I'm a nut for dinosaurs. I am often asked why. It's not the animals themselves, though they are awesomely awesome. It's the idea that dinosaurs are our very own extraterrestrials: our own alien species. Our planet was their homeworld, and now they are no more.
At some point, it's likely another species will replace us on the Terra Homeworld. I don't find that depressing. It fills my imagination of what things will be like then in the same way I imagine, regarding dinosurs, what it their then was like.
The History Channel has been airing a series titled Life After People that explores the great "what ifs" about our homeworld after we've moved on.
The Washington Monument 500 years later - from Life After People.
Photographer and blogger James D. Griffioen has posted several poignant and evocative images series on houses and buildings after they've been abandoned. Trees, vines, and all manner of greenery slowly reclaim the structures. You can listen to an interview with Griffioen at American Public Media's the story, April 14, 2009.
Author Alan Weisman has published a book titled The World Without Us (NY: Thomas Dunne Books, 2007; ISBN: 978-0312427900). His website for the book has this description:
"In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us.In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; what of our everyday stuff may become immortalized as fossils; how copper pipes and wiring would be crushed into mere seams of reddish rock; why some of our earliest buildings might be the last architecture left; and how plastic, bronze sculpture, radio waves, and some man-made molecules may be our most lasting gifts to the universe."
VIDEO: Your House Without You
[from the YouTube description]: "In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us. In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; what of our everyday stuff may become immortalized as fossils; how copper pipes and wiring would be crushed into mere seams of reddish rock; why some of our earliest buildings might be the last architecture left; and how plastic, bronze sculpture, radio waves, and some man-made molecules may be our most lasting gifts to the universe."
