The World With Out Us »
Posted by: Eagle_Eye 11 months, 2 weeks agoWorld Without Us reveals how, just days after humans disappear, floods in New York's subways would start eroding the city's foundations, and how, as the world's cities crumble, asphalt jungles give way to real ones. It describes the distinct ways that organic and chemically-treated farms would revert to wild,
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Eagle_Eye11 months, 2 weeks ago
I found this to be a very interesting read regarding how the earth would heal itself if humans went exticnt.
The home page has a really interesting graph:
http://www.worldwithoutus.com/did_you_know.html
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Eagle_Eye11 months, 2 weeks ago
I think it is just a matter of time before "Mother Nature" along with our pollution does us all in.
We already have serious virus', bacteria, in the future we will be short on clean water, air, food, etc.
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jordan1111 months, 2 weeks ago
I'm placed in the odd position of wanting to go extinct. Sortof.>>>
Yes, me as well. Dear old planet deserves its chance too.
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redLineRunner11 months, 2 weeks ago
The author makes some pretty good points about "us" treating it better, and how we end up doing more harm than good. One example was forest control, about how we try to "manage" a forest, but we dont understand how nature does that itself. So we cut out what we think is "bad" trees and such, and how we are in fact denying the ecosystem needed elements and a vital part of the process.
Not that treating the world better is a bad thing, but Im not sure we have the first idea how to do it "right".
Ive only read about 1/3rd of this book, and it is a fascinating and eye opening read.
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AmericanIdiot11 months, 2 weeks ago
Forest management cannot eliminate forest fires. Unless all dead timber is removed and the grasses grazed, wildfires will flame. People live in the forests in animal habitats.
we are upset when our houses burn down, but we don't care about the animal habitate we dsstroy.
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Eagle_Eye11 months, 2 weeks ago
Ir is really really sad to not just think but to know the world would be a better place with out us.
When I was a youngster, the world was a great place.....now, some _____ years older I see that it is not going to be a better place as long as we continue at the rate we are going.
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Neophile11 months, 2 weeks ago
Alan Weisman appeared on the Daily Show to discuss his book. Interesting stuff:
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/index.j...
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TOtheMOON11 months, 2 weeks ago
For all it has given us, and all we have taken - and now heading towards a point of total destruction, it is too bad there are still some incredibly selfish people who don't believe the earth will ever be destroyed by mans abuse. They do not believe a change today is necessary. Are they stupid??
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Mutainia11 months, 2 weeks ago
If humans suddenly died off due to, whatever, it wouldn't be long, say, ten thousand years, until the only thing that stood as a record that we were here, would be the pyrimids. And, a few thousand years after that, one of them would probably crumble, due to atmospheric changes, taking on the look of a gigantic monkey face, looking out toward the stars. :)
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ETproductions11 months, 2 weeks ago
I vividly recall from my youth the Ash Wednesday Storm of March 6-8, 1962. It wasn't a hurricane, being a winter storm and having maximum winds of only 60 MPH or so. But it stalled just off the coast along the NC/VA line and sat there for 3 days. It's arrival happened to coincide perfectly with the astronomically high spring tides. With its winds constantly howling onshore, 6 tides came in one on top of another, and little or no tide went back out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Wednesday_Stor...
I lived in the Virginia Beach area, and it did some serious damage there. But hearing that the Outer Banks of NC were much harder hit, we took a ride down there to see what had become of our family vacation spot. It was like a trip into The Twilight Zone. It certainly showed me how quickly nature can undo all we have done.
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ETproductions11 months, 2 weeks ago
There was a bridge that joined Point Harbor on the mainland to Kitty Hawk. From there to Nags Head, there had been mile upon mile of wall-to-wall houses protected by beautiful sand dunes. As we rode through after the storm, there was virtually NOTHING left except the road. You could drive a full mile and not see a tiny scrap of foundation, debris, even a pipe sticking up out of the sand. There were no dunes. Just flat sand and the strip of asphalt.
Yes, nature can take back what we have built. Google maps for Point Harbor, NC and zoom out a bit to see how exposed that area is.
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lancaster11 months, 2 weeks ago
Ok , we become as a race no more , gone the way of the dinosaur , and the planet gets better , do you realize what you are saying hear , what is the point of saving the planet if no one is hear to see it , after we have gone who cares if the place becomes heaven on earth or hell in a hand basket , NO ONE IS HERE NO ONE CARES ! the whole idea that we should do the lemming thing so the world can get off the so called sick list is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard , in fact it beggars belief . So all out there who think this is such a wonderful idea , please be my guest , and do your self in now , it will give the rest of us a bit more room , and who out there is willing to give up their life style and go back to living in a cave without the trapping of this modern world , you complain about man killing the planet , look at where you live the life style you have , the debris is all around , and what are you all doing about it,I know what you are doing absolute JACK .
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Eagle_Eye11 months, 2 weeks ago
duh, this is a "scenario" of what would happen if we died out. No one is saying anything about doing ourselves in, Nature will do that for us.
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Obaku11 months, 2 weeks ago
Homo sapiens sapiens is not the most important thing in the universe, not even the most important thing on Earth.
Just another filthy ape, gotten uppity and out of control, throwing feces and making a lot of pointless racket.
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AmericanIdiot11 months, 2 weeks ago
We can live anywhere in any planet or galaxy, if we can just adjust our attitude. We are a murderous race killing all living things on the planet. Our highest value is fictional, paper money and real estate and investments. What is the real wealth in life? Happiness is a value. Who can be happy when causing suffering of living creatures? Life is worth living.All creatures have a right to life.
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slate11 months, 2 weeks ago
errrrr we are part of nature aren't we?
Just like the ant and the termite we build and multiply build and multiply. Just like many carnivores we kill more than we can eat. Humans do what we were intended to do as but one of the many species of the planet. The planet survives in spite of who occupies it and will until either a large enough rock or the sun itself destroys it. Humans aren't any more evil than 'nature' merely because we exist. Were all species that died before man 'evil' in some way and the earth took care of them, or was it natural selection at work?
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slate11 months, 2 weeks ago
The self loathing of some segments of humankind is quite interesting, they blame corporations for the earth's follies, yet they go camping in their cars, gather wood and make their comfy camp fires and sit and talk about emissions. They go to the local fast food establishments and produce wastes from the wrappers their food is packaged in as they lament about how 'others' are trashing the planet. They sit on their hydrocarbon based computers in their comfortable climate controlled homes decrying the use of hydrocarbon based needs as they are surrounded by such things. They decry deforestation from their neighborhoods, cleared in order to build their places they habitat. They fret over humans making a profit one minute, then get on line to check their 'portfolios gains'. Would the planet be better without us?
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Mr-opinion11 months, 2 weeks ago
Gee and I thought human where going to be arround to watch the demise of their own creations, this is even more fortelling about our pathetic little parassitic and temporarry existence on this planet than my belief - but the result is te same
as George Carlin stated:
" The arrogance of man - 5 billion years of planet , 1
million years of humanoids, 10,000 years of modern man, 200 years of industrial age, but we are going to save the planet from itself - what arrogance "
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vor11 months, 2 weeks ago
Great point. We have such vanity as humans. There are clearly intelligences far greater than ours at work. We have to invent Gods to explain the world around us when we really have little inkling of what created our world or why we are here. Scientists will even admit such while continuing to seek answers. Religionists just claim to have the answers yet without a shred of emperical proof.
We are living on a molten core with a erratic and unpredictable weather system yet we seem to have the vanity to think we can save ourselves if our environment were to radically change.
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arted11 months, 2 weeks ago
Oh great, now instead of "save the chearleader, save the world", we should chant "save mankind, save the coachroach"
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GrainOfSand11 months, 2 weeks ago
As soon as we can get rid of our greed, arrogance and selfishness, then maybe there's hope for this species we call HUMAN BEINGS.
I really want to know what all these corporate types who are killing the environment and making millions doing it are gonna do with all that money when there's nothing left on earth to exploit? What will they spend it on then, when nothing is left?
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sotiris-k11 months, 2 weeks ago
Actually we are the best thing that happened to this planet. We are the first species that is aware of its impact and capable of doing something about it . Science especially that developed past 300 years is the key. We are only beginning to get it but if say an asteroid was heading towards earth the best hope for life on the surface to take action and prevent massive extinction is us, homo sapiens. This being one example among many. Do not be pessimistic of our existence or give up . The game for logic has just began. All the madness you see out there today is short lived. As reality settles in i expect we not only will stop fighting each other over idiotic issues but that our budgets eventually will reflect a focus on the trully important ie research on the key issues of energy production , science research , proliferation of education and life security, environmental management , recovery of wild life etc . Sad as it may be a crisis is the best thing that can happen for us now!
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reasonable111 months, 2 weeks ago
Once again, the bottom line is too many humans! Our planet has finite resources and we seem to have an infinite capacity (and desire) to procreate. Limit world population to a billion or so and our environmental problems would go away! OK, I don't know how to do this and I'm not suggesting genocide, just stop reproducing!
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JamalWindfall11 months, 2 weeks ago
Very intriguing but these ideas should not be passed off or interpreted as mere happenstance or sci-fi. The fossil records indicate many land bridges and underwater land masses that suggest that such happenings have already occurred on Earth approximately 5 times before...over the span of several million years. Yes, there is evidence to suggest human - like civilization have thrived on Earth going back MILLIONS of years. Im not going to give you books to read, go research yourself. Here is where you could start if you feel so inclined. Key Words: Land bridges, Great Deluge, Madame Blavatsky, Lemuria,...This should be plenty to get your fire started to uncover the truth. Just stop watching TV and do some reading jerks. Then maybe you will have some insightful comments to add. Yall play too much, most of you belong in a baby shower or some sort of safe child proof playgroud. If you step up - come intellectually correct or shut up. This is real science not child games.
Windfall
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jovial11 months, 2 weeks ago
One thing will remain. The massive amounts of depleted uranium in the war zones. These radioactive materials have a half-life that is 4.5 billion years. So long after people are gone it could still be known that a civilization existed. This poison will continue to affect life as we know it for eons. So in closing, man made buildings, structures, and other things may erode and go away, but some of the stuff we created will remain for a long time.
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simonsez11 months, 2 weeks ago
If we are damaging the planet, nature will REDUCE our numbers to a point that the planet is back in balance.
What could and possibly will push humans into extinction would be an eruption of something like the Yellowstone Caldera, which would decimate North America very very quickly, but further would bring on a new ice age, which would possibly eliminate all life except insects.
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sotiris-k11 months, 2 weeks ago
We cannot be eliminated as a species now. We have past the point of extinction. Substantial science/technology exists that even if the worse took place several thousand would survive even inside caves or underwater . Even nuclear winter cant stop us. All you need is a team of several hundred people that have access to highly specialized information in the form of electronic books with significant equipment . If robots can survive on mars you can be sure humans can survive in a troubled earth long enough to do something about it.
Imagine if you found yourself in a city with only a few others that has no sunlight for a very long time with no electricity but plenty of other materials and yes eventually electric generators . Within very short amount of time you can collect food and freeze it start burning material for energy and gradually recover civilization ultimately enabling a single electrical plant to operate again and indoors reproduce plants and animals for food.
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sotiris-k11 months, 2 weeks ago
Its about probabilities here. Sure enough 99.99% will die within hours or even days but those that survive will be able to reclaim the system after several decades or even centuries. The problems we have today as a species are emerging ones not clearly visible to all idiots out there yet (some of them even leaders of countries-what a joke ). In a crisis idiots die and the others idiots and not that survive have no longer priorities like money, religion or political party affiliation , sports or celebrity gossip etc. The common priority now becomes survival and after initial fight over limited resources the few that survive this process of elimination have enough information in databases, intellect and technology to survive even in arctic temperatures and no sunlight for a decade. Our problem today stems from the fact we are not committed to a cause seriously enough. Once this is a necessity you can see how great of a species we can be.
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Submitted By:
Eagle_Eye
I am a female living in the Deep South sun shine state that has spent most of my life working with wildlife, the environment and ...
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