http://www.history.com/mi...ter_people


About the Show

What would happen to planet earth if the human race were to suddenly disappear forever? Would ecosystems thrive? What remnants of our industrialized world would survive? What would crumble fastest? From the ruins of ancient civilizations to present day cities devastated by natural disasters, history gives us clues to these questions and many more in the visually stunning and thought-provoking new special LIFE AFTER PEOPLE, premiering Monday, January 21st, 2008 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on The History Channel®.
Buildings Decomposing

Abandoned skyscrapers would, after hundreds of years, become "vertical ecosystems" complete with birds, rodents and even plant life. One small animal might be responsible for bringing down the Hoover Dam hydroelectric plant. Swelled rivers, crumbling bridges and buildings, grizzly bears in California and herds of buffalo returning to the Great Western Plains: In a world without humans, these would be the visual hallmarks. Our cars would shrivel to piles of dust, our house pets would be overtaken by flourishing wildlife and most of the records of our human story�books, photos, records�would fade quickly, leaving little evidence that we ever existed.
Eiffel Tower Decomposing

Using feature film quality visual effects and top experts in the fields of engineering, botany, ecology, biology, geology, climatology and archeology, Life After People provides an amazing visual journey through the ultimately hypothetical.

The 1986 nuclear power plant accident at Chernobyl and its aftermath provides a riveting and emotional case study of what can happen after humans have moved on. Life After People goes to remote islands off the coast of Maine to search for traces of abandoned towns, beneath the streets of New York to see how subway tunnels may become watery canals, to the Montana wilderness to divine the destiny of the bears and wolves.

Humans won't be around forever, and now we can see in detail, for the very first time, the world that will be left behind in Life After People.
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this kind of stuff freaks me out LOL

I need the discovery channel.

I find this stuff fascinating.

That was soo good!!! I loved it.

I only caught the tail end of it. Debating if I should make the effort to see the whole thing, since I'm a little slow on the uptake on what the whole message is. Life carries on? We'd better be careful? It's sooner than we think? What?!

morningsong said:

I think it was just a demonstration on the fact that nature goes on even without us. In fact, we all try to hold nature back when it comes to things we build and how we spend our time on this planet.

The interesting thing to me was that a car would disinegrate into nothing but the tires would last for thousands of years. The visuals were cool and thinking about a planet where animals run free again was thought-provoking. They did their research that's for sure and the graphics were cool at times, other times not so much.

I missed this! But the History channel website says that it will be repeated tomorrow night at 8:00 PM EST (7:00 CST). I'll check it out then.

Slave2daGroove said:

I'm not sure if I'm getting it confused with the show that was on regarding several various doomsday scenerios, the last and most likely was the whole "greenhouse" (I forget what it's called now) issue. I'm afraid I've seen so many of these types (doomsday) that I'm becoming desensitized. Getting a mind frame of "yeah, yeah, we're gonna get wiped off the planet and die. What of it?" Not good, I don't like feeling like that. I think I should back off from this kind of stuff for a while. Take it down to a more personal level.

What would happen to planet earth if the human race were to suddenly disappear forever?

While science can only speculate about the possible changes to the world's environment, one thing is known with absolute certainty: it would be really, really boring.

728huey said:

thanks!

I thought it was interesting. I do agree that some of the simulations were a little strange...
It's not really warning us of anything. It's more just showing what life would be like without us, and how nature would adapt. It made me think about how much we have impacted Earth.

I could have done without the roaches' close-ups, tho!

morningsong said:

I never like looking at documentaries like that

i think its pretty universally accepted that one day humans will destroy each other leaving en empty shell of civilization to fend for itself.



and Will Smith and a dog.

Milty said:

Its happened before.

Milty said:

Or it could be like Blade Runner or Transformers .....that would be awesome

morningsong said:

I'm with you 100%, I tune out for the doomsday stuff. It's all speculation at best using fear tactics to push ratings.

This was different and more from a scientific stand point using examples to show where they were getting their examples. It's amazing to see Chernobyl and how much has grown back after the nuclear meltdown.