A fascinating web project that’s led up to the release of the book by Alan Weisman, The World Without Us, the World Without Us site is an interactive tour through the next 5 billion years if the human race vanished tomorrow. Of course, some of the conclusions are the same; that at the end of that time period the sun would start to die and swell up to scorch the Earth, but there are more than a few unexpected things that would happen if the human race vanished from the face of the planet in an instant.
For example, without constant pumping, New York City’s subways system would likely flood within a matter of days. Millions of birds killed by high-tension lines and other human interaction would survive, exploding the bird population, but on the flip side the common house cat would likely go feral and decimate the squirrel, groundhog, rabbit, and bird populations in areas where cats are kept as pets today. In a couple of hundred years, cities on river deltas and built below sea level would simply wash away, and bridges and other permanent fixtures would collapse. Even so, it would still take hundreds of thousands of years for microbes that could biodegrade plastic to evolve, and over 10 million years in the future, bronze sculptures and monuments would still be recognizable should anyone ever see them.
The events that would take place as time progresses are incredibly interesting, and definite eye-openers when it comes to what imprints people leave on the planet really last and how long they’ll stick around. Some of the things that you think would stick around for a long time don’t, and others that you don’t imagine having a significant impact will live on for millions of years.