Have you ever wondered what life would be like in the event that everyone disappeared overnight?
If every human disappeared, homes would decay, animals would fend for themselves, and cities would revert back to nature. There would be no more pollution or hunting, but also no more farms or pets. Scientists would be able to find evidence of humans after 15-20,000 years.
Around 2.5 million years ago, the first set of advanced technological humanoids, commonly referred to as humans, appeared on Earth. Over the millennia, we have undergone a tremendous amount of evolution and have made unmatched advances in the fields of science, agriculture, linguistics, and all of the other important fields of study. The other species that live on the land and in the water on this planet, however, have also been significantly impacted by this. In all those major fields, we have advanced at cost of other species.
Aperture, a YouTube channel, shared a video with the cheerful title: Here’s what would happen if ALL humans completely disappeared. The video also included some gloomy images of the world in all its human-free glory.
Concrete Structures
The subterranean pipes would completely fill with water in about 36 hours if the pumps that keep water out of the subsurface services stop working, making the tube services obsolete. Rats would come out from concealment and start to wander. The road systems would become eroded by tree roots, which would allow undergrowth to recover them.
Major steel structures, like the Empire State building, CN tower, London Bridge, Golden Gate bridge, and others, would corrode as a result of water seeping through them. Infamous structures like the Taj Mahal, the Sydney Opera House, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa would succumb to rust while roads would turn into rivers.
The dams will finally collapse 100 years after there is no longer any population.
Impact on animals
“Damn those inhumane poachers for hunting rhinos!” exclaims a person as they eat a nice juicy side of lamb. Irony is very strong in us humans.
Putting jokes apart from domesticated animals wouldn’t fare well if we disappeared. The livestock would be free to roam, but they would have to fend for themselves. For wild carnivores that would come after them, the over 1.5 billion cows, 1 billion pigs, and 20 billion chickens would be little more than the next meal.
Our prized exotic-breed cats and dogs would likewise be roaming free and on their own. They weren’t able to compete with the more skilled hunters found in the wild, such as wolves, foxes, leopards, lions, and tigers. As a result, they will eventually go extinct themselves or adapt wilder ways of life.
Rats and cockroaches would see a sharp decline in number since they wouldn’t have the luxury of consuming all of our trash. You might be surprised to learn that head lice would swiftly become extinct. Rats will also soon be simple prey for hawks and eagles, which will further reduce their population.
Soil Health
The story of the Mayan civilization seems to be a natural transition from the petrochemical industry to the human impact on the Earth’s soil.
Through monoculture farming and other human activities, we have degraded soil quality and quantity as well as purposely and mistakenly added synthetic pollutants. Additionally, we haven’t done a very good job of using the nutrients we’ve taken from the soil and returning them back where they belong.
Increases in heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, and acidification are the toxic fingerprints of our existence. Once more, this serves an extractive economy that favors quick profits over long-term sustainability.
So much silence
If humans suddenly disappeared from Earth and you could return to see what had happened a year later, what you would initially notice wouldn’t be with your eyes. You would use your ears for it.
Everything would be quiet. You would also become aware of how much noise people make. Our buildings are noisy. Our cars are loud. Noise fills our sky. That clamor would stop entirely.
The weather would be noticeable. The sky would be bluer and the air would be clearer after a year without people. All of the smog and dust that humans make would be gone as a result of the wind and rain scrubbing the Earth’s surface clean.
