Scripts of the apocalypse on a single planet of the solar system will not frighten even a schoolchild in our time. Scientists gloomily predict that climate change as a result of global warming, the third world warming, or complete degeneration
These pessimistic scenes are more or less clear and familiar to us. But what will the world be like if humanity just … disappears? What will happen if humanity suddenly sinks into oblivion? How long will the remnants of our civilization last on the planet, being a monument to people who have gone into oblivion? What will remain after us? From a scientific point of view, the authors of the film "World without People" decided to fantasize on this topic.
The main question is: what will aliens learn about our civilization if they suddenly appear on planet Earth a hundred years after the complete disappearance of the human race? The answer is striking: practically nothing. In just a hundred years, most of the evidence of our existence with you will be washed away by the rain, the wind will stir, earthquakes will destroy, our cities will become habitats for wild animals, insects and bacteria; antique ruins will survive much better than skyscrapers, and ancient paper books from libraries - better than electronic ones. So the aliens would rather decide that the last intelligent race on Earth was … the Egyptians.
However, this is not quite a utopia, but rather a scientific prediction made during the shooting of the television documentary Life After People ("Life After People").
Gordon Masterton, consultant for the TV movie, believes that the destruction of evidence of our civilization will follow the following scenario: after the disappearance of people around the world, electric lights go out. For two weeks, wind turbines will generate energy by inertia, and then the planet will plunge into primeval darkness, which has not been known since the first fires. In another six months, city streets will become a new jungle for wild animals. 20 years later, the main "townspeople" are bears and wolves; wooden buildings and structures will begin to rot and decay (this will happen especially quickly in termites habitats). The steel frames of buildings will also erode.
Let's look 50 years ahead. The technically “advanced” civilization of the 21st century is losing ground on all fronts: corrosion, the “invasion” of lush vegetation and temperature drops are doing their dirty work - the buildings of our day are almost completely destroyed. And in another 50 years, all cars will disappear from the face of the earth.
Nature will make its own adjustments to the appearance of familiar cities: from the constant melting and freezing of water, sidewalks and highways will collapse, underground waters will flood metro stations, during thunderstorms lightning will set fire to dry grass and lead to numerous fires.
The fauna will also change with the disappearance of people: when the heating is turned off, cockroaches will freeze and die out, rats, accustomed to eating scraps from the human table, will die of hunger; large animals, on the other hand, will thrive. In some hundred years after the disappearance of people, the half-million population of African elephants will increase and reach 10 million individuals. Domesticated animals (goats, sheep, cows) will become easy prey for predators, and will disappear as a species if they cannot adapt to new conditions of existence.
Promotional video:
The main evidence of our existence and active life will also disappear: archives of documents on history, culture and science - no one will control the temperature and humidity in the storage facilities. Almost the entire treasury of human experience will dissolve without a trace: books, photographs, electronic data - all this will disintegrate into atoms, and there will be no evidence that modern civilization ever existed at all.