Kind: captions
Language: en
and now for another installment of what
if in his new book the world without us
author Alan Weissman wonders what if
humans suddenly vanished from the earth
tomorrow yeah what if we weren't even
here humans are gone how would the rest
of nature continue from this point
forward
to get an idea he took me to the High
Line a former railway the heart of New
York City these plants are growing out
of what originally was just simply
airborne suit City foot yeah and
eventually seeds clung to that I look
like the soil here yeah there's all
kinds of things growing up there it's
pretty magnificent crabapples Cypress
goldenrods frim roses asters and apple
tree the praying mantis and how much
time did the state 1980 was when they
stopped using it so two or three decades
that's it yeah then Weissman takes it a
step further a sort of thought
experiment I call it a creative
experiment given enough time could
nature ever obliterate all of our traces
undo our monumental cities and public
works most of the suspension bridges
within a couple hundred years they're
going to be down over the next thousand
years they'd still be ruins of buildings
around but our most modern architecture
most of it will have crumbled because it
just doesn't last all that long
ultimately a glacier scrapes New York
clean it's happened 18 times in the last
million years and it'll happen once more
how lonely will the world be without us
it won't be a lonely place at all it
sounds of the earth will be the sounds
of the wind and the sounds of the rain
sounds of running water and the sounds
of animals that's the world would hear
without us send us your what-if
questions