Things I Like - Sciences

I’ve always been fascinated by the thought of what will happen to the earth once humanity is gone. Or in other words, how long it would take Mother Nature to reclaim the planet if humans were to vanish overnight? Many have pondered this question, Alan Wesiman wrote a book about it, “The World Without Us”. On his website, there’s an interesting graphic that takes you through the expected changes to the world at various points in time (in more detail than the above graphic).

Just a couple highlights:

• After 2 days: New York subways would impassably flood (I may never take the #6 again)
• After 7 days: Emergency generators supplying cooling water to active nuclear reactors would give out, cores would melt down (apparently not a complete life annihilator – see below)
• Within 20 years: The Panama Canal – greatest engineering feat of man, will have closed, reuniting the Americas.

And that’s just the first 20 years, there’s a lot more to come.

Don’t think that this type of change is possible? Think again – we have a real life example. Remember the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster? The city of Prypiat, just a few kilometers away was evacuated in 1986. The city is still empty…of people.

An article posted at NewScientist included a discussion with Ronald Chesser, an environmental biologist at Texas Tech University in Lubbock who has worked extensively in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl:

"I really expected to see a nuclear desert there," says Chesser. "I was quite surprised. When you enter into the exclusion zone, it's a very thriving ecosystem”…The first few years after people evacuated the zone, rats and house mice flourished, and packs of feral dogs roamed the area despite efforts to exterminate them. But the heyday of these vermin proved to be short-lived, and already the native fauna has begun to take over. Wild boar are 10 to 15 times as common within the Chernobyl exclusion zone as outside it, and big predators are making a spectacular comeback. "I've never seen a wolf in the Ukraine outside the exclusion zone. I've seen many of them inside," says Chesser.

Artificial Owl, a site “dedicated to provide on a daily basis a selection of the most fascinating abandoned man-made creations” posted some photos of Prypiat – they are amazing.

Exterior of abandoned building

A chemistry classroom in the town's school

Check out the Artificial Owl for more examples of nature reclaiming its own, including:

• An abandoned shipyard in Japan
• A car cemetary near Bern Switzerland - untouched for 30 years with cars from the 30's to the 60's
• The Siberian railway - untouched since the project was dropped in 1952
• The Anping Tree House - originally a warehouse in what is now Taiwan, abandoned and overgrown with trees within 50 years

And don't get too comfortable - we're really only here temporarily.