Reminds me of the last time I went to Australia. On the flight out, we were allowed to have the window shades open and looking down Scott and I just saw salt, salt, salt, salt, salt, salt. It was quite heart breaking. Each time I fly into Toronto it's the same thing: sprawl, sprawl, sprawl, sprawl... Thnigs that grow grow/spread that fast have a name: cancer. Interestingly enough, Tokyo (or the rest of Japan for that matter), doesn't change much - they've just about expanded all they can. Now it's just building on top of itself.
This photo reminds me of a scene in the film "The Thirteenth Floor" where a character drives out of town to find out that it doesn't exist. It gets sparser and sparser until it just doesn't exist. Maybe we also live in a world like that.