What would the world be like if Man was to suddenly disappear? This interesting article tells you....

How the world would thrive without mankind

By MICHAEL HANLON (Science Editor)
13th July 2007
Daily Mail

Six-and-half billion - and rising. That is how many humans crowd our Planet Earth. And there is no doubt that we are wreaking terrible damage on our world.

So much so that scientists talk about the "Anthropocene" - the destructive Era Of Man.

Our gases are polluting the atmosphere and warming the skies. Our chemicals taint the seas and the rivers; our farms and cities gobble up the landscape, pushing flora and fauna aside like sand before a bulldozer. Our green-and-blue world is still beautiful, but it is far from pristine.

Our mark is everywhere.


The world according to Alan Weisman: How London (shown here are Nelson's Column and The Gherkin skyscraper) might look if humanity became extinct

But just imagine what would happen if we were all to disappear, each and every one of us, tomorrow.

That's right - think what would take place if every single man, woman and child were to vanish off the face of the Earth in an instant.

That is the bizarre premise of a new book which speculates what would happen in the days, months, years and millennia ahead if homo sapiens - surely the most extraordinary species ever to have evolved - were suddenly to be swept away.

The author, Alan Weisman, of Arizona University, does not speculate on the cause of the disappearance; this is immaterial, as this is not a book about the end of the world but about an imagined beginning - the beginning of The World Without Us, the title of his book.

The results of this huge thought-experiment are both fascinating and surprising. Fascinating for what they tell us about the impermanence of the works of man, and surprising for the simple reason that it soon becomes clear that our world would carry on regardless, indifferent to our demise.

Source

Personally, i think the human race should not deserve a planet like this. Their are not many like Earth, and we are using it for granted, and despite all the attempts were taking to make Earth a better place, are doing sh** all. We are destroying our birth place, and sooner or later Earth will be a memory. What i think should be done. launch a permanant EMP into the atmosphere that will last for years to come. So we can learn and achieve our everyday life without using electricity and other products that make our life easire. trees and gras will be a endangered zone, and no one will be allowed to set foot on it. Everything will be articficial. There is no other way to stop this, especially with the presidents, polititions and leaders, who make our life a living hell. Their time will come, if they do not stop soon.

Alex

woops, i kinda drifted off course with the response, sorry thats just how i feel. If the human race did become extinct, the world will be a better place no doubt.

and if we were to become extinct, we would surely leave A.I. humans to take our place. which is a very bad idea.

I totaly agree, the planet started to fall since homo sapiens walked the Earth, over killing of animals and destruction of the food chain. When Homo sapiens sapiens rised, pollution started to build, over killing of animals became even worse, we over populated the planet not leaving space for the other living beings that we share this planet with.

If humans would't be born, this planet would still be a paradise.

Wow - interesting article. Fascinating, I could imagine the world as we know it diminishing quicker than we'd imagine. Thanks for posting.

if we could only be just a little kinder and could remove our greed. and start to think of caring our little blue dot on space. it would be a great place to live in.

I have always said that the planet does not have an ecological problem but mankind. It does not matter how the planet looks after we have managed to exterminate us, there will be life for a billion years after us.

Then who would be here to enjoy the beauty and admire it ? The beasts, flora and fauna ??????????

Were destroying it you fool, there is hardly anymore paradise. And people dont admire it, open your eyes.

quote from link "By AD1billion, natural solar warming will wipe out nearly all species on Earth. By then, perhaps only a few insects and plants will survive, as the oceans start to evaporate. Evolution on Earth will grind to a halt as the planet starts to boil. In a few hundred more millions of years, Earth will be a sterile, hellish, lifeless desert with an atmosphere of super-heated steam."

i always thought we had about 5 billion years until are sun starts to crap out.

I for one still admire the beauty of the landscape in British Columbia and Alberta hell even Saskatchewan has its nice spots and my admiration for this planets beauty has not dwindled at all in 21 years

But if we weren't here, would it really matter? Now don't get me wrong, I'm a pretty pro-environment guy. I operate a waterfowl preserve just out of my love for animals. I have over 200 acres of virgin hardwood that even though it would be worth a lot of money, I will never harvest because of my love of trees. I recycle, use environment friends products, etc. etc. etc.

Once you get down to it though, don't we all do this so we can all enjoy our planet? If there was nobody here then there would be no difference between a barren wasteland or a verdant forest. It's kind of like if a tree falls in the forest, does it make a noise?

The planet will survive, but what we are doing is destroying our capability to thrive on the planet and enjoy our environment. Kind of like slow self genocide if you will. Hopefully this will change, but who knows, we can be a short-sighted race at times....

In response to this comment:

"Were destroying it you fool, there is hardly anymore paradise. And people dont admire it, open your eyes."

1) Damaging, but not destroying. Will will destroy ourselves long before the planet.
2) You must not get out too much if you can't find spots of paradise left.
3) You really can't say people don't admire the planet. Some do and some don't. If all people do this, then you yourself are guilty......
4) Calling someone a fool is not the best way to get your point across, especially when you you say "were" instead of we're, are guilty of improper comma useage, and begin a sentence with a contraction. I'm not saying this to insult you, but those that live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Maybe I'm spoiled because I live right next to (as in five minutes from) pristine wilderness untouched by humans (save the occasional hiker), but I hardly think the earth has become a cesspool.

I'm sure the earth will continue without us much as it had before us. I think humans are worth saving, but extinction happens. It's amazing we made it this far. I try not to worry about things that might happen a billion years from now. Or a million. Etc.



Yeah, every time I hear that we're destroying the planet, I want to know who built the Death Star and when we were capable of this kind of thing.

I gotta say I like this article. And I agree with it hoe heartedly. If we went extinct today it would leave just about every other species cheering wildly tomorrow so to speak. We do nothing in any way to enhance our world. All we do is continue to degrade it. Every year we wear down the biosphere even more. And eventually it will buckle under the wait of us and we will die out along with many other species. I think it's a shame to think that we'd take so many other species with us. But on the bright side even if that does happen. Life is very resilient. It won't be long before new species flood abandoned niches in the ecology and life thrives once more. After all life survived many other great extinctions included the worst of all the Permian extinction.

What does it matter? The H. Sapiens race is marked anyway...

Cool! Back to the good old days of the black plague, rotten food, parasite-filled drinking water and death from tiny cuts that get infected and stay infected.

So you sort of want all of humanity to live like North Koreans?

Weird......

The evolution of the species is a product of nature. Another species would take the place of man and all things possible would repeat themselves. The earth is already old so it is best I imagine if man continues to progress and is able then to preserve and spread all of the lifeforms along with himself.

Earth is still an enormously beautiful place. One needs only to look to the sky - crystal blue; many other planets have no atmospheres, or even an acidic one. The landscape varies greatly, from the tundra of Siberia, Asia minor's glistening desert planes and dichotomic oases, the grand canyon formed from a single river, Hawa'ii's black sand beaches, and the steadfast, proud Himalayas. Even if these wonders did not exist, looking to your local woodland, or wilderness one can find beauty; it is still everywhere, and those who do not see it are truly blind. To see a mother nurse its young, is that not beauty? The earth is still thriving - yes we may have damaged it somewhat, but no more than the Earth would have changed itself. In fact, it is still changing, and will not cease to unless it ceases to exist. It has been around far longer than we have, and may even outlive us.

If we change the earth so that it is inhospitable to us, it does not mean it is devoid of beauty - for there has always and will always be beauty in this universe. Even now, we are looking to more green forms of energy - Ethanol for instance. Although Ethanol is a terrible idea[1], it shows that we are at the very least trying much harder. If anything, humans will not consume less but more energy in the future. If we are able to create a solar panel and power storage device with only 1% effectiveness, we could begin to eradicate our addiction to fossil fuels[2], and none too soon.



[1] It is unsustainable - the entire earth would need to be covered in corn fields for this to work (including oceans) - and all of this would need to be consumed for oil, at current rates, and as the Chinese are getting more cars and other types of fuel powered motors per capita, this will only rise.
[2] Enough energy from sunlight hits the earth every minute to sustain its energy needs for 100-1000 years, depending on the source

Repo man, you need to learn a phew things b4 you comment about other peoples posts. Ancient medicine used thousands of years ago still give modern medicine a run for their money.

I don't understand people apathy towards the world that they live in. It kills me when I drive and see the person in front of me throw trash (soda cans etc) out the window! Who do they think will pick it up?

Maybe the world will be better off if we weren't here to trample it to death. Could we not make like self probelled flying cities instead??? Wouldn't that be cool? No more land usage!

I got a better idea. teach the people a lesson, (physically) that discredit Earth.

I think this world would have thrived a lot better had we not been put on this earth because as it is, it's apparently not thriving at all.

We're like unruly children in a playground. We fight with each other, we step on the flowers in the flower bed, and whatever other kinds of havoc we can wreak.

This is what happens when maintaining our current lifestyle, is more important too us than our earth.

Yep, that reptilian part of our brain has some of us by the leash, ergo, Selfishness.

But it will !

i highly doubt I will positron while I'm against pollution and such in my lifetime the earth will remain as serene and beautiful as it is now to me anyway you may not see the earth as i do that's fine but I'm happy with the way things are

What will you have me learn? What "phew" things will you teach me "b4" you will allow me to comment?

Are you saying the pre-technological world didn't have plague and unsanitary water? Do you actually believe this?



So what? That statement does nothing to invalidate what I said.

Why do you want all of humanity to live like orphan North koreans, barefoot and picking their scabs while begging for stale bread crust?

And btw, why are you using a computer? I'll bet you even have a car. LOL, just kidding - you could never be such a hypocrite

Medicine we used thousands of years ago, we still use today - indeed a prehistoric man found frozen in a glacier had white willow roots on him - the same active ingredient as Asprin.

Although some of the same medicine is used, it is also improved upon. Instead of having to chew on an entire root with a bitter taste, you simply have to swallow one more potent pill. To say medicine has gotten worse is just naive.

We are even finding a way to turn our garbage and waste into energy.

http://www.plasmawastedisposal.com/
http://www.safewasteandpower.com/benefits_waste.html

It's easy to see what we are doing to erode the world, just as it's easy to see those who are corrupt and take advantage of the system, but if you can for a moment, put aside your jaded eyes, you will see goodness.

It's easy to say, oh its so bad what we are doing, but a little more difficult to protect the earth, and what is important. It's harder to see what we are doing to help, and even harder to help yourself, but much more rewarding and satisfying.

It's not humanity per se that is wreaking havoc on our fragile ecosystem, but our modern, 'throw-away' mentality that is causing such profligate over-use of the planets' non-renewable (in the short term) resources.

Saying that, all life on the planet today is here as a result of the ecological disaster of early photosynthetic microbes releasing massive amounts of oxygen into the Earth's atmosphere some 2.2 billion years ago, destroying the existing ecosystem. We are not the first organism to threaten the ecology of the planet, but perhaps the first to realise the effect we have and to be able to (potentially) stop it. Regardless, Earth - and life - will survive and flourish whether we do or not.

As for the premise of Earth being a paradise if we weren't here. A paradise for who? Paradise is an anthropocentric term. There is no indication other animals see an unspoiled habitat as a paradise.

A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet, you are a plague
-Agent Smith