I wanted to follow-up on my previous post about Life After People by the History Channel as I ran across an article online by the Discover Magazine called “Earth Without People.” Essentially it has the same fundamental concepts as what the History Channel will show on January 21st, but it was written back in 2005:

Given the mounting toll of fouled oceans, overheated air, missing topsoil, and mass extinctions, we might sometimes wonder what our planet would be like if humans suddenly disappeared. Would Superfund sites revert to Gardens of Eden? Would the seas again fill with fish? Would our concrete cities crumble to dust from the force of tree roots, water, and weeds? How long would it take for our traces to vanish? And if we could answer such questions, would we be more in awe of the changes we have wrought, or of nature’s resilience?

It was a great read and now the only thing I hope is that I didn’t ruin watching the Life After People special if it takes the same stuff from that.

Regardless, I must say that it gives a rather fascinating perspective over how flimsy our structures are today (in the grand scale of time) versus the stone structures (like the Great Pyramids) of old. Makes me truly wonder how long it would take before our presence on this planet would be no longer visible from an airplane height view (much less the space view).

I know that it is rather dystopian sci-fi / future history look and I definitely prefer the more Star Trek approach with some optimistic view of humanity, but archeology is still a fascinating subject for me as well regardless of what culture it may be.