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If humanity were to die out, what would the Earth look like a year later?
If humanity were to die out, what would the Earth look like a year later? – Essie, age 11, Michigan Have you ever wondered what the world would be like if everyone suddenly disappeared? What would happen to all our stuff? What would happen to our homes, our schools, our neighborhoods, our cities? Who would feed the dog? Who would cut the grass? Although it's a common theme in movies, TV shows, and books, the end of humanity is still a strange thought. @media(min-width:0px){#div-gpt-ad-healthy_holistic_living_com-medrectangle-3-0-asloaded{max-width:250px!important;max-height:250px!important;}} But as an associate professor of urban planning - that means someone who teaches cities and communities helps...
If humanity were to die out, what would the Earth look like a year later?
If humanity were to die out, what would the Earth look like a year later? – Essie, age 11, Michigan
Have you ever wondered what the world would look like if everyone suddenly disappeared?
What would happen to all our stuff? What would happen to our homes, our schools, our neighborhoods, our cities? Who would feed the dog? Who would cut the grass? Although it's a common theme in movies, TV shows, and books, the end of humanity is still a strange thought.
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But as an associate professor of urban design—that is, someone who helps cities and towns plan what their communities will look like—it's sometimes my job to think about such perspectives.
So much silence
If people simply disappeared from the world and you could return to Earth a year later to see what happened, the first thing you would notice would not be with your eyes.
It would be with your ears.
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The world would be quiet. And you would realize how much noise people are making. Our buildings are loud. Our cars are loud. Our sky is loud. All the noise would stop.
You would notice the weather. After a year without people, the sky would be bluer, the air would be clearer. The wind and rain would scrub the earth's surface clean; All the smog and dust that humans create would be gone.@media(min-width:0px){#div-gpt-ad-healthy_holistic_living_com-large-leaderboard-2-0-asloaded{max-width:250px!important;max-height:250px!important;}}
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home Sweet Home
Imagine the first year when no one disturbs your house.
Go into your house - and hope you aren't thirsty, because then there will be no water in your taps. Water systems need to be constantly pumped. If there is no one at the public water supply to manage the machines that pump water, then there is no water.
But the water that was in the pipes when everyone disappeared would still be there when the first winter came - and so at the first cold snap the freezing air would freeze the water in the pipes and cause them to burst.
There would be no electricity. Power plants would no longer function because no one would monitor them and maintain the fuel supply. So your house would be dark, with no lights, televisions, phones or computers.
Your house would be dusty. There's actually dust in the air all the time, but we don't notice it because our air conditioners and heaters blow air around. And as you move through the rooms of your home, you also keep the dust moving. But if all this stopped, the air in your house would be still and the dust would settle everywhere.
The grass in your yard would grow – and grow and grow until it became so long and limp that it stopped growing. New weeds would appear and they would be everywhere.
Many plants that you have never seen before would take root in your garden. Every time a tree drops a seed, a small sapling could grow. No one would be there to pull it out or cut it off.
You'll notice a lot more bugs buzzing around. Remember that people tend to do anything to get rid of insects. They spray the air and the ground with insect spray. They remove the insects' habitat. They put fly screens on the windows. And when that doesn't work, they beat them.
Without people doing all of these things, the bugs would come back. You would have a free hand in the world again.
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On the street where you live
Living creatures would be walking around in your neighborhood, looking and marveling.
First the little ones: mice, marmots, raccoons, skunks, foxes and beavers. The latter may surprise you, but North America was once rich in beavers.
Larger animals came later – deer, coyotes and the occasional bear. Maybe not in the first year, but eventually.
Without electric light, the rhythm of the natural world would return. The only light would come from the sun, moon and stars. The night creatures would feel better if they had their dark skies back.
Fires occurred frequently. Lightning could strike a tree or field, setting bushes on fire or hitting homes and buildings. Without people to put them out, these fires would continue until they burned themselves out.
Around your city
After just a year, the concrete – roads, highways, bridges and buildings – would look about the same.
Earth Quiz 2022 | Climate and nature…
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If you went back, say, a decade later, there would have been cracks in it with small plants snaking through. This happens because the Earth is constantly moving. With this movement, pressure is created, and with this pressure, cracks are created. Eventually the roads would become so cracked that they would look like broken glass and even trees would grow through them.
Bridges with metal legs would slowly rust. The beams and bolts that hold the bridges would also rust. But the large concrete bridges and highways, also made of concrete, would last for centuries.
The dams and dikes that humans have built on the world's rivers and streams would erode. The farms would fall back on nature. The plants we eat would disappear. Not much corn, potatoes or tomatoes anymore.
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Livestock would be easy prey for bears, coyotes, wolves and panthers. And pets? The cats would become feral - that is, they would become wild, although many would be hunted by larger animals. Most dogs wouldn't survive either.
An asteroid impact and a solar flare are two ways the world could end.
Like ancient Rome
A thousand years from now, the world you remember would still be vaguely recognizable. Some things would remain; It depends on the materials they are made of, the climate they are in and simply luck. A home here, a movie theater there, or a run-down shopping center would stand as monuments to a lost civilization. The Roman Empire collapsed more than 1,500 years ago, but some remnants can still be seen today.
If nothing else happens, the sudden disappearance of humans from the world would reveal something about the way we have treated the Earth. It would also show us that the world we have today cannot survive without us and that we cannot survive if we do not take care of it. In order to function, civilization – like everything else – requires constant maintenance.
Hello, curious children! Do you have a question that you would like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.
And since curiosity has no age limit - adults, let us know what you're wondering too. We won't be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.
Carlton Basmajian, associate professor of community and regional planning, urban design, Iowa State University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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