Behold the biggest land vehicle in the world; the Bagger 288. Weighing in at 45,500 tons, this absolute unit of a machine was created to dominate the coal mines of Germany by combining the industrial revolution's reckless ambition with modern technological ability. It even has a song.

First built in 1978, the Bagger 288 has entered the modern-day spotlight with this tweet, which shows off the machine's absolutely staggering Earth-eating capabilities. The image left people wondering about the enormous machine responsible for the destruction, and the snapshot of the dystopian future it showed. 

Germans hate themselves so much they made a giant machine to eat their entire country. pic.twitter.com/jYPkbKjiSB

— jny the human (@jnyboy) January 18, 2023

Built by the German company ThyssenKrupp for use in the Rheinbraun mining firm's Tagebau Hambach coal mines, it is a staggering 311 feet tall, and 705 feet long. Using a revolving wheel of buckets, its five-person operating team can excavate 240,000 tons of coal every single day; the equivalent of a football field dug out 100 feet deep. So much for a country supposedly committed to green energy. 

With a top speed of about 0.4 miles per hour, the Bagger 288 is hardly a fleet of tread, but it has been known to travel significant distances. It once drove 14 miles, taking 3 weeks to cover the distance. While the machine is ironically powered by electricity, its 5,600 necessary feet of electric cables use the same amount of power as a 20,000-person city. They take four years to build and cost $100 million to make.

When the first Bagger 288 finished construction, it surpassed NASA's Space Shuttle Crawler Transporter as the world's largest land vehicle; although its sister vehicles, the Baggers 281-293 are similar, if not larger in size. 

Despite the awe-inspiring power of the world's best digger, its implications are eye-opening. Visual desolation to the German countryside aside, the scale of this machine demonstrates the sheer power of the coal and fossil fuel industry, and the damage they could cause if left unchecked. Countries like Germany seem to be publicly distancing themselves from dangerous energies, but it's hard to ignore the money they obviously have. Aside from my boyish desire to watch the big shovel go dig, perhaps it's time to start phasing out these relics of a dirtier world.