Awesome / Life After People

• As depressing as it is to watch the remains of our civilization collapse, it's a testament to the power of nature and how quickly it reestablishes itself. It took us 10,000 years to conquer the world, and it takes even less for the natural world to make a comeback.
  • After all the damage we've caused to the ocean, it only takes 300 years for it to revert back to its pre-human state.
  • As bad as the nuclear and chemical disasters caused by our disappearance are, nature buries our pollution and builds new ecosystems over it in a few millennia.
• Some of our animals do very well for themselves.
  • The pets of world leaders, like the Queen's corgis or Obama's dog Bo, not only survive but thrive in their new environments.
  • Anatolian Sheep Dogs stand vigilant over their flocks for centuries.
  • Domestic cats gradually evolve to fill new niches, growing larger in areas with no big cat populations. There's even speculation that in the vertical environments of abandoned skyscrapers, they could evolve into something similar to flying squirrels.
  • Elephants easily break out of their confinement, creating new populations in North America and Europe.
  • Rattlesnakes not only repopulate after humans disappear, but thanks to larger rodent populations, they grow larger and become apex predators like their cousins in South America.
• One of humanity's greatest achievements after we vanish? Giving life to Saturn's moon Enceladus through the Cassini spacecraft, even though it didn't happen in the real life.
• A Real Life example could go to the Tarpon at the New Orleans Aquarium. When Hurricane Katrina hit the city, the staff had to evacuate and power to the aquarium failed, leading to the tanks filling with waste. The Tarpon has the ability to breathe both water and air, which saved it as all the other water-breathers asphyxiated. When the staff finally returned, it gave them a well-deserved surprise.
• When the Metlife building collapses on top of it, even with its interior crushed, Grand Central Station's four granite walls still stand. They may even outlast the rest of the buildings in New York City.
  • And long after New York City has vanished, the Federal Reserve vault, home to the largest stockpile of gold ever assembled, remains preserved deep underground. While the steel surrounding them will eventually corrode, the gold bars could survive in a sanctuary of their own for millions of years.
• Even when the Capitol Records building collapses, the recording studio (which is located very deeply undergound and not supported by any constructions of its own) not only survives, but will be still recognizable for a very long time.
• Built to withstand a nuclear attack, NORAD ages slowly and still survives deep inside Cheyanne mountain, along with most of its furniture and powered-down electronics still intact.
• Los Angeles proves to be one of the most hostile places in a world without people, shaking off human civilization faster than most other cities. Yet even after several earthquakes, fires and over a century of neglect, the LAX Theme Building not only outlasts every other structure at the airport, but also other famous landmarks across the city thanks to its unique mass damper system. Doubly so, as it's one of the few surviving airport landmarks from its era to have survived into the modern day.
• The Christmas fruit cake has proven to be quite sturdy, managing to endure over a century thanks to being covered with alcohol.