Aftermath: Population Zero - The World without Humans | Free Documentary

Of all the species on Earth,

humans

have left the largest footprint. The footprints of our bulldozers can be found far above the planet, empty below, we've planted pavement and marked the face of every continent, but to fully understand the scale of our impact, we need to see what the

world

would be like without us if we suddenly disappeared. what would happen to our roads, the cities, the rivers, our greatest monuments this is the story of a

world

that you will never see a world without us within a minute every human being from now on the earth will disappear no matter how important what happens is what happens once we are gone there are 6.6 billion of us, half of whom live in cities our farms and pastures cover a third of all the dry land we have dammed and diverted half of the world's major rivers to meet our needs five hundred millions of cars clogged the roads and highways we have altered the air the sea and the land if we disappeared could the world repair itself erase all evidence that we ever existed Friday June 13 in Berlin it is 1:30 in the afternoon on the other side of the Atlantic stockbrokers are starting early on Wall Street as much as ever Las Vegas is still sleeping and in Tokyo parents are putting their children to bed now human history stops the moment we disappear the world begins to change cities are more quiet and suddenly a little cooler the average human body emits as much heat as a 100 watt light bulb takes eight million people out of new york and the entire city cools a fraction of a degree even though the machines that We left behind they are still working just sixty seconds since we disappeared around the world hundreds of planes are approaching airport runways most of them descend at more than 100 miles per hour but today without us every landing is a disaster thousands of other planes are sailing through the sky on autopilot but when the fuel runs out gravity will pull them back to earth 10 minutes have passed since we disappeared the automated systems continue to function even when their masters have disappeared the computers are communicating with more than 800 satellites that orbit the planet power is generated by over 50,000 power plants worldwide in Canada coal fired plants produce 17% of the country's electricity to keep these fires burning they need a constant supply of coal but after After we disappear there will be no other delivery, the coal plants begin to fail.

Power grids in western states and provinces destroyed by rolling block The bright lights of Las Vegas are extinguished forever It's been 55 minutes since we disappeared The sun breaks through the clouds in Pennsylvania, where the grid continues to operate as temperatures rise Automatic air conditioners start humming the need for peak electricity this area depends on wind energy besides calling even without us the wind turbines continue to run but at the local power plant there is no one left to decide that more energy is needed Computers detect that there's a problem they shut down the entire system 85 minutes since we disappeared Niagara Falls Canada is home to one of the world's first commercial hydroelectric plants and before we disappeared it provided power to more than 2 million homes upstream the water rises into winding tunnels under the city when it reaches the power plants the water drives the turbines creating electricity but with no one at the controls the turbines flood and the plant shuts down seconds later the blackouts devastate parts of Ontario and the state of New York have already passed 96 minutes since we disappeared around the world the loss of electricity hits nuclear power plants automated systems detect that the electrical grid is failing they shut down the reactors six hours after we disappeared the sun sets in Europe the last power plants go offline The dark ages have returned to North America the sun is still shining and thousands of cars are still running.

Every liter of gasoline they burn sends 2.5 kilos of carbon dioxide into the air around the world. Industrial plants are paralyzed due to the permanent loss of energy. Some gases need electricity to stay cool enough to function. They can be stored in liquid form with nothing to keep them cold The liquid begins to boil creating dangerously high pressures Many tanks have relief valves, which means the gas prevents explosions The gas spreads wherever the wind blows Some are heavier ​that the air is a danger to any creature that keeps its nose close to the ground the same chemicals that made the modern world possible are being released on an unsuspecting world until now the emergency backup systems are containing the world's nuclear power plants Automatic diesel generators have been activated but diesel fuel will not last forever around the world pets are hungry massive power outage hits the world zoos and safari parks predators are

free

to explore the new world and its new dangers a cloud of chlorine gas has been released from a derailed train killing a herd of deer problems are growing at some natural gas facilities with the power turned off, it is starting to heat up and some of it is leaking, much of it is burning.

An automatic safety feature designed to contain gas leaks at plants, but with vent tanks, explosive gas can reach cars left idling when their owners are missing. All it takes is a small spark. Fires like this will burn for days while hundreds of chemical plants around the world catch fire in just six hours our disappearance has set off a series of time bombs around the world three days have passed since

humans

disappeared from earth without our constant attention most machines are They have stopped thousands of tons of toxic chemicals from leaking from plants around the planet polluting this new world in London England Big Ben needs to be wound by hand every three days without us it rings the last time human time human history is stopped but life on Earth continues houses and apartments are still inhabited by increasingly desperate pets three days have passed since someone fed them in Canada alone more than two million dogs were trapped when their owners disappeared the words pets must escape from your houses or die some artificial lights are still on but these two will soon go out the lights are still shining at the nuclear power plants the emergency diesel generators started working as soon as the electricity went out but without power this building soon will cause An unprecedented disaster, this is not the reactor, but the spent fuel.

Radioactive fuel is stored in these cooling pools after being used to generate power. The pool is 10 meters deep and filled with 400 tons of spent nuclear fuel. The split atoms keep splitting and breaking apart. heat and radiation the fuel is contained in circular tubes and are dangerous they need to remain in refrigerated water for years before they cool these nuclear storage sites in the western world Canada has eleven there are 75 in the United States alone the fuel is safe as long as when the generators stay on and keep the water cold, but if someone doesn't refill the diesel generators, they will stop on day four of the New World Sukie, a city dog ​​used to supplement her diet with biscotti and muffins.

Now you are scavenging for your next meal without electric pumps the sewage treatment plants have failed human sewage is accumulating in lakes and rivers we have left behind a world full of livestock there are 1.4 billion on earth one by one every human family now that we are gone, 90,000 head of cattle are saved from slaughter every day in the United States alone, every dairy cow needs 45 kilos of food and 95 liters of water every day, without electricity, their water supply is running out If they don't find water in the next few days they will all die with the electric fence off some of the larger animals have options they are strong enough to

free

themselves but most of the zoo animals are dying in their cages the elephants need up to 180 kilos of food up to date You'll be hard-pressed to find it in the paved suburbs that surround many zoos.

Predators also prowl the suburbs. These hungry lions have seen another escapee from the zoo, but the lions developed hunting skills in Savannah, not the suburbs, climbing plastic is much more difficult than climbing a tree with this baboon out of reach they will need to find easier prey Camels adapt well to this new world, eating a few bites of any plant they find and deciding which is dangerous and which is nutritious when they discover something, as if digging, leaving no stone unturned in their search for food, while the lions continue their search for food. food, birds migrate without us around this year, many more will survive in previous years Birds faced a deadly obstacle as they migrated through the concrete and steel of cities like New York during the day skyscrapers turned cities into a Hall of Fame Mirrors in the United States 100 million birds died each year crashing into windows night birds used the stars to navigate humans illuminated cities to push back the darkness Birds confused by the light often surrounded buildings throughout night and finally died of exhaustion, but now migratory birds fly more safely over the main cities.

Millions more will arrive at their winter nesting grounds on city streets. Dogs have gone from pets to predators a week after losing their human. The masters dance begin to form packs and fight for dominance. The last time this happened was in 2005. Hurricane Katrina forced humans to leave many dogs behind in New Orleans. The dogs began to hunt in packs. We create more than 400 different breeds. Some varieties like Suki do not have the size or strength to compete in this new world for long as wolves, the dogs will kill their own, so now every small dog is a potential companion in the coming weeks, the smaller dogs will be killed , it's been seven days since we disappeared into the nuclear power plants.

The diesel generators are finally running out of fuel, out of electricity, the cold water has stopped flowing, the temperature is starting to rise, it will take days until all the water boils, but with no people to stop it, there is no one around to stop the release of a massive dose of radioactive fallout much worse than 500 Hiroshima it's been 10 days since the people disappeared the city's dogs roam the countryside looking for food they're hungry enough to drive almost anything they find the fields full of dead bodies that every dairy cow has died our sudden disappearance killed them humans we have been milking cows for 8,000 years long enough to eliminate much of their aggression two weeks ago many of these dogs ate food from cans not all cows have died in spaces Western Opens Free-range livestock in North America are thriving, but many domesticated animals were trapped in pens when they disappeared without us caring for them. 1.5 billion chickens have died in the United States alone, only free-range poultry remains.

It's been 10 days since humans disappeared from the earth without electricity the cities are quiet the animals that were once caged by humans are now free to roam but they are fighting to survive predators are not the only problem we have left behind a surprise deadly for days now superheated steam has been escaping from this spent nuclear fuel building with no emergency power there is nothing to cool the fuel there is as much radioactivity as 250 atomic bombs spinning through the building this is a nuclear disaster the radioactive genie has escaped and there is no one to stop it a deadly stew of radiation throws out of the plant some of the elements it contains, such as strontium 90, will be dangerous for 300 years plutonium will be radioactive for 240,000 years pine trees near the power plant die almost of immediate radiation clings to trees bumpy bark and sticky resin chlorophyll that makes trees green is damaged and they turn red the last time a forest died like this it was during the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 radiation contaminated a area of ​​129 thousand square kilometers almost the size of England in a world without humans this scene is repeated over and over again there are six nuclear power plants in Illinois alone radioactive smoke fills the streets of Chicago the site of the first nuclear reactionfires break out at more than 30 nuclear plants across the eastern United States, each one is almost 20 times more radioactive than the Chernobyl disaster most of Europe's 173 reactors also catch fire, blown by the wind radiation becomes an invisible poison that settles over thousands of square kilometers if we were still on the planet radiation would cause cancer to millions of people within In a matter of weeks, gigantic plumes of smoke and radioactive particles are spreading throughout the northern hemisphere .

Rain washes away some of the radiation from the sky, concentrating its deadly effects. Large animals flee areas where plants have died from radiation poisoning, but small creatures live on the forest floor, where the leaves and soil are covered in radiation (radiation can only travel half an inch through living tissue when a deer tests an affected plant the radioactivity will be trapped in its fur or in its stomach its heart and liver will not be damaged it is different for smaller animals the radiation paralyzes its organs in the most affected areas more than half of the rodents e insects are killed by animals in cities and suburbs there are still food sources that are much less radioactive and part of it is a one-stop shop city mice can find enough food inside grocery stores to last for generations a female mouse can give birth to more than 70 babies in a year radiation has killed many of the mice outside, so this cat goes inside a cat needs to eat eight mice a day to stay healthy humans need many different things types of foods to get all the fat, protein and vitamins we need.

Can't cats make their own vitamin C and get the rest by eating the brains and guts of mice all over the planet? Animals begin to invade the human world to find. food as the radiation clouds spread the food we leave behind will keep you alive it has been three months since humans disappeared radiation has fallen from the sky the cities are quiet and the weather is improving When humans were present we created many clouds of artificial dust they used us to create raindrops without our pollution. Less rain falls in the cities. The air is clearer. In places like Manhattan and Toronto the view has increased from 30 kilometers to 160 city dogs continue to roam. the field in search of food, but most of these ancient pets have little hunting ability, if they are hungry enough, they will try to attack anything once, like Wallace dogs hunt by instinct, they know that biting the legs or neck is a good way to take down a large animal. but that doesn't seem to be possible this time now that we are gone the elephants have no predators to fear in just four months the pets and zoo animals have become killers in a radioactive world now they must face the next challenge winter they have six months have passed since people disappeared from the earth now it is what it would have once been early December in a world without us former zoo animals and pets have adopted or died animals that have survived so far now face their next challenge next winter the common wisdom is that the cockroaches would be fine without us, but the cockroaches only spread north when we started using the central heating when the electricity ran out and the oven was off.

Millions of cockroaches will be dead by Christmas for other animals. Our sudden disappearance is not a problem, it is. An opportunity that animals like raccoons and squirrels already know how to survive the cold, they sleep in it and this winter they have a new world of possible dens to choose from. Human homes are drier and safer than sleeping outdoors. These squirrels live in trees. They go up the stairs with skunks. On the other hand, they prefer the ground. Hibernating animals don't care if the oven is off. Your body temperature can drop almost to freezing point. It is a survival strategy.

Its ancestors evolved a long time ago, but evolution has not equipped this African elephant to deal with the numbing cold. his body evolved to get rid of heat, not to keep it in Africa, his years of thinness would have helped him stay cool, but now after escaping from a zoo his ears are freezing, if he wants to survive he needs to head south, It's been 10 months since humans disappeared after winter a spring like none the world has ever seen comes in the forests near the ruined nuclear power plants it's a silent spring poisoned by radiation the evergreen trees have lost their capacity to grow new shoots and branches forever but further away from power plants spring helps repair the damage we have left behind rain washes radioactive dust and debris from leaves and bark poisonous atoms are being driven underground all over the world a major threat to animals has been eliminated without humans there are no cars there are no hunters a

population

explosion begins As animals take over empty spaces, May 11, months after we disappeared there last year in the Roads, cars pumped 7 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air, more than 1 ton for every person on Earth, this greenhouse gas accounted for half the impact on humans. had about global warming but now carbon dioxide can be cleaned up faster than ever before spring is part of the answer new plants and leaves need carbon to grow they extract it from the air naturally repairing a polluted planet each hectare of trees will eliminate measure as much carbon as 5 cars produced in a year this spring nature finds many new places to grow for the last 10,000 years we have been imposing our will on the planet in downtown Los Angeles alone two thirds of the earth is covered with roads and Parking lots left our mark on the suburbs: in the United States, meadows and golf courses covered an area larger than Florida, but now that we're gone, nature is returning, millions of miles of roads and highways are being reclaimed slowly. moss and lichens are the first invaders, they can grow in almost any crevice and the only thing they normally need is water five years after humans moss has provided a place for grass to grow ten years later a previously carefully manicured football field care has gone wild 15 years after we rapidly disappeared -Growing trees have taken root where children once played.

All these new plants will allow nature to absorb greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Year after year our grip on the earth is loosening, but humans have also tried to rule the sky and now even that reminder of our time on earth is about to disappear. It has been 30 years since humans disappeared from the earth. earth at night the only light comes from the moon and stars once we created a perpetual daylight that could be seen from space over the past few months there have been hundreds of strange shooting stars some reach earth these are not normal meteorites These shooting stars are some of the last survivors of the space age, we left 25,000 objects orbiting the earth, most of it was garbage, from clams to rocket pieces, the garbage from our 50 years working in space and without us there is nothing to stop them. come home every 11 years solar storms erupt on the surface of the sun their radiation causes the earth's atmosphere to expand this slows down satellites and space debris satellites in higher orbits have been slowly spiraling closer to earth for the last 30 years they are now plummeting to the ground the world has changed since the satellites were last on earth human houses are slowly collapsing for three decades animals have been devouring roofs and walls dirt and seeds are washed into houses, living rooms become homes for trees, rain falls into dining rooms and kitchens, roofs and floors rot and crumble, schools once taught that humans triumphed over nature , but in just 30 years nature has reclaimed most of what humans had taken from the changes on the planet.

They are especially obvious along the world's coasts We build many of our cities and homes near the oceans Now the buildings are being swept away by hurricanes Mansions and cabins are obliterated from Miami to Halifax The oceans are still reacting to global warming While that houses are collapsing at least on land 50,000 ships are scattered along the coasts or rusting at the bottom of the sea. These shipwrecks become a magnet for sharks and other fish. Derelict ships provide thousands of new places for fish to live and reproduce. It took us 10,000 years to force our will on the planet that is now nature. is invading civilization Citadel concrete jungle it's been 30 years since people disappeared long ago the power failed the discordant screech of cars and planes will never be heard again our cities are still full of life wild dogs hunt in packs wandering the roads and sidewalks we Once wandered through New York's enormous Central Park, it is on the move.

The soil and seeds are carried away through the city. They take root everywhere. Much of the world once turned its eyes to Times Square to usher in a new year. Now it is disappearing under a blanket of green. nature is reclaiming the world city by city in London young trees are sprouting in Trafalgar Square in Berlin a forest surrounds the Brandenburg Gate separating what was once the division of East and West Germany thirty years after we disappeared glass falls over the deserted streets the glass The covered office tower was once a symbol of the modern era.

There was more glass in a skyscraper than all the glass made during the Roman Empire, but most skyscrapers relied on caulking and metal clips to keep the windows in place after 30 years. The clips are rusting. The caulking is cracked and brittle water is seeping into the cracks The frames are weakening The city's once sparse hunting grounds are full of prey The concrete jungle is becoming real Nearly every relic of human existence They are slowly disintegrating after years of neglect Paint peels off Raw metal is exposed to the elements Rust spreads uncontrollably Not everything rests Plastic molecules are so large that they cannot be eaten by bacteria or insects The new world simply bury anything made of plastic but plastic has an enemy fire forest fires caused by lightning destroy any plastic they made entire neighborhoods are consumed the constant march of nature is conquering concrete - this was once a packed train station of travelers now its concrete roof is falling apart the rain is washing away the limestone used to make it the stalactites grow a centimeter each year and then we fall away, slowly weakening the concrete, we may be gone, but one of our legacies is to help accelerate this destruction for over a hundred years we burn fossil fuels, pump tons of carbon dioxide into the air as it returns to the earth, carbon dioxide. mixes with rainwater producing carbonic acid that corrodes the world's concrete we build much of our modern world with concrete cities around the world face the same fate a slow disintegration as nature reclaims the planet without windows nothing stops it birds and animals take over the corner offices we once valued so much, but the offices were not made to be exposed to the elements, ceiling tiles and drywall are no match for 60 years of wind and rain, There is rust everywhere without us to make the repairs, the paint is peeling uncontrollably, our world is falling apart a city like Paris receives up to 63 centimeters of rain each year the concrete skeleton of this once protected office tower of the elements is now soaked by rain the cracks are caused when carbon dioxide penetrates the concrete is now met with a labyrinth of microscopic pore particles coiling in the concrete until it reaches the metal that gave additional strength to this building rebar is usually hidden from the outside world but now carbon dioxide is causing the bars to rust the rusted surface expands ten times its normal size the cracks radiateoutward to the surface they spread like a cancer attacking the building from the inside out cracks are appearing all over the world and there is no one around to fix them when people walked and worked on the planet we would repair problems like this cracked concrete would be reinforced or replaced , but now the process runs unchecked as the water turns to ice, it expands putting more pressure on the ruined buildings, the constant freezing and thawing helps the cracks grow, it only takes a hundred years without us, the Concrete has become too fractured and brittle to support its load-bearing floors collapse crashing into the weakened concrete beneath our cities once the center of our modern world is slowly disappearing the planet is absorbing what we left behind during our time on earth we try to control nature we use its power to our advantage it is now It has been 120 years since humans disappeared from Earth.

Many modern skyscrapers have collapsed into piles of rubble. The concrete walls have been destroyed by a constant attack of air and rain. Climate changes where skyscrapers once stood when we ruled the planet, asphalt absorbs 95% of sunlight. heat the cities were hot up to 10 degrees hotter than the forests and fields that surrounded them but now that we are gone the black asphalt is being covered by grasses and trees the temperature is dropping the climate is also changing outside the cities global warming is finally ending thanks to the oceans over the past century rough waves have absorbed carbon dioxide into the upper layers of the scenes.

Microscopic plankton and shellfish have been absorbing carbon into their bodies. When they die, they sink to the bottom of the ocean, taking our carbon dioxide with them. years after the last car stopped working much of its exhaust is finally being buried the changes are being felt throughout this new world in Berlin young trees attract new life young trees growing in concrete provide perfect food for the animals these wolves have arrived from the countryside following the dear humans who killed most of the wolves in Germany a long time ago these hunters are immigrants from Poland 140 years after the disappearance of humans thousands of wolves hunt Throughout Europe they need to eat every few days so the wolves hunt in the city following their prey the urban ones the jungle has become a new extermination field one hundred and fifty years have passed since humans disappeared from planet Earth without black roads no roofs the cities are colder than before in the northern cities more snow falls and stays longer packs of mold feed through these colder winters we change the course of two thirds of the world's major rivers this is the River Thames in London England humans tried to tame this river for over 1,000 years but now it is releasing its high tides and storms regularly threaten to flood the city One of the largest floodgate systems in the world was built to contain the waters now that the river is out of control the tides have dragged ships towards the bridges creating dams the Thames has been forced to go around the bridges flooding its banks London is returning to the swamp that the Romans found Here 2,000 years ago, half a world away, the problem is lack of water.

This is the Imperial Valley in Southern California. Half of America's fruits and vegetables came from here each winter with 350 days of sunshine. Some crops had four harvests a year, but only seven point five. Centimeters of rain fall every 12 months Dry air keeps buildings intact but is deadly to crops Farmers brought water from the Colorado River almost 4 billion liters each year enough to cover each field with almost two meters of water But when we disappeared irrigation stopped What was once California's agricultural miracle is once again a desert. 500 kilometers to the northeast is another artificial oasis. Las Vegas built in the middle of a desert.

Its casinos and fountains used water brought in by electric pumps when the electricity was cut off. the desert is reclaiming the city but nature has not been able to erase all evidence of our presence this is the Colorado River it has not changed much in the 150 years since we left before the modern era this river was much deeper and stronger than carved the Grand Canyon dozens of dams are found along the Colorado River cutting the river until it becomes a stream when it reaches the ocean in Mexico its enormous power is locked in the reservoirs we created it has been 200 years since we disappeared from the planet Nature The largest of all is the Hoover Dam, as tall as a 70-story building.

Its base is as thick as two football fields. Enough concrete was used here to pave a highway from New York to San Francisco. The dam created the Lake Mead Reservoir. There is enough water here. To cover what used to be New York State under 30 centimeters of water, much of this gigantic structure is made of solid concrete, but even this monument to human ingenuity is in danger. The reason is located north of the Colorado River, close to what it used to be. be the border of Utah this is the Glen Canyon Dam this dam was created to provide an emergency water supply in case the downstream reservoirs ever dry out built to last centuries this dam has a major weak point its spillways are like the drain of a bathtub if the river level rises too much, the excess water escapes through the spillway tunnels so that nothing can go over the dam, but these spillways do not resist flooding in the Center well, the trigger is high in the mountains last winter. hit with more snow than normal as heavy spring runoff melted swept into the Colorado and flood waters headed toward the dam after centuries of rust controlled gates spillways have collapsed water surges through tunnels deep inside the dam and while doing so something strange happens, low pressure bubbles form in the water, causing large explosions that break through the rock towards the dam itself, even without us, special concrete ramps in The spillways prevented this from happening, but after 200 years there is too much erosion in the tunnel 17 billion cubic meters of water falls downstream a surge is more than 16 meters high it creeps towards the Hoover Dam the Hoover was built to contain two hundred and nineteen thousand kilograms per square meter but its designers did not foresee this, the water spills over the Hoover Dam and destroys everything in its path now at 40 kilometers per hour towards the south, breaking dozens of dams in its path after 18 hours reaches the Gulf of California for the first time in 200 years the Colorado River reaches the sea as a flood, not a trickle, the release of the Colorado transforms this part of North America into a vast swamp once one of the wonders of the Americas will be revitalized hundreds of species find new homes as nature erases one of our greatest achievements around the world nature is taking back the planet in France parts of Paris are swamps again in California irrigated fields have become deserts and Manhattan is has become a forest for the first time since the arrival of the Dutch as altered rivers like the Mississippi returned to their natural state silt creates new land south of New Orleans more than 250 square miles of land takes root lost when humans they built dams on the Mississippi our sudden disappearance has also been felt in the oceans we once took two hundred and thirty-five thousand tons of fish from the sea every day now without trawlers to catch them the fish live longer and grow more cod than it once measured only 60 centimeters long it has now tripled in size large creatures of the depths are also recovering in our absence 200 years without humans have been a blessing for the whales from which they have had much to recover from before the oil industry, the whales They were an important source of oil for machines and lamps, when humans began extracting oil from the earth, most whaling decreased, but then a new problem appeared.

Large modern ships in our last 50 years on Earth, the number of ships around the world doubled. The noise from the boat engines traveled thousands of miles underwater Noise pollution was a big problem for the world's whales One of the reasons why whales sing is to find a mate, but the noise from the boats interfered with those songs with the humans gone the whales once again sing mating songs that can travel up to 1600 kilometers underwater from Hawaii to Japan after 200 years our impact here is disappearing, but on earth there are still relics of humanity that Left behind when we ruled the earth we seemed driven to build symbols of our power, but how long will they hold out? our monuments will be the last to fall now that we have disappeared it has been 230 years since we disappeared and it is increasingly difficult to find many signs that an intelligent and creative species once lived here most cities have been swallowed by nature Ironically, some of the oldest, such as the Great Wall of China, are those that remain for more than four thousand years.

The Egyptians built the pyramids and carved the Sphinx, but can modern structures survive this long without us? In Europe there is one of the oldest. Well-known modern monuments: The 324-meter-high Eiffel Tower was built in 1889 for a world exhibition and was due to be torn down after 20 years, but the French fell in love with its tower and it became one of the most famous monuments of the world. This 19th century artifact was designed by bridge builders This bridge to the sky has outlasted all skyscrapers The lattice structure gives strength to the tower without using much metal The entire tower weighs only 7,300 tons when there were still people around it was covered With 60 tons of paint to protect the iron from the elements, but the rain has slowly eaten away at the paint, more and more towers are exposed to the air.

Rust has taken over every storm. A little more of the tower is washed away. The weakened tower is now vulnerable to even moderate winds which are magnified near the top normally the tower bends in the wind but eventually the rusted beams have reached their breaking point the buildings cannot adapt they are frozen in time but the species They can evolve to deal with their conditions. Most of these pigs are descendants of the pink pigs that used to live on farms in the shadow of the ruins of the Eiffel Tower. They have prospered. The wild pigs have now interbred with the surviving domesticated pigs.

The result is an animal with dark, heavy fur, a trait that had taken years for farmers to need to be resilient and tough to survive in the new world without us. Another symbol of human ingenuity is found on the other side of the Atlantic, the Statue of Liberty. It was built in 1886, three years older than the Eiffel Tower, it is made of a huge copper plate structure since we left, some parts of it are better than before, the pollution covered your nose and cheeks with black dirt, but now As the soot and grime have been removed from the sky, a new, cleaner statue watches over the water, but not all of it. of the statue has been thriving since we disappeared.

A forest has grown around the statue. Now it is full of copper plates. These plates are about the thickness of two pennies and can last a thousand years. So why does the Statue of Liberty shed her skin next? 230 years old, the arm of the statue was the first part to fail if the copper is the skin of the statue, the iron bars are in the skeleton and, like the iron of the Eiffel Tower, these bones have rusted to through the shoulder bars and became too weak to support the arm and its torch. So after two centuries, this symbol of freedom is now invisible to all but the local wildlife.

The entire body of the statue depends on its iron skeleton. More than 200 years have taken their toll on some of our most iconic monuments across North America. The signs of the human species are increasingly difficult to find, the eastern half of the continent has become an immense forest. Trees not only tower over old suburbs and roads, but bury them after 200 years. Falling leaves create 3 feet of new soil that covers almost everything we leave behind, swollen from the rain. The streams from time to timewhen they discover remains of human existence. This is all that remains of a house.

The plastic that filled modern houses can still be seen. This cell phone is still intact more than 200 years after the last call. It can survive for centuries if kept out of reach. sunlight most metals have rusted badly, but stainless steel is truly stainless this humble kitchen sink can last hundreds of thousands of years some must change in the west caribou and deer roam millions of acres of ancient farmlands and, once again, thundering herds of buffalo can be found here birds can grow 30 percent a year horses have an easier time their species evolved here long before humans arrived now they have the opportunity to live undisturbed, but once again in just 200 years North America has gone wild The human homes and cities of Berrien is It has been 1,000 years since all human beings disappeared from the face of the earth in Paris.

The iron from the Eiffel Tower has almost disappeared in New York. The Statue of Liberty has fallen in the forest. Its iron skeleton is completely shattered. However, its pedestal still stands. made of solid concrete and covered with granite it will last thousands of years, but given enough time the planet will erase even these last remnants of humanity twenty-five thousand years after our disappearance a new ice age takes over the planet gradual changes in the orbit of the Earth Move it away from the Sun, the first sign will be when the snow remains for two summers in a row, then a chain reaction will begin that will cause ice to cover most of the northern hemisphere, once again the glaciers will travel south and eventually They will reach Manhattan, they will crush what is left. of the Statue of Liberty and any other sign of human civilization remained in the north, but there is one place where our footprint will remain indefinitely is on the moon, unlike the earth, the landscape here changes very slowly, craters are still preserved more than four billion years old. with some human artifacts a car a television camera the only reminders of the human species that will last millions of years are not even found on earth planet earth is 4.5 billion years old in that context human civilization is just an open and blink of an eye Be careful, it took us 10,000 years to cut down half of the world's forests, but after we disappeared, they grew back in just 500 years.

We once used half of all fresh water and changed the course of 2/3 of the rivers, but thousands of dams. They were wiped out in just 200 years while we lived on the planet, we pump 13.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air each year, but in just a few centuries plants and the sea have scrubbed the earth clean. Cities crumbled forests and swamps covered what used to be concrete and asphalt the planet was even able to handle the radioactive legacy we left behind in just 25 years nature buried it all saving millions of animals from horrible deaths the earth is resilient cleaned up every mess we left behind all we had to do was get out of the way this has been a thought experiment a chance to find out what difference we really make to our planet the answer the earth can manage without us but we can't survive without us the land you