If humans suddenly vanished off the face of Earth, what would happen to the world? Life After People explores the possibilities for future life and how our planet would continue without us. The predictions of leading experts in fields such as biology, engineering and geology are stunningly illustrated using feature film quality visual effects.
The film follows the timeline after our departure, from the immediate effects on electricity and our house pets, right through to thousands of years from now when there may only be traces of human civilisation left.
In this film, we see cities such as New York overrun by plants and Central Park blooming into forest. Whole ecosystems exist in skyscrapers, with cats at the top of their high altitude food chains. Without the River Thames flood barriers being manned, London is defenceless against the sea and is submerged under water within 25 years. Even the Parisian icon, the Eiffel Tower, corrodes and collapses after a mere 200 years. Untouched by pollution and fishing, the rejuvenated oceans would thrive with huge amounts of sea life, far beyond what they hold now.
Without our photos, home videos, records of births and marriages, movies, songs and art, how can our history be captured for good? Radio and television broadcasts may carry the legacy of human life beyond a few light years, but here on Earth it is likely that most remnants of our civilisation may vanish within a few thousand years.
With all our advances in science and technology, have we really been able create buildings and keep records that will outlast the ancient Pyramids of Giza or the Egyptian hieroglyphics carved into clay tablets? Ironically, our hopes for the largest, most impressive man-made structures may lie with the oldest monuments to date.
It is a popular belief that the human race carries the seeds of its own destruction and in our absence it is clear that nature would reclaim its territory. If humans have been a one-off evolutionary accident, Earth may not be recolonised by lifeforms with the same capacities to contemplate life.
Life After People delves into expert minds and brings forth their ideas in a visually compelling film about the possibilities of a world without us.
One Day After…
If all people were to disappear from Earth, it would only take a day for fossil-fuelled power stations to fall silent; this would take out 70% of the world’s electricity supplies. Nuclear reactors with built-in safety features would shut down within two days. Without maintenance, wind turbines might last weeks or months but no longer. Massive hydroelectric plants, like the Hoover Dam, will function for longer than any other power plants. But on the whole, the lights will go out across the planet
Two Weeks After…
City subways and underground networks would start filling with water. In New York City, 700 pumps shift 49,000 cubic metres of water out of the tunnels everyday; in London, 30,000 cubic metres are pumped out. The tunnels would flood in no time.
Four Weeks After…
There would be a population explosion of mice and rats as they gorge on left-behind human food. But once they exhaust that supply, they will struggle for survival. These animals are commensal with humans, that is, they share our food. When we are gone, they will have to revert to competing for food out in the wild.
A Year After…
A year after people, plant life would begin to take over the cities. Seeds that fall into cracks in roads and pavements would germinate and force the hard surfaces apart with their roots. Mosses and lichens would cover road surfaces, eventually making a new top soil. Gardens would become fields and animals would make their way into cities.
Five Years After…
Any zoo animals that managed to escape might have established themselves in cities by now. Whether they could escape before they starved is another question, and many wouldn’t survive in the cold, temperate climates of the northern hemisphere anyway. But wild populations of animals would move into cities and live alongside packs of domestic dogs and feral cats.
Twenty Years After…
The city of Pripyat is three kilometres away from Chernobyl. In 1986, when a nuclear reactor blew in the Chernobyl power station, Pripyat’s population of 50,000 was evacuated and the city was left empty. Many of the buildings are still standing, but only just. Frost and plant roots have got into cracks in the buildings and forced them further apart, leading to surface crumbling and further crevices for frost and roots to enter.
Twenty Five Years After…
In London, heavyweight stone buildings like Buckingham Palace and St Pauls Cathedral would still be standing, but glass-clad structures like those of Canary Wharf would look quite different. Metal window frames will heat and expand in the daytime temperatures and contract at night. This will put the glass under stress and break panes. Once some panes are gone, the process of degradation is speeded up by the ingress of wind and rain.
Forty Years After…
The first buildings to collapse completely would be wooden-framed structures, like most of our houses. Wood left untreated will be eaten by termites and attacked by moulds. Beams will split and collapse, undermining the structure. Stone buildings can survive for a long time, although salts from air pollution, bird droppings and seawater will have a gradual eroding effect. The Egyptian Sphinx is estimated to be reduced to a pile of sand in 500-1000 years time.
Fifty Years After…
Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883 at a cost of $15 million. In the last two decades $3 billion has been spent maintaining it and the other bridges over the East River. Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco has 17 ironworkers and 38 painters working on it continuously. Without this maintenance, iron bridges will begin to corrode and rust. On suspension bridges, like Brooklyn Bridge, the steel cables are the most likely to cause collapse when they rust and decay.
One Hundred Years After…
Books will absorb moisture from the humid conditions inside fallen-down buildings. Mould spores will thrive and grow on the books. The Dead Sea Scrolls survived for 2000 years in an arid environment without the damaging effects of sunlight, but most books will degrade along will celluloid acetate film and DVDs and CDs. The whole visual record of the human race will be gone, apart from a few special cases.
One Hundred And Fifty Years After…
Wildlife will flourish without, for example, our using the oceans both as pantry and as toilet. Fish populations will revive without the constant dual pressures of fishing and pollution. In the Second World War, North Atlantic fish stocks exploded when those seas went unfished for a few years. Sailors in the 18th century described seas that teamed with life. Without humans the seas will have chance to return to their former glory
Two Hundred Years After…
Skyscapers would begin to show the strain after 200 years. Without any maintenance, iron structures will corrode and sodden ground beneath them will make their foundations unstable, leading to eventual collapse.
Five Hundred Years After…
When concrete decays, cities will start to become invisible. Steel reinforcing rods set inside concrete are protected from corrosion by the alkaline environment of the concrete. As surface cracks appear, water will seep in and the alkaline slowly break down, leaving the steel prone to rusting. In 500 years’ time, steel reinforcements inside concrete will have corroded, causing the collapse of the cityscape forever.
One Thousand Years After…
A thousand years after humans had departed the planet, very little visible evidence would remain of their settlements. Where once were city streets, would be dense vegetation. Still standing might be the Great Wall of China, the Great Pyramid of Giza, St Pauls Cathedral and perhaps the Hoover Dam.
Ten Thousand Years After…
At the 10,000 year mark even the most robust buildings would be gone. Virtually all vestiges of humanity will have vanished. Colossal structures like the Great Wall of China and the Great Pyramid of Giza will probably leave a few ruins. The one exception that might survive intact is Mount Rushmore, since it is carved into a natural solid granite structure. Otherwise, humans will be gone and forgotten.
Life After People: Monday 26 May at 9pm on Channel 4
Related posts:
Comments