Life After People

Wednesday, January 16th, 2008

The History Channel will be premiering Life After People next Monday (January 21, 2008), and I’m afraid I’m powerless to resist its siren song:

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.

Watch the many promo videos.

This topic has, of course, been recently addressed in The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman.

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