Animals and Humans

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Look harder. Thanks Padraic.

By "permanent" I meant in terms of "before the death of our sun" (for such as radio active poison). The planet most likely to eventually recover.

As for the other things.The extinction of species doesn't harm the planet,and new species emerge given a long enough time scale.

According to a recent documentary called "Life After People", it would take only about 10 thousand years for almost all trace of humans to disappear.

Put another way the damage we've done is serious but temporary.



From Wiki:

Prediction timetable

The special assumes that humanity disappears suddenly and immediately, but does not speculate what would cause such an event.
Time Period Predictions
1 day Fossil fuel fired power plants, which are largely automated, would remain running for a few hours until their fuel supplies are depleted. Within hours, lights would begin going out all over the world as electrical systems start failing. Almost all fossil fuel plants would shut down within a couple of days.
2 days After 48 hours, nuclear power plants will automatically enter safe mode due to reduced power consumption, thereby averting meltdowns. Wind turbines will eventually cease to operate when their lubrication fails. Eventually, only areas powered by hydroelectric dams and solar panels will have electricity.
3 days Subway systems like the New York City Subway require pumps to keep out the groundwater. Without humans to maintain the system, many parts of the subway will be flooded within 36 hours.
10 days Food would begin to rot in grocery stores and in refrigerators. While melted water from freezers or food on countertops could provide temporary sustenance, pets would soon need to leave their owners' houses to avoid death from starvation. Those which managed to leave homes would have to compete for food. Dogs and cats that were bred by humans for appearance would have no niche in this new competitive environment and will be among the first to die. For example, the short legs and small mouths of bulldogs or terriers will be handicaps for them. Zoo animals who haven't gotten out of the pens that held them would die of thirst and hunger. Large animals like elephants and lions would get out of their pens.
6 months Smaller forms of wildlife not normally seen in civilization, like coyotes and bobcats, would begin to inhabit suburban areas. Deer would also begin grazing in neighborhoods as well. Rats and mice will have by now consumed our edible supplies and are leaving urban areas to return into the wild.
1 year Plants would begin to sprout within the cracks in streets, highways, sidewalks, and buildings. The Hoover Dam would stop generating power as mussels clog coolant pipes. Therefore, one of the last areas with some artificial illumination, in Las Vegas, Nevada, would finally plunge into darkness.

As flow of water through the dam stops, the Colorado River downstream from the dam would temporarily dry up until the level of Lake Mead reaches the spillways around the dam. Wildfires caused by lightning would rage uncontrolled in cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, and Rome. Animals would start to notice human absence and start to flourish in cities.

The final radio and television signals of Humanity, which have been traveling through outer space have now deteriorated into undetectable background radiation, according to scientists of the SETI project.[3][4]
5 years Plant life will have covered many surfaces in urban areas with vines, grasses, and tree saplings growing there. Roads will become overgrown with plant life, suffer from lack of maintenance, and disappear.
20 years The ruins of Prypiat, Ukraine, which were abandoned in 1986 due to the Chernobyl disaster, are used as an example for the level of decay which could happen after 20 years of humanity's disappearance. Despite high radiation levels, many animal populations have flourished significantly in areas where humans had left. Plants have grown in many structures that were once used by humans.
25 years Sea water floods into cities such as London and Amsterdam, which are currently kept dry by human-engineered projects. Windows in high rise buildings begin to crack and shatter due to the cycle of freezing and thawing and the decay of window sealants. Satellites, due to lack of recalibrations (or adjustments) would have fallen back to Earth.
40 years By this time, many wooden frame houses would have burnt down, rotted, or have been largely consumed by termites. Trees and vines grow into remaining brick and masonry elements, which would by now be weakened by salts. Compacted earth dams may begin to fail due to widening leaks.
50 years Steel structures, such as the Brooklyn Bridge, would start to show signs of strain from neglect. Paint that would normally protect these structures would peel off, exposing the steel to the elements and allowing corrosion to gradually weaken them.
75 years Many of the roughly 600 million automobiles on earth would be reduced to barely recognizable metal. Some automobiles in arid climates would not have suffered the effects of corrosion as severely and would still be recognizable. While the rubber tires of cars would have deflated years ago, they would not decompose for centuries.
100 years Large bridges such as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge would collapse due to corrosion of support cables. Many human-built structures would fall during the 100- to 10,000-year period.
150 years Many streets with subways would start to collapse into flooded tunnels below. Many large buildings are completely colonized by plants and animals and resemble a wild landscape, creating somewhat of a "vertical ecosystem". Descendants of Domestic dogs that went wild had bred with wolves.
200 years Large structures such as the Empire State Building, Sears Tower, Space Needle, and Eiffel Tower would collapse due to corrosion, invasive plant life, and ground water destabilizing their foundations. Also all of mankind videos, and books fade away thanks to mold. The only exception is the Dead Sea Scrolls, but this is a rare exception.
500 years Items made with modern concrete would give way as the steel rebar reinforcing them rusts and expands to three times its normal size.
1000 years Most modern cities would be destroyed and/or covered in flora, with collapsed and fallen skyscrapers becoming new mounds and hills. Manhattan would appear much as it did before human settlement, with old streams and bodies of waters returning. There would be little evidence that a human civilization existed on earth. Certain structures made out of thick rock or concrete, like the Egyptian Pyramids or the Hoover Dam, might survive with minimal damage.
10,000 years The Hoover Dam, one of the last remnants of advanced civilization, would fail due to erosion of its concrete and the cumulative effect of seismic activity.

By this point, any substantial evidence of humanity's former domination over nature would be gone. Only a few things would survive, such as the solid granite and concrete pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. The Pyramids at Giza remain, but would be mostly buried by the Sahara Desert's sands. Portions of the Great Wall of China may also remain intact. The faces at Mount Rushmore might also survive and remain recognizable for hundreds of thousands of years. Our bones, rubber, plastic, and polystyrene (polystyrene is also called Styrofoam) might be the last remnants of humanity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_After_People



The full article is fascinating,and worth reading,especially the predictions about animals. BUT I'm not claiming this what WILL happen,only what COULD happen.