Life After People

What would happen?

If every human being on earth

Disappeared?

[music]

At some point in the future,

This could be the fate

Of our planet.

This isn't the story

Of how we might vanish.

It is the story of what happens

To the world we leave behind.

The disappearance of humans

May seem like science fiction,

But eventually,

There will come a day like this;

A day when people

No longer walk the earth.

it's no great stretch

To imagine humans disappearing

From the face of the earth.

Every generation has its tales

Of Armageddon or apocalypse.

We're the first generation

That could,

By deliberate actions,

Cause its own doom.

What will life be like?

After people?

We're tantalized by our myths

About our own destruction,

But also tantalized

By the notion,

"hey, maybe it's the turn

Of someone else."

What will they do?

If we're gone?

What will the earth do?

When I'm gone?

It's the most natural question

In the world.

[alarm buzzing]

Time has run out for man.

Our hold on the planet is over.

Welcome to earth,

Population zero.

Within hours after we're gone,

Lights start going out

Around the world.

More than 70 percent of power

In the United States

Is generated by the burning

Of fossil fuels.

the plant will only continue

To produce electricity

As long as the fuel

Takes to be consumed.

If there's no one around

To provide the new fuel

Into the generating plant,

Then it'll be quite quick

Before the lights

Start going out in cities

All over the world.

Nuclear power plants

Are unlikely to melt down.

The average reactor

Holds enough fuel

To keep running for two years.

But without humans

Consuming the power

Generated by the plant,

The reactors will automatically

Shut down into a safe mode

In as little as two days.

even wind generation

Can't last forever.

The turbines require bearings

And lubrication

Of those bearings

In order to keep operating.

If there's no one around

To maintain the turbines,

The electricity

Doesn't get produced.

as generating plants go down,

Outages on the power grid

Contribute to a cascade

Of failure worldwide.

After a few weeks,

The planet is plunged

Into a deep darkness.

It has not experienced

Since humans first huddled

Around campfires.

Perhaps, the last glow

Of artificial lights on earth

Will be seen

In the American southwest.

Here, the mighty hover dam

Hydropower plant

Takes little notice

Of the absence of humans.

Its source of fuel

Is virtually limitless.

at hover dam,

Our fuel supply

Is actually the water

In the reservoir in Lake Mead

Behind hover dam,

So as long as there's water

In the reservoir,

This power plant

Can keep running.

There's water in the reservoir

Keeps supplying the water

To the hydro turbine generators.

These generators

Are operating automatically

And that would continue

As long as all of the systems

Are functioning normally.

If I and my staff

Were to leave tonight

And not come back to hover dam,

Say just in the condition

Of the plant is in right now,

This would continue operating

Without us here.

That would still be true

After about a week,

Several weeks, several months,

Maybe even a couple of years,

Everything would still be

Running normally.

In a life after people,

It is possible that hover dam

Would be one

Of the last power plants

Still running.

as the power goes out

Around the world,

Other systems

Are quickly beginning to fail.

beneath all the major cities,

There's a complex network

Of underground tunnels,

And these are there

For drainage purposes

Or for cabling purposes,

And in the case

Of the big cities,

For transportation as well.

There are many of those

Sit below the level

Of the water table,

And in order to keep them dry,

We have to have

A system of pumps

That is switched on

When necessary

To drain the tunnels.

deep within new York

City subways,

More than 700 pumps

Constantly struggle to keep out

A flood of ground water,

An average of 13 million gallons

A day.

now, if all these people

Were not around,

There will be nobody

To switch the pumps on.

It's estimated,

That the tunnels will fill

With water in about 36 hours.

[music]

back above ground,

Food is rotting

On supermarket shelves.

Home refrigerators

Become nothing more

Than cabinets for decaying food,

But melt water

From defrosting freezers

May provide a temporary lifeline

For some of the creatures

We've left behind.

What will be the fate?

Of our family pets

Once there are no humans left

To care for them?

right from the get-go,

There's going to be a massive

Die off of dogs.

The instance that humans

Are gone,

They're not creating the debris

Or producing the food

That the dogs are living on.

He can't open cans,

He can't get

In the refrigerator.

They got to get

Out of the house.

The family dog

Has got to get out of the house

Or he's going to die there.

And once he gets out,

He's got to go

To some source of food.

The first thing that happens

Is that they all jump out

Of the windows

And they are now out there

In a new landscape.

And the first to whack at it

It is that they go back

To scavenging a whole bunch

Of dead things out there

In the world.

there are estimated to be

Four hundred million dogs

In the world

And 300 different breeds.

But very few of them are suited

To surviving in a life

After humans.

The smallest dogs

Probably won't last a week

Without us.

there's probably no niche

For the smaller dogs.

Dogs are very competitive

And when you have wolves,

They displace coyotes,

Coyotes displace foxes,

And we would assume

That hierarchy would prevail

Among domestic dogs.

in fact,

Many of the unique features

That has been bred into dogs

Over the years

Will now become major handicaps

In the fight for survival.

there are dog

For the really short legs,

I think the dogs

With the really short faces

Or long faces, I think,

That they're all doomed.

You know, they're not

Going to move well,

They're not going to be able

To search and explore.

I think that the kind of

The middle of the spectrum,

The kind of average dog,

Have the best chances in this.

I think that they will survive

In the long haul,

But it's not going to be pretty.

as the surviving dogs

Struggle to find

Their new niche,

Household pests

Are slowly beginning to notice

Our absence.

Little creatures,

Rats and house mice,

They would seem to be able

To exist without us

Are surprisingly quite dependent

On our food supplies.

rats and mice

Are usually termed

"commensally rodents," which means

That term means literally

Sharing the table.

They're very dependent

On people.

And the little house mouse

And Norway rat

Are great examples of animals?

That would do less well

In the absence of people.

in the initial weeks

After people are gone,

They will raid pantries

In homes, in grocery shelves

In stores.

After eating through

These food supplies,

They will struggle to survive

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