I’m not sure what the idea is behind all of these doom and gloom shows on TV lately, but I think they are trying to scare us into actually doing something to change the way the world is going. Is it working? Probably not, mainly because I have a feeling that most people watching TV at night are not watching the History Channel or the Discovery Channel. Dancing with the Stars and the latest version of Big Brother are not going to change a lot of lives. But the big informational channels keep trying and the latest addition to the History Channel is a program we just watched called “Life After People”.
Life After People is an ongoing series that aims to show us what the world would be like if people were suddenly gone. They don’t tell us how we actually vanish from the Earth, but rather, they focus on the story that would emerge when people are no longer present. Now, for some reason, animals still seem to be around, so maybe we were just carried away on a spaceship that didn’t have room for animals? You decide. But the result is interesting.
Each episode focuses on a different aspect, from what would happen to bodies that remained, to the collapse of bridges and buildings and the deconstruction of automobiles. Very interesting and really informative about what happens scientifically speaking to things like steel, brick and wood. You might be surprised to learn that a lot of the things we take for granted in our world each day are actually very well cared for by people, such as bridges, and without people, these things would deteriorate quite quickly.
You can find out more on the History.com website, with videos and breakdowns of each episode, along with quizzes and interesting facts about our planet. For more information on our planet, stop by the library and find books about the environment, the planet itself and what you can do to keep our world functioning in a better way than it seems to be heading now.
