If we abandoned the Earth - breakdown of infrastructure

I'll readily admit off the top here that what I am about to inquire about could easily be more a matter of science fiction...

I am curious... does anyone here know if there have been studies made on the long term effects of human abandonment of the earth?

In other words, if humanity suddenly just *poof* disappeared one day (say we were all wiped out by a plague or something), how long would it take for things to shut down, star breaking down, etc.

For example, could a nuclear energy plant still produce power and put it out to the power grid 100 years after such an event, or would the nuclear plant eventually meltdown and spew radiation all over...

How long would New York remain standing, the Golden Gate, etc... How long for roads to crumble, dams to burst, etc.

Rob+

 

Are you implying the Earth could continue to exist without humans?

Blasphemy!

 

There was a recent non-fiction book called The World Without Us that describes the sequence of events if humans just disappeared. Scientific American had a summary article on the book, and an interview with its author, last month, and you can read it here. Some things would break down quicker than you might expect (the New York subways would flood within days), but other artifacts would last quite a long time (millions of years for some metal objects).

There's a link on that page to "The fall of New York" which has a nice timeline of approximately what would occur. Nuclear reactors would melt down in a about week as the cooling systems failed. In about 500 years New York would be covered by forests again.

-MEC

 

Thank you, PlixTixiplik. I'm going to have to pick up a copy of that for one of my "back burner" projects.

 

That timeline is a fantastic and awe-inspiring read.

Really makes you think. (Though at the end it says only our distant radio transmissions would be surviving, probably not entirely true depending on the fates of our various probes out in the galaxy)

 

Well, our roads would probably be one of the first things to deteriorate. Without auto traffic on them to beat down weed upgrowth, they'd grow over within months probably.

 

What if Humans disappear?

 

This thread brings up a question I've been wondering about recently. If mankind disappeared, how long would it take for ALL traces of our existence to disappear. Or would they ever? Would some evidence of our civilization be so unrecognizable that future species would just wonder what it was, but never figure it out? For example, I can imagine some of our larger cities becoming an iron deposit that may be mined. Would future species recognize it as a city, or just an unusual place to find iron?

Some other evidence that may not be so obvious but more lasting is biological. The movement of species from their native range has certainly altered the future of the worlds ecosystem. Would scientists millions of years in the future be able to recognize that movement of species as unnatural, or will they have to invent land bridges or some such thing to explain how various species suddenly moved all over the globe?

 

I don't know about nuclear power plants but I assume that if a running plant were suddenly abandoned that it could run for awhile but then as random parts started to fail the outcome would be rather bad with no one to turn it off.

As for the other stuff I've heard that you would be surprised how quickly wildlife would move into an abandoned city. I think it is only something like a year till animals would be roaming around downtown. Possibly less.

 

Seems like us going, would be better for the PLANET.

 

An interesting question could be, what if another species became dominant on the planet and evolved into an intelligent species just like we are now, in the same amount of time it took our species to become intelligent would there be anything left showing them of our existence? would they be able to see that there was an intelligent species before them?

Should we as an advanced intelligent species build a structure capable of standing the test of time? we could pack it full of information/educational material that could easily be interpreted by future generations or perhaps another species should our die out.
Perhaps it might be a good idea, just look how long the Giza Pyramids have stood, now imagine how long a structure could stand using todays technology and construction techniques and using the amount of different materials at our disposal.

 

Nuclear power plants are generally designed to shut down when something goes wrong.

There already are a lot of animals in cities - racoons, pigeons, rats, ec.

Once we're gone, there'll still be lots of food in cities (possibly including lots of deceased humans), so other animals moving in would be likely.

 

There was an article about a similar subject in New Scientist ages ago - what if Humans just suddenly disappeared with no opportunity to prepare for it ?

The biggest problem they identified was, of course, that all of our nuclear power stations would fall in to a state of dangerous disrepair.

 

And who would care?

The planet would be a different place, somewhat more as it was before human civilization arose. That said, in what sense would that be better than Saturn having rings is for Saturn?

I'm somewhat surprised to read that the disappearence of humanity would be hard on the cockroaches - they're so often referred to offhandedly as close to indestructable. Can't say that I weep for the rats, though.

 

And this looks like an interesting movie.

 

The Omega Man?

 

Well, as long as there's Styrofoam...

 

Reminds me of that old George Carlin joke, "Save the planet... bah... save the humans. The planet is just fine; it's not going anywhere. We're the ones who are going. Pack your bags folks. The planet will just shrug us off like some bad cold."

 

I think if an alien race came here after we are gone they would still find traces of us. They might have to dig for it, but it would be found.

Plus all the junk we launched into space would be floating around. Perhaps not satellites. Their orbits might have decayed and they crashed back down, but the Voyagers and the probes we sent to Mars and other places might still be around.