Have a look at the picture on the left – just imagine that for some reason or another the human race ceased to exist…everywhere. What would happen to the planet, the cities, the worlds monuments…how long would the last remnants of our civilisation actually last? the answers are truly worrying.
Scientists recently pondered such an event and it seems as though within a relatively short space of time all trace of human existence itself would be wiped out by nature itself. And we all think we are a vital and indispensible asset to this unique planet!
Within a hundred years most traces of our modern-day lives would be so destroyed by weather, corrosion, earth tremors, surviving animals, insects and bacteria that the monuments and hieroglyphics of ancient civilisations would be better preserved than our buildings and our billions of books and electronic records. The lights will start going out around the world almost immediately. The last power will be produced by wind turbines but, after a few weeks, the planet will be plunged into a deep darkness it has not experienced since primitive Man huddled around camp fires.
After only six months, urban areas will begin to be repopulated – by animals, including former domestic pets.
Ultimately, the larger animals would take over again: within 100 years, the half-a-million surviving African elephants would have multiplied to their pre-colonial population of ten million or so.
Livestock such as cows and sheep will be killed off by more aggressive predators. Almost all of the records of our human experience – books, photographs, electronic data – will fade away, leaving little evidence that we ever existed. This apocalyptic forecast is justified in Life After People by astrophysicist and author David Brin, who says: “Every civilisation has its tales of Armageddon or apocalypse, but we are the first generation that could, by deliberate action, cause its own doom.”
Just remember that many ancient civilisations, such as the Mayans, simply died out. No-one really knows why, but it should make us realise just how tentative a grip we as a species have on our own existence here. Maybe we should all stop fighting and killing each other over silly stupid things and act now ensure our continuity as inhabitants of this planet.
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