Life After People

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 The plot summary in this article is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the content. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. (December 2008)
Life After People
Format Post-Apocalyptic, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction
Created by David de Vries
Country of origin  United States
Production
Running time 88 minutes (without commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel History
Original airing 21 January 2008
External links
Official website

Life After People is a special television documentary film that premiered on Monday, January 21, 2008 on History.[1] In the program, scientists and other experts speculate about how the earth, animal life, and plant life might be like if, suddenly humanity no longer existed, as well as the effect humanity's disappearance would have on the artificial aspects of civilization. Speculation is based upon documented results of the sudden removal of humans from a geographical area and the possible results that would occur if humanity discontinues its maintenance of buildings and urban infrastructure.

The documentary features the gradual and post-apocalyptic disintegration of urban civilization in a time span of 10,000 years after humanity suddenly vanished. The hypotheses are depicted using CGI dramatizations of the possible fate of iconic structures and landmarks (i.e., Buckingham Palace, the Empire State Building, the Sears Tower, the Space Needle, the Eiffel Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Hoover Dam).

With an audience of 5.4 million viewers, Life After People was the most watched program ever on History.[2] Aftermath: Population Zero, a program with a similar premise, aired on the National Geographic Channel in March 2008.

The program was broadcast in the United Kingdom on Channel 4 on 26 May 2008. The program was broadcast in Australia on Channel Seven on 27 November 2008, edited down to air for 90 minutes, with narration by Australian television presenter Simon Reeve.

A series of the same name and premise will debut April 21, 2009 on History.

Contents

[edit] Timeline

[edit] 1 day after people

The special assumes that humanity disappears suddenly and immediately, but does not speculate what would cause such an event.

Fossil fuel fired power plants, which are largely automated, would remain running for a few hours until their fuel supplies are depleted. Within hours, lights begin going out all over the world as electrical systems start failing. Within a couple of days, almost all fossil fuel plants would shut down.

Subway systems like the New York City Subway require pumps to keep the groundwater at bay. Without humans to maintain the system, many parts of the subway will be flooded within 36 hours.

After 48 hours, nuclear power plants will automatically enter safe mode due to reduced power consumption, thereby averting meltdowns. Wind turbines will continue to operate but eventually cease to operate when their lubrication fails. Eventually, only areas powered by hydroelectric dams will have electricity.

[edit] 10 days after people

Food would begin to rot in grocery stores and in refrigerators. While meltwater from freezers or food on counter tops could provide temporary sustenance, pets would soon need to leave their owners' houses to avoid death from starvation. Those which managed to leave homes would have to compete for food. Dogs and cats that were bred by humans for appearance would have no niche in this new competitive environment and will be among the first to die. For example, the short legs and small mouths of bulldogs or terriers will be handicaps for them.

[edit] 6 months after people

Smaller forms of wildlife not normally seen in civilization, like coyotes and bobcats, would begin to inhabit suburban areas. Deer would also begin grazing in neighborhoods as well. Rats and mice will have by now consumed our edible supplies and are leaving urban areas to return into the wild.

[edit] 1 year after people

Plants would begin to sprout within the cracks in streets, highways, sidewalks, and buildings. The Hoover Dam would stop generating power as mussels clog coolant pipes. Therefore, one of the last areas with some artificial illumination, in Las Vegas, Nevada, would finally plunge into darkness.

As flow of water through the dam stops, the Colorado River downstream from the dam would temporarily dry up until the level of Lake Mead reaches the spillways around the dam. Wildfires caused by lightning would rage uncontrolled in cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, and Rome. Animals would start to notice our absence and they would start to flourish in cities.

The final radio and television signals of Humanity, which have been traveling through outer space have now deteriorated into undetectable background radiation, according to scientists of the SETI project.[3][4]

[edit] 5 years after people

Plant life will have covered many surfaces in urban areas with vines, grasses, and tree saplings growing there. Roads will become overgrown with plant life, suffer from lack of maintenance, and disappear.

[edit] 20 years after people

The ruins of Prypiat, Ukraine, which were abandoned in 1986 due to the Chernobyl disaster, are used as an example for the level of decay which could happen after 20 years of humanity's disappearance. Despite high radiation levels, many animal populations have flourished significantly in areas where humans had left. Plants have grown in many structures, which were once used by humans.

[edit] 25 years after people

Sea water floods into cities such as London and Amsterdam which are currently kept dry by human engineered projects. Windows in high rise buildings begin to crack and shatter due to the cycle of freezing and thawing and the decay of window sealants.

[edit] 40 years after people

By this time, many wooden frame houses would have burnt down, rotted, or have been largely consumed by termites. Trees and vines grow into remaining brick and masonry elements, which would by now be weakened by salts. Compacted earth dams may begin to fail due to widening leaks.

[edit] 50 years after people

Steel structures such as the Brooklyn Bridge would start to show signs of strain from neglect. Paint that would normally protect these structures would peel off, exposing the steel to the elements, allowing corrosion to gradually weaken them.

[edit] 75 years after people

Many of the roughly 600 million automobiles on earth would be reduced to barely recognizable metal. Some automobiles in arid climates would not have suffered the effects of corrosion as severely and would still be recognizable. While the rubber tires of cars would have deflated years ago, they would not decompose for centuries.

[edit] 100 years after people

Large bridges such as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge would collapse due to corrosion of support cables. Many human built structures would fail during the 100 to 300 year period.

[edit] 150 years after people

Many streets with subways would start to collapse into flooded tunnels below. Many large buildings are completely colonized by plants and animals and resemble a wild landscape, creating somewhat of a "vertical ecosystem".

[edit] 200 years after people

Large structures such as the Empire State Building, Sears Tower, Space Needle, and Eiffel Tower would collapse due to corrosion, invasive plant life, and ground water destabilizing their foundations.

[edit] 500 years after people

Items made with modern concrete would give way as the steel rebar reinforcing them expands to three times its original size as it rusts.

[edit] 1,000 years after people

Most modern cities would be destroyed and/or covered in flora, with collapsed and fallen skyscrapers becoming new mounds and hills. Manhattan would appear much as it did before human settlement with old streams and bodies of waters returning. There would be little evidence that a human civilization existed on earth. Certain structures made out of thick rock or concrete, like the Egyptian Pyramids or the Great Wall Of China, might survive with minimal damage.

[edit] 10,000 years after people

The Hoover Dam, one of the last remnants of advanced civilization, would fail due to erosion of its concrete and the cumulative effect of seismic activity. Dogs will still exist.

By this point, any substantial evidence of humanity's former domination over nature would be gone. Only a few things would survive, such as large stone structures. The Pyramids at Giza remain, but would be mostly buried by the Sahara Desert's sands. Portions of the Great Wall of China may also remain intact. The faces at Mount Rushmore might also survive and remain recognizable for hundreds of thousands of years.

[edit] Fate of animals

[edit] Dogs

Domestic dogs which are not trapped in their owners' homes will survive at least temporarily in the wild. Smaller and specialized breeds such as the pug, bulldog, or pekingese will likely be less able to compete successfully with medium sized dogs.

Small predators such as coyotes, foxes, and bobcats, which live on the periphery of civilization, may quickly become competitors to dogs. As urban areas revert to their natural states, larger predators such as bears and cougars will return. Wolves could increase in population very rapidly to become the new dominant predator species in North America as they were prior to European settlement. Some large domestic dogs may be accepted into wolf packs and breed with wolves. Eventually, dogs may completely revert into their wolf ancestors.

[edit] Domestic cats

As large buildings are colonized by plants, animals such as birds and mice will follow. Domestic cats may follow them as predators, and imaginative evolutionary paths could result, such as some living their entire lives in former skyscrapers or even evolving the capability to glide short distances like flying squirrels.

[edit] Zoo animals

Some animals held in zoos may escape their confinement and establish populations in areas outside of their native ranges such as lions or tigers in North America or macaques in the Caribbean.

[edit] Terrestrial wildlife

Wildlife in North America and other parts of the world which is currently hemmed into small spaces due to highways will be able to roam over larger areas in search of food and mating opportunities. Large historic migrations may resume.

[edit] Seagulls

Seagulls that eat food found in landfills will quickly starve, causing a population collapse. The population will stabilize as survivors return to their traditional niche of eating fish from the ocean.

[edit] Fish/sea creatures

Pollution and overfishing will cease. Life in the ocean will quickly rebound to levels before consumption by humans. As evidence, the show cites the recovery of fish stocks in the North Atlantic Ocean during World War II when commercial fishing was impossible.

[edit] Rats/mice

Since mice eat the leftovers of humans, they will devour most of the remaining human food on earth. Once all human food is gone, the mice will return to the wild, where they will return to the bottom of the food chain, and the population will decrease.

[edit] Cockroaches

Cockroaches will devour available food and then move on to cardboard and paper. When they have exhausted these food supplies, they will return to eating seeds and other natural food items. Although cockroaches are native to tropical areas, they may survive in cold weather areas of the world by spending winters below ground.

[edit] Termites

Termites will destroy most of the remaining wooden structures in towns and cities within decades of humanity's disappearance before returning to the wild and eating dead trees.

[edit] Pigeons

Since pigeons have adapted equally well to life with humans and life in the wild, many of them will find food in the wild and leave the cities. Once trees cover the cities, the pigeons remaining will not need to leave the city.

[edit] Birds of prey

Birds of prey will build nests in abandoned buildings and hunt for small animals that live in cities.

[edit] Cattle

The program does not speculate about the future of all farm animals after the disappearance of humanity. However, one scene shows a bull being hunted by a wolfdog pack at the remnants of a farm and a video on the program's website stated that carnivores would eliminate livestock.

[edit] Human "successors" and replacements

While "clever" species such as chimpanzees will survive and others may evolve, a truly sentient species may not necessarily emerge as a successor to humanity.

Television and radio signals which were once thought to be capable of transmitting information over interstellar distances actually decompose into static within one or two light years according to research done by the SETI project.[3] [4] If any alien civilizations observe the solar system, they may not detect human civilization or its remnants on Earth.

[edit] Cities featured

[edit] Off note

Life After People does not speculate about the cause or manner of humanity's sudden disappearance or depict potential immediate disasters such as crashing vehicles, or industrial or military malfunctions caused by lack of human oversight of machinery and computer systems.

The program does not mention artificial satellites, spacecraft, or human artifacts on the moon or on other bodies in the solar system, most notably the Pioneer 10 and 11 space probes and the Voyager 1 and 2 space probes.

The documentary also does not refer to the fate of certain human-made, durable, and non-biodegradable materials (and potential artifacts) like plastic, styrofoam, ceramic, marble, glass, and unreactive metal.

It does not mention either radioactive waste and their impact on the "after people" environment.

The program does not feature the possible fate of suburban and rural areas. It also does not show what might happen to advanced urban cities like Dubai.

[edit] Life After People: The Series

A spin-off television series with the same title will premiere on the same channel on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 10 PM ET. The original official website of the television special documentary film has been modified to conform with the series.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Life After People on History.
  2. ^ "Depopulation Boom", The Washington Post, March 8, 2008.
  3. ^ a b F.06 How far away could we detect radio transmissions?.
  4. ^ a b Radio Bubble: alien couch potatoes? It's possible, thanks to escaping TV and radio signals - Universe - radio waves. Nov, 2001.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_After_People"
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