Life After People: The Series

imagine our planet without its people

imagine that every single human being has simply disappeared

this isn't the story of how that might happened

this is the story of what happens to the world we leave behind

this time on Life After People

the fate of man's great attempts at immortality

the bodies left behind

some mummified

some chronically frozen

will any of them achieve immortality ?

or will be survived by other memorials to mankind

take a look at the future of once crowded cities

and goes like towns already devoid of man

welcome to earth, population zero

it's one day after people

without humans to maintain them

power plants across the world start shutting down

lights go out

clocks stop

a race has begun to see who or what

can survive the longest

in a hostile world of life after people

around the world the mummies of many of Egypt's pharaohs

lie not in tombs deep inside Pyramids

but beneath the Plexiglas of modern museums

one day after people

the electronic temperature and humidity controls

that mimic the cool, dry environment where the mummies

once resided

shut down

the bodies they've been left in the tombs in Egypt

have lasted 3000 years or more

if the condition are just perfect for the body

i can see why it can last another 3000 years

but if the condition at the museum fail

the body would start decay immediately

you have a high humidity

you have mold spores in the air at all times

so they would probably be attacked by mold and bacteria

how long can these mummies last ?

we shall see!

one month after people

more than 100 bodies kept in suspended animation

at the world's cryonics facilities are still in a deep freeze

according to experts even a month long power cut won't cause the bodies to thaw

they are kept at a temperature of -320 °F

by liquid Nitrogen

which doesn't rely on electricity

to maintain its temperature

but there is a problem

liquid Nitrogen boils off slowly

in the time of humans, the supply had to be replenished every few weeks

with no-one left to restock the crucial refrigerant the bodies begin to warm up

once they reach -184°F

chemical reactions resume

and the nature process of decomposition take over

in the cells are enzymes and fluids

these breakdown quickly

the cell wall is broken down by enzymes it leak out

as soon as the temperature started to go up

the body would just accelerate in the decaying process

for these human beings the bid for immortality is coming to an end

and should some future intelligence wish to recreate humans

they will find no help in the laboratories left behind by man

there are approximately 400,000 human embryos

currently frozen in clinics in the "United States" alone

they along with all the egg and sperm samples in the world quickly decay

as the supplies of liquid nitrogen run out

but man's DNA still has a chance for survival

200 miles above the earth

up in the international space station

rests a computer disk called the immortality drive

delivered into orbit in October 2008

the immortality drive contains the

digitized DNA information of a highly eclectic group

including physicist "Stephen Hawking",

comedian "Stephen Colbert",

and playboy model "Jo Garcia"

it's the brainchild of "Richard Garriott" a video game producer from "Houston"

who thinks alien beings one day might use

the DNA data to reconstruct an extinct humanity

the immortality drive maybe man's best

shot at preserving the species in a life after people

but can it really last forever ?

another medium through which man has achieved immortality is art

creating images that have lasted centuries

but many masterpieces require protection in controlled environments

in the time of humans Michelangelo's magnificent frescoes

of the Vatican Sistine Chapel

were protected by more than 20 miles of pumps, pipes, valves and wiring

to prevent the fresco plaster from absorbing too much water from the air

the humidity was kept between 50% and 60%

air filters remove even microscopic particles of dust

it was all controlled by computer

but without electricity

the system has closed down forever

but 3 months after people

the disappearance of humans is actually helping the fresco

without the annual hordes of 2 million tourists

there are no ascending currents of human body heat

the figures painted on the ceiling including God and Adam

are safe at least for now

6 months after people

while nature attacks some of the bodies and structures left behind

she preserves others

in the barren wastes of "Ross island" "Antarctica"

are the huts used in the early 20th century

by explorers "Robert Scott" and "Ernest Shackleton"

here with an average temperature of 3 below 0

the ravages of decay have been slowed

inside and out the huts remain frozen entire

with the severe cold in "Antarctica"

a lot of the insects, that would no way at the world structure

don't exist there

and the fungus the mold doesn't exist there

cans of beef from 1917 set on the shelves

these cans they last 2 - 3 more centuries!

meat still hangs on metal hooks appearing quite edible even after almost a century

in some cases extreme cold has preserved flesh for thousands of years

in the 1928 explorers club meeting in "Paris"

they ate mastodon !

some mastodon came up through the ice

and they got it and cooked it up

and they served it at the dinner

and i had a friend there

I asked him how did it taste. And he said,

well It tasted a lot like a rodent meat

but it's have been period in the ice for 10,000 years

but, it's edible

while the Antarctic cold will preserve the explorer's huts for many years

it's the more temperate parts of the globe that most people once called home

cities like "Houston" and "Boston"

where the artifacts of man face a much harsher fate

Sitting in Boston harbor is one of the most famous ships in American history

the USS constitution first launched in 1797

is the world's oldest commissioned warships still afloat

during the war of 1812 cannonballs were seen bouncing of the ship's 25 inch

thick wooden hull earning her the nickname "Old Ironsides"

but even "Old Ironsides" is defenseless in this race to survive

along with most of what man has built

9 months after people

the race to see what survives is becoming more intense

in "Boston" a military relic is about to lose its final battle

the hull of "Old Ironsides" maybe tough enough to repel a cannonball

but it can't withstand the constant infiltration of water

wooden ships leak

the wood starts leaking almost immediately

the wood will shrank, the wood will expand the wood will rough

in the time of humans

automatic bilge pumps drained 900 gallons of water a day from the ship

but those pumps stopped months ago

this flooding alone won't be enough to drag the ship underwater

it will take the "Boston" winter to do finally what enemy warships never could

and the world without people maybe the constitution

would remain afloat for a year, maybe less

3 years after people

the international space station still orbits above the earth

but without constant re-calibration from terrestrial stations

or boosts from space shuttles it loses 2 miles of altitude each month

as it drops from its original height of 200 miles to blew 160 miles

the orbital decline accelerates

until it re-enters the atmosphere

where air and friction meet gravity and the space station burns up

incinerated in the descend

the final hope of reconstructing the human species

the digitized DNA of the immortality drive

proves to be quite mortal after all

5 years into a life after people

weeds have transformed the historic streets of "Boston"

if you just leave the gutters and rain spout

not maintained

plants will take grown in little cracks in the brick

and little cracks in the mortar

Boston's old north church is under attack

it's here that lanterns warned "Paul Revere"

of the British invasion in April 1775

now, the nature world has invaded and conquered

if the windows blowout

you've rain coming in

you've pigeons coming in

you've animals coming in

you also have vine starting to grower

the maple tree sending it shoots in here sprout up in the rotting wood

it's 20 years since humans disappeared

nature has conquered the sub-tropical city of "Houston"

the tallest building in "Texas" now looms

over a city that is slowly reverting back to the swamp it once was

once kept at a steady 72 degrees

Houston's great dome sport stadiums

now swelter to 125 degrees in the summer

they become enormous bat caves

the artificial grass of the Astrodome is swallowed up by weeds and muck

feasting on insects the bats make their own contribution to the new ecosystem

their excrement or guano

guano has a lot of nutrients in it

so you've insects that feed on the fungus

bringing in predators that eat insects

that eats the fungus

25 years without people have not been kind

to the mummies housed in the world's great museums