An Earth Without People

Science writer Alan Weisman has written a book called "The World without Us", and Scientific American has an article. (linked below)
{Be sure to watch the accompaning short animated video projection of an Earth without People}

According to Weisman, large parts of our physical infrastructure would
begin to crumble almost immediately. Without street cleaners and road
crews, our grand boulevards and superhighways would start to crack and
buckle in a matter of months. Over the following decades many houses
and office buildings would collapse, but some ordinary items would
resist decay for an extraordinarily long time. Stainless-steel pots,
for example, could last for millennia, especially if they were buried
in the weed-covered mounds that used to be our kitchens. And certain
common plastics might remain intact for hundreds of thousands of years;
they would not break down until microbes evolved the ability to consume
them.

It is an interview too. Here's a tidbit:

Q: If human beings were to disappear tomorrow, the magnificent skyline
of Manhattan would not long survive them. Weisman describes how the
concrete jungle of New York City would revert to a real forest.



A: “What would happen to all of our stuff if we weren’t here anymore?
Could nature wipe out all of our traces? Are there some things that
we’ve made that are indestructible or indelible? Could nature, for
example, take New York City back to the forest that was there when
Henry Hudson first saw it in 1609?



“I had a fascinating time talking to engineers and maintenance people
in New York City about what it takes to hold off nature. I discovered
that our huge, imposing, overwhelming infrastructures that seem so
monumental and indestructible are actually these fairly fragile
concepts that continue to function and exist thanks to a few human
beings on whom all of us really depend. The name ‘Manhattan’ comes from
an Indian term referring to hills. It used to be a very hilly island.
Of course, the region was eventually flattened to have a grid of
streets imposed on it. Around those hills there used to flow about 40
different streams, and there were numerous springs all over Manhattan
island. What happened to all that water? There’s still just as much
rainfall as ever on Manhattan, but the water has now been suppressed.
It’s underground. Some of it runs through the sewage system, but a
sewage system is never as efficient as nature in wicking away water. So
there is a lot of groundwater rushing around underneath, trying to get
out. Even on a clear, sunny day, the people who keep the subway going
have to pump 13 million gallons of water away. Otherwise the tunnels
will start to flood."