How Would be the World Without Us?

2 days: Only 48 hours after the disappearance of humans, the subways will experience floods because of the interruption of the pumping water systems.

7 days: The supply of fuel for emergency generators that cool the core of nuclear reactors runs out completely.

1 year: All over the planet more than 1000 millions of birds survive when communication towers and antennas turn off and high voltage wires get cooled. The animal life starts to go back to the cities.

3 years: Because of the lack of heat, the gas pipes in the colder regions burst. The gases of these pipes cause fires. The buildings start to crack and their structures become unstable. After one or two winters, the cockroaches disappear because of the lack of warm temperature.

10 years: Many roofs of houses collapse because of the erosion caused by leaks and the combined action of the elements.

20 years: All the iron columns are completely corroded and break down. The Americas are united again because the Panama Canal disappears with the advance of vegetation.

100 years: The surviving 500.000 elephants a century ago have increased twenty times. The populations of small predators, like foxes, become in danger of extinction due to the emergence of a new competitor: the old domestic cat.

300 years: Most of the suspension bridges around the world collapse.

The walls of many dams do not resist because of the lack of maintenance.

After that, many cities experience floods.

500 years: The city suburbs are invaded by woods and jungles. Lots of trees grow between remains of cars, buildings and iron implements.

15.000 years: Big cities succumb because of the advance of glaciers. The only structures that remain relatively intact are the underground ones.

35000 years: Some residues that contaminated the environment while humans were in the Earth finally are absorbed by Nature. For other compounds, such as cadmium, the nature will have to wait another 75 thousand years.

100.000 years: Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere return to the values that existed before the appearance of humanity.

250.000 years: Radiation levels produced by nuclear bombs are eventually absorbed by the ground and stop being a threat.

2.000.000 years: It is possible that some animals have evolved sufficiently to degrade the plastic products and feed on them.

8.500.000 years: The remains of some architectural works (monuments, buildings) are still standing, if those were not destroyed by earthquakes or floods. The bronze sculptures are still recognizable.

3.000 millions Of years: Life persists on the Earth, although in ways that we can not even imagine.

6.500 millions Of years: The Earth is melting under the influence of the Sun, which has already absorbed the other inner planets, marking the inevitable end of our planet.

Any Eternity: The remains of communications devices, such as satellites, continue travelling through space as a single footprint of our remote existence.