Life After People

We watched a documentary the other day called Life After People. I've already talked about how the Apocalypse fascinates me, so this was right up my alley.

The show looks at what would happen to Earth if humans were gone. Everything else survives - animals, nature, our houses - just no humans. It's a pretty amazing look at how many things require so much upkeep, and also how quickly nature would reclaim the Earth. For example, subway systems require pumps to keep out groundwater and keep them dry. Without humans to do this job, New York's subways would be flooded in 3 days. Three days! Bridges would collapse without being repainted and replacing of cables, fires would rage on until they burned out.

As a real life comparison, they show a Ukraine city in abandoned after the Chernobyl disaster. Animal populations in that area have flourished and plants have nearly covered up many structures. The city has only been abandoned for 20 years. Twenty years! It's a really interesting look at what would happen to this great world if we weren't here.

One of the most fascinating things is their guess at what one of the last remnants of our civilization would be. 10,000 years after we're gone - Mount Rushmore would probably be recognizable because of its location, size, material and lack of natural disasters. They also theorize parts of the Great Wall of China and the Pyramids would be recognizable after 10,000 years but as far as a connection to the human race that lasts as long - we've got to rely on the mugs of Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and Roosevelt.