As we go into yet another day, I am bouyed by the thought that once humanity is finally destroyed by our own hand, the Earth will recover. Within 100 years most modern buildings, houses, and roads will collapse or be completely overgrown by plants and trees, and by 1,000 years steel and concrete structures will have crumbled into dust. Almost all physical evidence of human civilization on the surface will be erased within 10,000 years, leaving behind only buried plastics, altered rock layers, and bronze artifacts. The climate will return to pre-human levels within 100,000 Years - although air and water pollution will clear up rapidly, it'll take greenhouse gases several thousand years to drop to pre-industrial levels, as oceans and forests absorb the excess carbon, and by 80,000 years radioactive waste will finally decay to natural background levels. Rebuilding biodiversity will take a little longer, with Scientists estimating it will take 3 to 10 million years for global biodiversity and lost ecosystems to return to pre-human baselines. And when the Earth is once again clean and pure, I shall return to rule the new Eden. Have a great day, everyone! Not long left now! X
@TheBreadmonkey I look forward to the peaceful rule of Lord Ben
@TheBreadmonkey I wonder what alien archeologists will make of our gold bars that may last much longer than anything else, buried deeply?
Also, will they find all the Tweety Bird toys my dog Sam buried in the '90s? They'll think it's some sort of religious icon.
@TheBreadmonkey
Do you have the same amount of knowledge as Senku ? (Doctor Stone) :p
@TheBreadmonkey I feel that’s more a Monday vibe tbh
Good morning, Ben ! !
@TheBreadmonkey think big, Ben. "...destroyed by _my_ own hand,...". Be the change you want to see in the world.
@TheBreadmonkey Methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere will drop down real quick. Methane is responsible for 20% to 30% of global warming. 10% for nitrous oxide.
Then comes reduction in CO2 from land use change. And finally taking CO2 from fossil fuels. Which should take more than 100'000 years. Otherwise we would be in danger of running out of carbon on the millions of years time scale.
@TheBreadmonkey Well that got dark quickly
@TheBreadmonkey it is comforting to think that the archeologists of some future species will not find our tanks, planes and nuclear power stations. All that remains will be a visible layer of Lego, beach shoes and polarised sunnies.
@TheBreadmonkey ...at which point a recently defrosted Zuckerberg emerges from his bunker, blinking in the daylight and bumps into a recently defrosted Thiel and they realise they're the last humans on the planet...
@TheBreadmonkey Ben. Do not ask for whom the Beige Party character count tolls.
It tolls for you.
@TheBreadmonkey
I could use a 10 million year nap. Wake me up for eden please.
@TheBreadmonkey There was a Channel 4 (I think) documentary some years back on this very subject. Basically, almost everything would vanish.
Operating nuclear power stations could run for years unattended until something went wrong.
The worst bit for me was, if humans vanished overnight, then the dairy cows would spend weeks in abject agony due to not being milked!
Oof. Maybe they would break out and all the little cows (cowlets? mini-moos?) would find them and milk them off.
@TheBreadmonkey
They did a song about that.
My pinned toot is a video of a late-90s cover of that song, but here is the original (sorry for the YT link):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUMEczhcqYA