What Earth Without People Would Look Like

Raynor writes "Imagine a world without people. What if every human being, all 6.5 billion of us, were suddenly abducted and the planet was left to fend for itself? The planet would heal. 'The sad truth is, once the humans get out of the picture, the outlook starts to get a lot better,' says John Orrock, a conservation biologist. Pollution would cease being created. It would remain around for many years, CO2 taking as long as 20,000 years to be restored to it's natural level, but will decrease. Even if we were all whisked away and our nuclear reactors melted down, it would have a surprisingly little effect on the planet. Chernobyl gives hope to this end. 'I really expected to see a nuclear desert there,' says Ronald Chesser, an environmental biologist. 'I was quite surprised. When you enter into the exclusion zone, it's a very thriving ecosystem.' In the grand scheme of the world there would be little evidence of our existence at 100,000 years. The most permanent piece is the radio waves we've emitted of the last century. As the article puts it, 'The humbling — and perversely comforting — reality is that the Earth will forget us remarkably quickly.'"

Comments

Re:Pollution = hurting other people

[ChrisMaple]

"Where does the writer say that human extinction is a good idea?"

In the title, "Imagine Earth Without People".

Re:

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

it's definitely the first article in Discover to actually bring tears to my eyes.

Oh for fucks sake. If you want a picture of a region where nature has overtaken humanity, look at the Cambodian jungles. The NK DMZ isn't the only one, nor even the best example. As to why it brings a tear to your eyes, look up gnosticism. See, this is why we booted out religious nutjobs from Europe long ago. Little did we know the Indians wouldn't eat them, in an ironic turn of events.