Does the planet need us now? If all human beings disappeared overnight what would be the effect?

Question

If all buildings, roads, factories, etc were left behind - would nature simply take over? Or would crumbling oil refineries, chemical plants etc finally destroy everything? How long would it take? What would be left?

Answer 1

If all human beings disappeared, there would be good and bad effects.

Good effects: no more poachers or illegal loggers so biodiversity will increase in all areas of the planet.
Less of the ozone will be depleted because there are no more noxious fumes being produced by manmade machinery and such like.

Bad effects: animals in zoos will die of starvation.
Litter, land fill sites and chemical factories will be a greater danger to the environment, especially as factories fall into disrepair and leaks occur. Animals and plant life could be seriously damaged with no one to protect them or put them out of their misery.
Other manmade structures could also fall into disrepair, such as dams, which could break and flood large areas, completely destroying life.
A new outbreak of disease could harm animal life and there would be no human to find a cure and bring them back to good health.
Other animals have no sense of conservation. Certain species could become extinct due to the lack of preservation, which could completely alter food chains and wipe out other species.
The climate could still drastically change. More areas of desert could appear, less freshwater might be available, especially if reservoir dams really do break.

So there are plenty of bad effects, but they're mostly possibilities, with the exception of the animals in zoos. If we all vanish, there really is no hope for them. However the good effects, although I've only listed two, they're big effects that really would benefit the planet.

I think the only way to rule out the possibility that what we leave behind may be damaging and stop nature from taking over again would be if we were to remove and neutralise everything we've ever made or done. Only then would nature be able to take its course. But your question asks for the effects if we disappear overnight, in which case, the effects are potentially bad in the long term.

Answer 2

The planet never did need us, we still need it.
If we all disappeared, most of the stuff we left behind would be quickly taken over by other plant and animal life.
Some would be more problematic and might take many years before it could be re-colonised, but it would be as nothing in the scheme of things. Even if it took 20 000 years for the world to cover our leavings up, that is only a short time in the life of a planet. There might be a few hot spots near nuclear sites, but they would not amount to a large amount of land unusable

Answer 3

The oil refineries and chemical plants wouldn't destroy everything, but they would eventually create one hell of a mess.

Nature and the elements would break most things apart in, say, twenty years. However your skyscrapers will still be there in a thousand years - I just wouldn't recommend going inside one.

The planet doesn't need us - but like it or hate it, we are heavily involved in the food chain from our cultivation of land to our rearing of herd animals. Maybe in the long run the planet would do better without us. In the short term, it would be an unprecedented environmental catastrophe.

Answer 4

Disappearance of all human beings overnight means a catastrophe of unknown magnitude which will not leave the factories in tact. Environmental change has different meaning for nature. Ecological balance has meaning only if there are living beings including the plants. But if there is a cataclysmic catastrophe, then nothing will be in its present shape.

Answer 5

Gaia theory states that the Earth doesn't need us at all. From an aesthetic point of view the planet would be vastly improved upon our demise. Buildings are built to last, so they would linger for centuries but would quickly become colonised by masses of flora and fauna. Mankind is not as powerful as it thinks - couldn't destroy the planet if it tried. Just upset the present balance leading to a new one, with Mother Earth not particularly bothered one way or the other.

Answer 6

great question! the planet doesn't need us and nature woudl take over what we left behind... even if all the chemicals etc where released, nature would just adapt and continue. we are not a major part of the food chain so the loss of humans on the planet would not be significant in terms of animal and plant life.

why? you planning world distruction of all humans?

Answer 7

Well, as the Earth has been around for "quite a long time" and it has succeeded to "win through" without the help of humans, then I would suggest that "Nature" herself would eventually sort itself out. But, quite probably, the Earth would be a damned sight better off without so called "Humanity", as we are the only living things that despoil the Planet for our own greed and satisfaction.
How long it would take to degenerate to complete ruin if humanity was to die out, I don't think it would actually friend!!

Answer 8

The planet has never needed us. We just so happened to be the top of the food chain with large brain capacity here.

Your question is a mute one. The geologic record has shown that epirocratonic succession, water covering the land masses, has occurred and will likely occur again. Eventually water will cover the earth again. Mass extinction will occur and the earth will deposit new silt and sediment covering what we left behind.

The only question is what will the next top of the food chain, large brained animal who uncovers our fossilized remains look like???

Answer 9

Primates would start breeding and spreading out in such numbers as to throw up significant numbers of mutations, a small number of which would be improved primates. The competition between them at an unknown population saturation point would lead to the first large scale primate battles. The best (fittest) primates would breed more quickly and in greater quantities improving the gene pool out of which would arise the first stages of the next recognisable group of Man again.

Answer 10

The planet doesn't need us.
We need it, as every living thing.
We, as other forms of live use and, abuse, the planet.
But we will not destroy it.
One fay Man will be extinct, with or without help.
Only thing we can do is to destroy the natural resources and, eventually, to change a bit of the geography, faster or slower.
The planet will exist for a few billion years more.
Do you that our species will last eo long.
Wait an see!