What Earth Without People Would Look Like 671
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.'"
And best of all... (Score:5, Funny)
What about styrofoam? (Score:4, Funny)
no (Score:5, Funny)
not to me.
Re:Pollution = hurting other people (Score:4, Funny)
One thing is for sure... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Pollution = hurting other people (Score:5, Funny)
When the gender ratio exceeds 3:1 mass situational homosexuality begins to kick in.
That's not a bug, that's a feature!
Re:Pollution = hurting other people (Score:3, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Yup (Score:3, Funny)
I thought Ben Affleck vanishing was saving us.
Re: (Score:4, Funny)
George Carlin on "saving the planet" (Score:3, Funny)
Re:No Turkeys, no Bananas... (Score:1, Funny)
what about those turkeys he was talking about?
Re:Pollution = hurting other people (Score:5, Funny)
Something tells me it's not a very good idea to hang around slashdot then.
Re:Pollution = hurting other people (Score:2, Funny)
Re:No Turkeys, no Bananas... (Score:1, Funny)
They'd figure out how to have sex, Americans have.
Re: Sadly it is true... alien visitors (Score:5, Funny)
Aliens will find:
Fscking AOL CDs
Chewing gum stains on all underfoot surfaces
The Duke Nukem Forever development team still hard at work
Re:Humans are Entropy (Score:2, Funny)
No, we're not--we're only the third most intelligent species on earth. The dolphins, of course, are the second most intelligent species on earth (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitch_hiker's_guide_
Re:Moo (Score:3, Funny)
All those inverse-square laws o' physics come in handy sometimes.
Re:Pollution = hurting other people (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Pollution = hurting other people (Score:1, Funny)
ahh, forget it.
If that post had a themesong... (Score:3, Funny)