What would happen if every single person on Earth simply disappeared?

Not dead, simply gone, just like that. How would suburban pets fare without people to feed them? How would the forests, the oceans and the wildlife react if there was suddenly an end to all the hunting, fishing and farming? After being on the receiving end of humanity for millennia, nature would finally be given a chance to take the world back. But how would it work? How long would the skyscrapers and houses last if they were abandoned? 

Aftermath: Population Zero - The World without Humans

This is a fascinating documentary. It's quite long, but extremely interesting. What would happen if, tomorrow, every single person on Earth simply disappeared? “Aftermath” is the astounding story of a world that humans will never see. The two-hour special examines the impact of human beings on this planet by proposing what the Earth might be like without people.

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  • There would be an enormous cataclysm according to the documentary. There is enough diesel to keep the plants going for a couple of weeks, but after that, every nuclear reactor would cool down and each one would explode with the force of 250 Hiroshimas. 

  • Yeah - all the things that need looking after will die.

    Nuclear - not a problem - it shuts down fail-safe and then just gradually decays - in fact, with no-one to vandalise it, time is your friend - most high-energy stuff goes very quickly and it's only the really long-lived isotopes that hang around - and long-life means little activity coming off per day.

    Look at the wildlife around Chernobyl - and that's within a few decades after a full-on reactor explosion..

    The concrete used for shielding actually gets stronger every year (they're decommissioning my old facility and the vaults will be cut up into blocks for sea defences).