This page is about the documentary, for the franchise itself, see Life After People.
Life After People is a television special documentary film that premiered on January 21, 2008 on the History Channel. In the documentary, scientists & other experts speculate about what the Earth, animal life, & plant life might be like if, suddenly, humanity no longer existed, and then the effect that humanity's disappearance might have on the artificial aspects of civilization. Speculation is based upon documented results of the sudden removal of humans from a geographical area & the possible results that would occur if humanity discontinues its maintenance of buildings & urban infrastructure.
The documentary features the gradual & post-apocalyptic disintegration of urban civilization in a time span of 10,000 years after humanity suddenly vanished. The hypotheses are depicted using CGI dramatizations of the possible fate of iconic structures and landmarks. Animals that relied on humans or not would slowly or rapidly change their habits, history & culture might be erased, and the urban world would be transformed by nature.
The documentary also explores and analyze already abandoned areas from Prypiat, Black Island in Maine, and historical places such as the Roman Colosseum, and the Pyramids of Giza.
Plot[]
Introduction[]
The intro starts by asking what would happen if every human being on the earth were to suddenly vanish? It commented that at some point in the future, it might be a possible fate of the planet, stating the disclaimer that 'this isn't the story of how we might vanish, it is the story of what happens to the world we leave behind.' The compilation of collapses follows the title card, LIFE AFTER PEOPLE.
Prologue[]
The documentary begins that the disappearance of humanity seems like science fiction before stating that one day people no longer walk the Earth. David Brin stated that there is no great stretch to imagine humans disappearing from Earth. He continues that every generation has its tales of Armageddon or apocalypse and that we could be the first generation by deliberate action cause its own doom. The documentary questions what will be life after people with David Brin stating that we humans are tantalized by our myths about our own destruction and also tantalized by the notion. He then questions 'What will they do if we're gone?' and 'What will the earth do when I'm gone' before stating that these are the most natural question in the world.
1 Day After People[]
The documentary shows an empty house, with an electric clock starts to alarm at 7, a TV in static, and a dog being alone in an empty home, looking for their owners.
The first events begin that within hours, lights starts to go out around the world, and the United States alone is generated by more than 70 percent of power by burning of fossil fuels. Gordon Masterton stated that the plant will continue to produce electricity as long as the fuel takes to be consumed, without people to provide new fuel, it'll be quick before the lights start to going out in cities all over the world. Meanwhile, nuclear power plants are unlikely to meltdown due to the average reactor that can hold enough fuel to keep running for two years. But without people consuming the power, the reactors of the nuclear power plants is automatically shut down into safe mode within as little as two days. Gordon Masterton gave another example: the wind turbines, he stated that the turbines require bearings and lubrication in order to keep operation, without maintenance, the electricity doesn't get produced. With the generating plants go down, outages on the power grid contribute to a cascade of failure worldwide and within a few weeks, the planet is plunged into a deep darkness it has not experienced since humans first huddled around campfires.
The last glow of artificial lights on earth is perhaps seen in the American Southwest, where the Hoover Dam hydropower plant takes little notice of the absence of humans, with the source of fuel is virtually limitless. Bill Bruninga explains the capabilities of the Hoover Dam, with the fuel supply is water in the reservoir in Lake Mead. He continues that the reservoir keeps supplying the water to the hydro turbine generators and these generators are operating automatically and continue as long as all of the systems are functioning normally. Without people, he stated that it would continue without them and can be true from weeks, months, to even years, and he stated that Hoover Dam could be one of the last power plants still running.
With power fails around the world, other systems quickly begins to fail. Gordon Masterton suggest that those systems are complex network of underground tunnels beneath all the major cities, and he stated that those tunnels are drainage purposes, cabling purposes, or in the case of big cities, transportation. He then stated that in order to keep the tunnels dry, which many of those sit below the level of the water table, a system of pumps are switched on when necessary to drain the tunnels. In New York City alone, more than 700 pumps struggle to keep out flood of ground water in subways, which average of 13 millions gallons a day. Gordon Masterton stated that without people and nobody to switch the pumps on, the tunnels will fill with water in 36 hours.
10 Days After People[]
In supermarket around the world, food begins to rot. Refrigerators become cabinets for decaying food, but the meltwater from defrosting freezers provide a temporary lifeline for some of the creatures left behind, such as dogs. The documentary then questions what will happen to the family pets without people.
Ray Coppinger stated that right when people disappeared, a massive die off of dogs begins to occur since dogs can't open cans or refrigerator, and once the dog leaves the house, the dog need to scavenge food. He thinks that the first thing to happen is that the dogs jump out of windows, or any of the open spaces as seen in the documentary, and begin to scavenge. It was estimated there are four hundred million dogs in the world and 300 different breeds but only few are suited to survive without people, with the smallest breeds won't last a week. John Hadidian stated that dogs are very competitive and compares wolves displacing coyotes, coyotes displace foxes, and he assume that the hierarchy would prevail among domestic dogs. Many unique features that have been bred into dogs over the years, and in fact become a major handicaps in the fight for survival. Ray Coppinger explains that dogs with short legs, short faces, and long faces are doomed since he knows that they're not gonna move well, able to search, and able to explore. He then stated that an average dog has a best chance in a long haul, but not in a pretty way.
As dogs struggle, household pests slowly begins to notice the disappearance of humans. Rats and house mice, able to exist without people, surprisingly dependent on human food supplies. John Hadidian stated that rats and mice are termed commensal rodents, meaning sharing the table, in which very dependent on people. He then gave an example that little house mouse and Norway rat are great examples that would do less well without people. Within initial weeks, the rodents raid pantries in homes and grocery shelves in stores, and after eating through the food supplies, they'll struggle to survive like cardboard, cloth, and glue. Ray Coppinger thinks that rats would return to the wild and compete for resources. Eventually, rodents will abandon homes and buildings making them easy pickings for predators. While they survive, the numbers of these species have greatly diminished.
6 Months After People[]
Urban areas are returning into the wilds. John Hadidian stated that predators would return quickly without people due to humans suppressing them. He stated that humans create conditions that either work against them or deliberately go out, remove, and destroy them. Smaller predators, like coyotes and bobcats, always survive in the time of humans and become the first to colonize the abandon neighborhoods. Larger predators however have to wait longer for the habitat to recover enough in order to support their appetites but soon enough, they'll too hunt in abandoned cities.
1 Year After People[]
While towns and cities are still recognizable, nature is beginning to reclaim the land, as seen on Los Angeles. John Hadidian stated that one of the first physical effects without people are the transition of the impervious surfaces like parking lots and roads that supported had an abundance of plant life. Meanwhile, Ray Coppinger stated any place where sunlight is allowed that can cause some plant growth from seeds that stuck in cracks and the seeds all gonna start to creep out of the cracks. Without humans, weeds like dandelions infiltrate every crack in the pavement. As weeds die, their remnants combine with moss and lichen create a layer of topsoil, which is poor in nutrients, making plants like clover that can pull nitrogen from the air flourish at first. The yards morph into fields where white-tailed deer forage for food and wild animals begun to find their way into abandoned cities.
Gordon Masterton showcase the ailanthus tree, stating that it enjoy rooting itself in very inhospitable locations and likes to attach itself to crevices in buildings and cause damage. He continues that once the root expand, the expansive forces have force out mortar and stone to crumble of a facade, causing major damage to a collapse.
Returning to Hoover Dam, the manmade goliath aren't invincible to nature. In order to harness the power of the Colorado River, it took 21,000 men and five years of hard labor to construct the Hoover Dam, but one year after people, its 17 massive and indestructible generators are being brought down by quagga mussel, an organism that is a size of a human thumbnail and a mollusk type that is invasive to Lake Mead that is currently infesting. Quagga mussel came from Eastern Europe and it has no natural predators in North America other than humans that tasked with scraping it from the grates and pipes it colonizes. Bill Bruninga stated that the mussels attach themselves to the inside wall of pipes and are known to very prolific. He continues that they can colonize, rapidly build up, and grow on top of each other till it completely block the diameter of a pipe. The documentary continues that the small pipes that bring cooling water to the generators of the Hoover Dam make a perfect home and without people, it spread like cancer. Bill Bruninga explains that the mussels could clog up the cooling pipes to the point the generators couldn't cool anymore causing high temperature alarm in the automatic control system, causing to start the shutdown sequence of the generators. He continues that it will happen one after another for all the generators and eventually the entire power plant shuts down.
With the Hoover Dam shutting down, Las Vegas, the last glimmers of manmade light on Earth, finally turns dark. With the generators shutting down, water is no longer being pass through Hoover Dam causing Colorado River downstream begins to run dry. Lake Mead on the other side has nowhere [for] the water to go and starting to rise. Bill Bruninga stated that Lake Mead would keep building up until eventually spills over through the spillways on either side of the dam.
Unchecked, nature's most potent elements reclaim supremacy on earth. Triggered by lightning strikes, wildfires rage unchecked, and the cities & neighborhoods full of abandoned buildings, wild grasses, and debris are prime fuel for the flames. Wildfires rage through Chicago, burning the low-rise skyscrapers, San Francisco, with wooden Victorians like the Painted Ladies are now useful as kindling, and Rome, like it did in the time of the ancients, is burning again. As structures burn to the ground, charred timbers release nutrients into soil providing the next wave of plant life with nitrogen it needs to grow and thrive, which consume the ruins.
5 Years After People[]
Roads around the world are disappearing beneath the greenery, and nature advance knows no boundaries from the gates of London's Buckingham Palace, easily breached by vines and moss, to Moscow's Red Square which becoming very green. Kevin Harrison stated that nature can reclaim very quickly and shows the stairs that have been cleared 18 months ago, he then stated that if coming back for 18 months it will have a hard time finding them and if five years, its almost impossible to find. Continuing with mastery over nature is always an illusion when the Cambodian city of Angkor and its temple complexes were abandoned in 15th century, jungle trees indiscriminately grew over its stone structures which entangle them with their roots. Without armies of gardeners and repairman, modern cities are laid bare to nature assault.
In New York City, the Central Park, now untended, is sprout with saplings, and five years after people have turned the park into a forest. Ray Coppinger stated that Central Park will go bananas as trees growth on the lawns all the sudden, and all the animals and plants located there rise up in population and spread out into the city.
In Washington D.C., the story is the same as great monuments have been swallowed by greenery and the National Mall have become jungles where zoo animals occupy the empty National Mall. John Hadidian stated that zoo animals are unknown and whether or not they escape from their confinement can have change dramatically in the environment because of lions and tigers being both could perfectly capable of surviving after people however he stated that it better at further south than in Washington D.C. but he continues that animals are capable of figuring out what to do and how to survive.
20 Years After People[]
Without humans to apply fresh paint and fill in cracks, concrete buildings have begun to crumble. Cities have turned into eerie ghost towns without maintenance and animals return to abandoned cities that they once avoided. The documentary questions how do they know it before stating that there's one place in the world that its already happened.
Ron Chesser introduce the abandoned city of Pripyat in Ukraine while standing in the central square. He stated that Pripyat is once the most modern city in the former Soviet Union, and with 20 years sitting abandoned, it can give a picture to what would happen if human disappeared. Pripyat was evacuated after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and it went from 50,000 to abandoned overnight. The documentary shows a school with rooms remain as student left them, vegetation pries apart masonry over buildings, and an amusement park that was scheduled to open four days after the date of the accident were never used with the Ferris Wheel accumulates rust and the bumper cars sit in a state of motionless decay.
Ron Chesser stated that radiation levels were not very high in Pripyat but hit a point of no return in recapturing the city. He then show the cultural center of Pripyat where friends gathered, celebrations, balls, music, dancing, and performance on the stage, but 20 years have cause the facility to decay. The documentary shows a computer-generated sequence of decay on a former Soviet building Palace of Culture Energetik, where it shows no match for the Ukrainian winters, and as the temperature drops below freezing, water accumulated in cracks expands till it burst that pulls apart the masonry. It then shows the vegetation with growing uncheck, the roots spread through foundations and suck in moisture causing to expand grow, and overtime they slowly push apart the concrete.
After the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, scientists expected the worst for the wildlife with most of the trees in a 1.5 square mile around the nuclear plant were killed off by radiation including animals, but 20 years in absence has outweighed the damage cause by the nuclear disaster. Ron Chesser shows the Red Forest, an area were it was horribly impacted by radioactive. He shows the original amounts of radioactivity that kill all of the wildlife and trees, and show the resurgence of the wildlife with an example is an antler left behind by a large and healthy red deer, he also show another example are the Russian wild boars which the population in the zone are 10 to 15 times higher than outside of the zone. Sergey Gashchlak shows the kindergarten in Kopachi Village not far from the Chernobyl Power Plant where children lives while parents at work and after night in April 1986, the kindergarten is abandoned. He shows the former bedroom in the kindergarten, the broken windows, and wildlife living like birds and owl living in the room.
Trees that have been proven vulnerable to radioactive fallout returns like in the Pripyat soccer stadium. Brenda Rodgers explains that the activity in the field is barely discernable and the field is turned into a succession of a mixed deciduous forest, which it was originally hundreds of years ago. Ron Chesser explains that he used to grew up in a town like Pripyat and he seems pretty sad on what become of Pripyat and he tell another side of the story that life is much more resilient than thought possible. He conclude the visit that if people disappear, the legacy of life will continue.
25 Years After People[]
In the countryside, nature takes over the overgrowing farmlands and crops is completely dying. In the suburbs, feral dogs roam in packs through decaying neighborhoods in order to scavenge for food.
In some cities around the world, solid ground starts to flood and harder to find like London. It was protected from tidal surges by the Thames Barrier during storms to seal off the Thames River from the North Sea, but without people, the Thames Barrier no longer operates and repeated storms from the Thames River have cause the city London to be flooded. In Amsterdam, meets the same fate like London, with the entire canals of Amsterdam rises and flood the city from repeated storms from the North Sea.
In New York City, some windows at the high rise of the city have cracked and slipped loose from the frames and more are on the verge of destruction. A quarter century of exposure to moisture and heat have cause the normally flexible window sealant to become rigid, locking the window to its frame and as it expands and contracts with change in temperature, it stresses the glass causing it to crack and plummets to the sidewalk below. Gordon Masterton also explains another cause, the wind pressure effect, which can change dramatically as well as the external pressure coming to the building adding suction which aggravates the problem causing more panels to fall out.
With windows fall out, the buildings fills with debris. On top of the structure, a copper-lightning deterrent system used to protect thousands of office workers, but a quarter century have corrode and useless. A summer storm rolls in and a lightning bolt turns one of the towers, 500 Fifth Avenue, into a raging inferno.
With open window holes, the gutted buildings makes a perfect home for pigeons, [who] once relied on the handouts of humans. John Hadidian stated that pigeons lived in the wild and without people, they able to adopt as kind of artificial cliff in which they really adopted to.
Another creature, cockroaches, is forced to change habits in the disappearance of humans. David Brin that cockroach would mourn when people disappeared, but the documentary continues that the mourning won't last for long as while they thrived for scraps, they can eat book bindings, cardboard, and any rotting organic matter including dead leaves and roots. But food is not a problem, cockroaches need warmth, a kind that humans supplied through artificial heat since cockroaches started as tropical species and couldn't survive the winter in colder cities according to some experts, but it contradicts that cockroaches have seen the dinosaurs come and extinct. John Hadidian explains that cockroaches are extremely adaptable. While the first winter after people witness the die-off of some of the cockroaches, many moved underground to find warmth until milder temperatures returned. Cockroaches enjoys a golden age after human disappeared.
Wolves were a terror to humans in the time of humans, and so were hunted mercilessly. The documentary shows the history when European settlers first arrived in the land of United States, it's believed nearly half a million wolves roamed the country side and by the 20th century, they were nearly extinct in the lower 48 states. Without people, wolf populations multiply by six times each year and 25 years after people has the population of wolves being half a million. It seen on a small scale before in 1995 when biologists released few dozen wolves within the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park, protected from persecution by human, and within a decade, it multiplied into 1,500 and wolves quickly spread out to the states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Scott Creel stated the events in 1995 that few dozen of wolves can in the course of one decade have a population of 1,500 due to the geographic expansion on three states stating the conditions are right and re-colonize rapidly. He continues that once a deer arrive in Manhattan or Chicago, the wolves would arrive right behind them.
In the United States alone, roughly three million miles of paved road have hemmed the animals and many of the roads cut right through the paths animals use to migrate. Scott Reel stated that a good landscape for animal movement is easy for engineering a road in the location and cut major migrations. One of the examples of these havoc are on the grizzly bears, due to the habitat being carved up by roads causing them to be confined to isolated pockets and cutting off from food sources and potential mates. After people, roads are no longer barriers and instead become a pathways that lead them back into the heart of their former range like the Golden Gate Bridge.
40 Years After People[]
In the suburbs, roughly 90 percent of all homes in the United States alone are wooden frames. While some burned, others are being devoured. Without paint and preservative, the lumber within homes are defenseless against termites which feast on cellulose, the basic building block of wood, and the appetites being relentless as some colonies eat as much as 1,000 pounds of wood per year. But termites aren't working alone, Kevin Harrison stated that the process are called rotting which occur when wood is exposed to elements, and it is a more complicated process. He continues that it is process by microbes attacking the wood and releasing carbon dioxide and methane to the atmosphere. As wood is faced with two pronged attack from termites and rot, the beams that hold up the roof give away and the average home collapse and the border erase between inside/out.
Kevin Harrison shows another type of house, a stone house, make out of mortar and rock which last longer than several decades but still prone to crumble after natural, chemical, and physical weathering processes and eventually the walls collapse. The documentary visits a crumbling house in Baltimore within Druid Hill Park, it is once home to the caretaker of the zoo. Kevin Harrison explains the visual of the building stating it look abandoned for hundred of years but was abandoned 40 years ago due to the vines starting to climb the walls and trees growing into the structure and physically pulling the structure apart. Due to the nature to stone and masonry, structures built out of entirely of these materials outlive anything made of wood and exactly how fast they crumble depends on the environment.
The documentary then visits Black Island in Maine, with John Anderson stating that the coast of Maine is not very kind to buildings and structures don't decay but rather melt. The structures were used to be part of granite quarry whose stone was used to build and decorate cities from Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia, but was abandoned around 1920. John Anderson stated that buildings in Black Island were all vanished within the space of 80 and 90 years.
In Europe, right conditions and human maintenance can have stone structures to last for thousands of years like the Ancient Roman aqueducts, which are still in use, but without maintenance it falls victim to a stealthy enemy. Eric Doehne reveals that the stealthy enemy of stone are salts and salt crystals and people notice the effect of salts deteriorating the ancient pyramids thousand of years ago. Salts can infiltrate stone buildings and monuments in polluted air, seawater, and bird droppings. Eric Doehne explains that soluble salts dissolve in water and as the water evaporates, it rise up inside the building materials like brick, stone, and concrete and salt continue to grow inside the pores of stone until it come up against the side of wall where they'll push the stone apart. He shows the experiment in a time-lapse of the rapid decay of stone in response by salts and it took 3 weeks from a stable stone to a deteriorated stone cause by sodium sulfate crystallization. The documentary continues that three weeks are equivalent to the few years in the harshest environments, or few decades in a benign desert climate. Eric Doehne shows a video taking place microscopically inside the pyramids where salt deteriorate the stone.
The Pyramids of Giza, while not completely immune to decay, survived for nearly 5,000 years because of the sheer volume and the desert environment making it too massive to be destroyed by either man or nature, and because of it, the Pyramids of Giza were the only one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World to survive in the modern era. Many ancient monuments have survived because of human maintenance throughout the centuries. The Great Sphinx of Giza was uncovered and restored for the first time back in 1400 B.C. and modern experts who have studied it predict that without human intervention, deterioration from salts and wind erosion would render it into a pile of dust within 500 to 1,000 years.
The Hoover Dam would last longer than 1,000 years due to being so thick that over 70 years after it was constructed, the concrete deep inside still curing. But out of the 15 tallest dams in the United States, only 10 are concrete, the others are made of compacted rock or earth like the Trinity Dam in Northern California. A leak in the dam would be an emergency fix if humans were around, without it, the Trinity Dam would burst and collapse. Gordon Masterton commented that the dams made of earth are enormous but if the dam fail then the surge of water falls in behind and cascade down the valley below to sweep away everything on its path.
50 Years After People[]
The strain of neglect is beginning to show on the best design manmade structures like the Brooklyn Bridge. Gordon Masterton explains the bridge as one of the most famous in the world for over 125 years, it only last long due to engineers inspect, maintain, paint, and replacing pieces, and he stated that without engineers, the deterioration process accelerate dramatically. Brooklyn Bridge, like any suspension bridge, are made with steel vertical hanger cables, the most vulnerable parts of the suspension bridge. Alan W. Pense explains the steel vertical hanger cables tested in the laboratory showing sign of failure within the wires and stated that an individual wires has a tensile strength of 200,000 pounds per square inch making it a very high strength steel.
While the steel cables are strong, the cables have a fatal flaw, the stuff it made of. Alan W. Pense stated that steel is a mineral came from Earth that is made of 95.98% iron. Steel is exposed to moisture and the iron inside start to revert back to the minerals it came from, and the process is known as corrosion when steel is exposed to moisture. Alan W. Pense stated that the enemy of steel is corrosion and the problem is keeping out the water making it part of maintenance, without it it'll corrode.
The Brooklyn Bridge, completed in 1883, cost $15 million to build and over the last two decades it took $3 billion to maintain it and other bridges over the East River. The Brooklyn Bridge was continually maintained and fully repainted roughly every dozen years in the time of humans.
Across the country in San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge was maintained and protected at all times by a vigilant brigade of 17 iron workers and 38 painters. Alan W. Pense stated that when maintenance stop, the cables begin to rust, paint peels off, and wires begin to break to the point when the bridge begins to collapse.
75 Years After People[]
Most of the 600 millions cars, once traveled the roads across the world, are turning into rust. Gordon Masterton stated that abandoned cars behave differently depending on the environment like an example on the Mojave Desert where a car left behind last a long time and in Scotland where a car left behind not last more than 20 to 30 years due to salt in the coastal environment. The process of cars without people where then shown, with the tires deflate within few years while the rubber and synthetics made of will remain intact for centuries, then the paint deteriorates quickly and once it flakes away, rust corrodes the car's body at a rate of 0.005 of an inch per year. After 75 years, most cars even in the most forgiving environments will reduce to skeletons and after a century, it will be barely recognizable in a heap of metal.
100 Years After People[]
The Brooklyn Bridge, stood over 125 years with people, wouldn't survive a century without them. The cables fail, the deck and railings begin to warp and sway then the deck pulls free and the roadway spills into the East River. Gordon Masterton is sad that the iconic structure has an end to its life but without maintenance, it certainly has an end.
The documentary opens with the Golden Gate Bridge, to answers the question on how do bridges fail with once corrosions starts, the wires begin to crack. Alan W. Pense showing the wires doesn't first crack before it breaks and he said the questions what happen, how, and what do they do when the wires fail, and he answer that the wires tend to shred and fail with individual strands starting to fail then begins to cascade as the whole series of wires begin to break. The suspension bridge like the Golden Gate Bridge can survive the weakening of one of its vertical cables, but once two or three fails, the whole bridge is in jeopardy causing the roadway of the Golden Gate Bridge to sway and pulls free. Twisted steel crashed down, As the roadway falls, it cause the North Tower to collapse. Alan W. Pense doubt that the Golden Gate Bridge can survive 200 years, as it is in the drink.
The documentary questions if the largest structures have already failed after 100 years, will the civilization leave a permanent mark? [The collapse of the Golden Gate Bridge was replayed with the tower falling onto the camera.] It transition to what will remain of the records of history and culture after a century, the answer they receive came from the J. Paul Getty Museum in the Getty Center. Mary Sackett stated that the vaults within the museum contain the most precious materials and the biggest enemies are temperature and humidity and as long as the long-term storage is kept at the controlled settings, it will assured the materials last a long time. The paper and film stored under ideal conditions would have an estimated shelf life of 200 to 300 years but exposed to uncontrolled environment makes the lifespan to cut in half. Mary Sackett commented that if the power went off within a week, a big spikes of temperature and humidity can be seen. In the hostile environment, cellulose acetate, the most common material used for films and photographs throughout the 20th century begins to bubble and warp with all the culture and history on film from the landings on D-Day to Hollywood films to home movies and photographs, won't last a century without human care/protection. Mary Sackett shows the example of decay in cellulose acetate film that were exposed to very high amounts of humidity with the materials are finished.
In libraries, the great repositories of collective knowledge, the damage arrives in a form of microscopic invaders like mold spores. While it can't be seen in a naked eye, mold spores are on all surfaces and lying dormant, biding the time to strike on the right conditions, with high humidity creates the condition. Mary Sackett that the situation would be a boom for the mold. However, some books and documents can avoid this fate like the Dead Sea Scrolls, which survived 2,000 years in the caves of Judean Desert, owing their longevity to the arid climate and lack of sunlight but those are rare exceptions. Mary Sackett stated that without people, books will last a century at best as it mold and decays.
Digital media like CDs and DVDs won't last forever as the estimates of lifespans for the previously mentions range from a few decades to a few centuries under ideal conditions. Nabil Nasr explains that history and culture of the ancient Egyptians were known due to being left behind in engraved in stones and the modern knowledge, history, and information is capture in computerized form like in CD and in a printed paper and stated that these degrade over time and won't last thousands of years like the ancient Egyptians. Mary Sackett commented on this that even with the advances, it won't come anything durable as clay tablets and stone tools.
150 Years After People[]
Subways flooded in the first 36 hours after people have turned into a flowing subterranean streams and the beams & archways that hold up the roofs of the tunnels are on the verge of collapse. Gordon Masterton stated that the tunnels of the subways are not far below street level and the columns are supporting not just the roof of the tunnel but the street above it. He continues that in time that the tunnels are flooded with water, corrosion start to take hold and begin to collapse it. The subways' tunnels echoes the sound of cracking steel and cement, as they collapse the street above are sucked into the underground, forming the trenches along the way.
Zoom out of NYC.
Cities are bustling with life once again as vines have grown up the sides of abandoned skyscrapers which adapt to feed off rainwater that pools in crevices and on the ledges. Ray Coppinger stated that with vines branches up, it'll produce fruit that can have source of energy for animals and within the vertical ecosystem, birds began to nest and snakes starts to hunt.
As insects and smaller animals established on the new habitat, cats starts to move in. Ray Coppinger shows an example of cats living in abandoned places like in the Colosseum, which is loaded with cats that was turned into a living space and during the day where they radiate out. The cats were the descendants of former house cats. When people were gone within one day, their human-supplied diets were replaced with field mice and small birds. While hunting in the open is hard, pickings were easy and they began to live their whole lives high above the city, finding all things they need to survive without touching the ground. In the new high altitude food chain, cats are kings with million-dollar views of a cityscape that is bizarrely altered. Ray Coppinger stated that he could pictured New York City with all the buildings covered in vines. While cats enjoying life in the new environment, it will eventually lead to strange adaptations. Ray Coppinger stated that cats could be like flying squirrels where they could glide from places to place and continues that the possibility is always there for imaginative responses to the unusual environment.
While cats made a great leap forward, dogs on the other hand have reverted to the ways of their ancestors with some have interbred with wolves that are now fall in packs in order to bring down larger prey. John Hadidian thinks that dogs still posses the instinct to survive while lying on the living room floor, which is enough to be able to do whatever it takes in bringing down a prey in order to survive.
The oceans return with life as the creatures of the sea have welcomed the disappearance of man. Steve Palumbi explains that man have treated the oceans in two ways at the same time historically, pantry and toilet, and over time the ability to damage the ocean has grown. Without humans to fish and pollute the sea, the marine life recovers in an astonishing way. It has happened before during World War II where Allied fishing trawlers avoided the North Atlantic and the populations of fish skyrocketed. Steve Palumbi explains the basic biology of marine life with it being working for mans favor like the sunfish which can produce millions of offspring a year, equivalent sized terrestrial animal like a cow, and because a potential to reproduce, the ocean life would resurface quickly if humans disappeared. Research shown that in the 18th century, the oceans were capable to sustain massive amounts of life before humans wreck havoc. Steve Palumbi stated that the ocean have many whales stinking up the air, many tunas froth the ocean, and many turtles walk across the sea on their backs and continues if people disappeared, the ocean he explains would be the type.
With oceans recovered, seagulls began to flourish, but not without a treacherous flight, as since the time of humans, abundance of food left behind by man have allowed the seagulls population to explode beyond what nature normally support. John Anderson explains that humans are messy species and for the long time, humans open landfills where all the stuff won't fit to eat were thrown out. He continues that from the seagulls point of view, it became a free lunch and lot of birds wouldn't survive through the first winter if they've feed for themselves but the free food suddenly became available. But without people, he continues that the consequence for seagulls would looking for other things to eat. After the die-off, the remaining seagulls took advantage the recovering oceans where schools of fish erased any memories of human-manufactured feasts that the seagulls used to enjoy.
200 Years After People[]
From New York City & Chicago, to Seattle & Paris, the iron and steel icons are on the verge of collapse. The Eiffel Tower, while it outlived the great suspension bridges, is not invincible since it requires to be painted once every seven years to protect it from corrosion in the time of humans. In both age and structure, the Eiffel Tower has a lot in common with the 300-foot high Kinzua Viaduct in Pennsylvania.
Alan W. Pense explains the bridge was originally iron and was reconstructed with steel in the turn of the century. He explains that what happens is unless it's maintained, corrosion occurs and once it happens, the connection points freeze up which doesn't allowed to move. He shows the pieces from the Kinzua Viaduct where corrosion is all over the place and its no longer steel. A structure with frozen connection points can't absorb the stress of high winds, such as the Kinzua Viaduct. Alan W. Pense stated that eventually a strong wind storm have cause the Kinzua Viaduct to fell over from section by section to piece by piece, into the valley where it spanned over a hundred years.
Alan W. Pense then explains the case of the Eiffel Tower, a structure came from the same era, doesn't have a shield in a corrosive environment in Paris and in time without maintenance the Eiffel Tower will fail and collapse. The documentary shows that one of the supports of the Eiffel Tower fails and the top of the tower collapse into the Champ de Mars.
In Seattle, the Space Needle was designed to sway one inch for every 10 miles per hour of wind. Without maintenance and its steel weakened by corrosion, it only takes a little more than a strong breeze for the Space Needle, the symbol of the 1962 World's Fair, to crash down from the skyline.
Sea levels were already on the rise when humans disappeared. In the case of Manhattan in New York City, saturated soil around the foundation pilings of the Empire State Building have allowed it to lean. Gordon Masterton explains that once the building strays from the vertical, gravity forces then act against the structure which then increase the stresses at the base of the building. He continues that once it start to incline, gravitational force will cause the top of the building to collapse downward on top of itself.
In Chicago, decay has overtaken the city, where the birthplace of the skyscraper. The Sears Tower, the tallest man-made structure in North America, collapse and reached the end of its reign.
500 Years After People[]
The first 500 years has seen an era of decay and destruction and the concrete structures have lasted the longest. The first form of concrete was invented by the Ancient Romans and some were remained intact for over 2,000 years but modern concrete isn't as durable as ancient concrete due to it having a higher water content and loosely packed leading to more air pockets and cracks. Modern concrete structures also has another fatal flaw. Gordon Masterton explains the flaw that below the surface of the reinforced concrete structures are mesh of steel reinforcing bars and don't corrode because of the concrete maintaining an alkaline environment around it, he continues that when the alkalinity breaks down in time, steel will start to corrode. As it rusts, the bar expands to three times of its original volume creating outward pressure causing the concrete to crumble. Gordon Masterton says that in very broad terms, 50 years will see the start the cracking on the surface of concrete, hundred years would be flaking of the concrete surface, and 500 years that most reinforced concrete structures will be gone.
David Brin explains the images of the fallen civilization where it helps to identify the past like the Greeks and the Romans, and the crumbled mud brick cities of Ur. He continues that while everyone knows that bodies will fall apart, why not cities too.
1,000 Years After People[]
Most cities are unrecognizable. Gordon Masterton explains that the city behind him, New York City, would be very different with little evidence of buildings and activities of man and what seen are jungles of vegetation.
The future of cities when humans disappeared are best imagined by looking at the past. Eric Sanderson introduce Minetta Street in Greenwich Village known for a curve and explains that a stream used to located here known as Minetta Brook. He continues that there are 40 streams on Manhattan island all flowing down and carrying rainwater to the sea. He explains that what happens today in Minetta Street is that the rain falls and the snow melts but the flow is right along the street and into the storm drain. Eric Sanderson continues that without people, there'll be no one to maintain the sidewalks & the streets causing it to crumble, break apart, vegetation returns and hydrological cycle reestablish itself. He continues that Minetta Street would return being as Minetta Brook.
With the use of historic maps and computer modeling, scientists in the Manahatta Project rediscovered the original Manhattan Island when explorer Henry Hudson first sailed around its shores in 1609.
Eric Sanderson then introduce Foley Square in Civic Center, the administrative center of New York City and the location of the New York County Courthouse, he stated that Civic Center is once a collective pond, the freshwater source for the city, and right behind him was a stream that drained down to the Hudson River shore and a beautiful pond nestled in an amphitheater of hills. He continues that without people, buildings around Civic Center would tumble down, soil start to reform, trees would grow, and the buildings become a new amphitheater of hills with nature reestablish itself.
The documentary continues that New York City, like the rest of the planet, has changed radically. The transformation is most shocking in New York City is in Times Square as the once beating heart of the city is silenced by nature's onslaught, where it was transform to a plains with rivers flowing around the ruins of the buildings.
10,000 Years After People[]
The documentary questions that could it be possible that humanity has vanished without a trace? The answer is complicated as the documentary answers only one of the possibilities. The radio and television broadcasts that scientists predicted that history and culture would live on it that can carry through the universe toward the infinite, perhaps to be tuned in by intelligent species on a distant planet. David Brin explains that people think there's an expanding shell of radio and television from earth that expand outward alerting the universe. He continues that unfortunately, recent calculations by Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Group, or SETI for short, has shown that the broadcasts would dissipates within one and two light-years. If it is true, the signals won't make it to the nearest star beyond the sun.
The documentary returns to the question, if 10,000 years has passed and what will remain of civilization on earth, since iron corrodes, concrete crumbles,and wood & paper decays, but some of man built on Earth remains. The most colossal of stone structures like the Great Wall of China have aged like mountains. It was subject to erosion, but at slow time scales, making it to still recognizable for eons. The Pyramids of Giza, including the Great Pyramid, are massive to be last long enough to be swallowed up by the desert sands.
The Hoover Dam, built to be tough as the canyon walls, is one of the last man-made structures still standing, but 10,000 years in the future, it visits as the last of the great collapses on Earth. David Brin explained that it would collapse by earthquakes, sandstorms, and rain. He then explains another man-made structure, Mount Rushmore, carved out of solid granite in an ecologically stable place and the only enemy it has is wind-driven pellets of rain. He thinks that Mount Rushmore may be around a hundred or 200 thousands years, even in time to be looked at by the earliest of the human replacements.
The documentary questions who are the replacements before answering itself that it was chimpanzees to make a great leap. David Brin explains that some scientists believe that it's easy for nature to bring animals up to a clever level where they use tools and become masters of the environment. He continues that the leap being able to stare at the sky & imagine a cosmos, to be able to contemplate oneself, especially the role in Earth, and the leap was a sheer accident for human evolution. He then conclude that it is not about a complete recovery of earth from humanity, but a planet that still continue with nobody to talk and think about it.
Epilogue[]
The documentary explains that if Earth 4.5 billion years of existence were condensed into 24 hours, the passage of 10,000 years would be a fraction of a second, and man's time on the planet so far would be about half a minute long. Like an abandoned village on a global scale, Earth will move on without people. It concludes with the phrase "There was life before people, there will be life after people."
Transcript[]
Life After People Wiki has a transcript for this episode. To see it, click here.
The Making Of was an exclusive to the DVD version of the documentary. It features the production of the documentary from sketches to rendering in 3d with the approval of engineers on how a structure would fall.
Errors[]
A comparison of the building in reality/left, and in the series/right.
500 Fifth Avenue in reality doesn't have a copper lightning system or even a spire. The one used is similar to the Empire State Building's instead, but in a smaller scale.
Despite most of the Space Needle collapse in bird's eye view, some of the supports in the aftermath of the collapse is still intact in the streets view. The same error is still seen in Waters of Death. It is either a visual error or forgot to synch/correct the collapse sequence.
The background of the buried Giza pyramid complex in 10,000 years after people shows that the desert have move further, despite that the desert around the Pyramid of Menkaure is closer to the Pyramid of Khafre.
Trivia[]
The Australian version of the documentary at Channel Seven includes the decaying Sydney Harbour Bridge.[1]
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