9 "What Ifs..." That Would Change Everything

1. What If Humans Disappeared?

Okay, forget the the bees for a second. What would happen if all the humans on Earth (okay, and the ones in space), simply disappeared? Let's presume, for the sake of a less disturbing mental image, that we all just evaporated out of existence for no good reason. The first thing that would happen is that the power stations would grind to a halt, cutting power and electricity.

On the positive side, the electric fences would go off, allowing livestock to roam free. On the negative, most of them would be fairly ill-equipped to survive long without human intervention, and your poor, pampered house pets wouldn't stand a chance one the lights go out, the heating goes off and they have to fend for themselves. As flood defences, dams, reservoirs and pumping stations break down, many of our cities will flood, creating a sort of urban wetland. Beyond that, vegetation begins to take over, including your carefully weeded garden. Structures will rot, wood first, but eventually followed by steel as it is overcome by rust.

It is generally thought that the biosphere would return to how it was before humans began their meddling, over the next millennium or so, although the distribution of species would be drastically altered due to escaped zoo animals. Eventually, all that will be left of our once great civilisation will be plastic. Plastic is not readily broken down by natural processes, and will continue to be cycled through the Earth long after we are gone. One day, alien archaeologists might visit our planet and wonder what happened to the great plastic empire that once lived there, as they delicately brush soil from a Tesco bag and put it in a museum.

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