Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Life After People


The History Channel showed a special last night called "Life After People". It is a hypothetical look at life on Earth if suddenly the Earth's human population was decimated to zero. My husband wouldn't watch the show with me. He said it was too depressing. But there will probably come a time humans no longer walk the Earth. I've been slightly paranoid of this thought since age 10, when I picked up the Childcraft Encyclopedia, volume 4, entitled "Space". It described how the Sun is really just a star and will actually burnout, leaving the Earth frigid and inhabitable for life as we know. There is a movie based around this theory. I read way too much as a kid.

The show does not go into predictions as to why humans suddenly become extinct. However, two scenarios popped into my head. Armageddon will either be a man-made catastrophe or Mother Nature reclaiming the planet. Or, even, a combination of both. We are living in a generation, probably the first generation, in which we have the technology to blow ourselves off the planet!

They start from day one and go all the way to ten thousand years of life without people. By then, there is very little evidence that the human race ever existed. None of our skyscrapers, bridges or highways. Nature takes back everything. Got me to thinking. So many people worry about leaving behind a legacy. Is it really that big of a deal? I mean, some people scrimp and save to leave a legacy to ungrateful children. The children turn around and squander the whole wad. I understand why my grandmother always says there is no reason to wait around for her to die. She plans to enjoy every single penny of her money before she dies. She plans to just leave enough for final expenses. As far as she is concerned, nobody will be getting rich off of her death.

It's not like we can control what happens to our legacy once we are gone. Eventually, we will all be forgotten and any evidence of our existence will be lost or destroyed. It just seems that we need to focus more on the now, while we are here on this planet. Make the most of time on this planet.

2 comments:

CC Solomon said...

So depressing. I guess the thought is, as long as humans are around, having a legacy is important because for us life on earth is the real tangible thing. For those full of faith heaven is and I suppose leaving a legacy may not be as key. I guess it depends on your tie to humanity. I've known certain religious people who could give a flying f how they give back in this world just as long as they do enough to take them to the next. So did the documentary say if coachroaches would still be around?

Erika 2004 said...

The coachroaches will rule the earth without us!!! Then again, have you seen some areas of the city? I think they may already rule the earth.