EARTH WITHOUT PEOPLE

The movie I Am Legend recently satisfied the curiosity of what would happen if mankind vanished from our planet. With incredibly appealing images the movie creates a New York absent of people proliferated by nature. This takes us to Alan Weisman's book The World Without Us published last summer.

The following timeline of post-human New York below is taken out of the same author's article from discover magazine which was the initiator for his book

If humans were to vanish from New York, how soon would nature take over? Scientists predict that within . .

• 10 years Sidewalks crack and weeds invade. Hawks and falcons flourish, as do feral cats and dogs. The rat population, deprived of human garbage, crashes. Cockroaches, which thrive in warm buildings, disappear. Cultivated carrots, cabbages, broccoli, and brussels sprouts revert to their wild ancestors.

• 20 years Water-soaked steel columns supporting subway tunnels corrode and buckle. Bears and wolves invade Central Park.

• 50 years Concrete chunks tumble from buildings, whose steel foundations begin to crumble. Indian Point nuclear reactors leak radioactivity into the Hudson River.

• 100 years Oaks and maples re-cover the land.

• 300 years Most bridges collapse.

• 1,000 years Hell Gate Bridge, built to bring the railroad across the East River, finally falls.

• 10,000 years Indian Point nuclear reactors continue to leak radioactivity into the Hudson River.

• 20,000 years Glaciers move relentlessly across the island of Manhattan and its environs, scraping the landscape clean.

Speculations about the future in the movie seem to be partly realistic. Certain aspects will happen also from a scientific point of view. Nevertheless the situation in the movie, which should draw an image after 3 years is drastically overdone. understandable, due to the fascinating effects we wouldn`t have liked to have missed.