Snow of the Day IV (+ Life After People)
White is white
Originally uploaded by Guillaume Bertocchi Ever feel like that tree? It would be peaceful.
On the subject of lonely images, I've been meaning to mention the most interesting thing I saw on TV last month: a special on the History Channel called Life After People. (Not just because I felt like the title somehow fit snugly with my own life.) The premise was that humans have been wiped out, and the program followed various aspects of the earth day by day, month by month, decades and finally centuries after people. What happens to human infrastructure? How long does it take for nature to reclaim a metropolis? How long do our most recognizable structures last? How do different species of animals cope? The whole thing was utterly fascinating.
The way they handled the premise left a lot of questions. It would make a big difference to some of the surviving elements, at least locally, *how* humans were wiped out. If it were a nuclear disaster, you'd have to factor in blast radii and radiation for 30 or 40 years. If it were a worldwide natural disaster, plants and animals would have more to worry about than just a lack of human help or threat. If it were some horrible plague, I think the societal chaos leading up to the final demise would have a considerable impact on some of the structures, animals, and infrastructure. The only things I can think of that would leave no other mark on the earth are 100% Rapture, Thank You Jesus! or Total Alien Abduction.
But I can see why the program didn't want to specify, because it would have necessitated choosing one path of specific details, and they wanted to leave the problem as pure as possible. How quickly will our structures decay without maintenance? Which breeds of dogs can adapt back to living in the wild? Will cockroaches really be as successful as we assume?
I think my favorite image was from maybe 50 or 80 years After: the skyscrapers in the cities have become vertical ecosystems, with the windows blown out and vines and plants eventually climbing higher and higher, decaying and creating soil, habitats for birds and climbing animals... and in these vertical jungles, the apex predator is the FERAL CAT. ::loves::
I've got a discussion question (what? I stop being a teacher just because it's the weekend?) but I'm moving it over to the Thread of Doom, where folks are helping travels_in_time max out LJ's comment limit for a single post. (We're over halfway to 5000!)