Which of the following speculates what might become of Earth should humanity instantly disappear: Life After People or The Vanishing Prairie?
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Life After People Life After People is a television series on which scientists, structural engineers, and other experts speculate about what might become of Earth should humanity instantly disappear. The featured experts also talk about the impact of human absence on the environment and the vestiges of civilization thus left behind. The series was preceded by a two-hour special that aired on January 21, 2008 on the History Channel which served as a de facto pilot for the series that premiered April 21, 2009. The documentary and subsequent series were both narrated by James Lurie.
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The Vanishing Prairie The Vanishing Prairie is a 1954 documentary film released by Walt Disney Productions.
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Decline effect The decline effect may occur when scientific claims receive decreasing support over time. The term was first described by parapsychologist Joseph Banks Rhine in the 1930s to describe the disappearing of extrasensory perception (ESP) of psychic experiments conducted by Rhine over the course of study or time. In its more general term, Cronbach, in his review article of science "Beyond the two disciplines of scientific psychology" referred to the phenomenon as "generalizations decay." The term was once again used in a 2010 article by Jonah Lehrer published in "The New Yorker".
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Energy descent Energy descent is the post-peak oil transitional phase, when humankind is predicted to move from the ascending use of energy that has occurred since the industrial revolution to a descending use of energy.
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Big Lurch (cosmology) The Big Lurch is a theoretical scientific model suggested as one of the possibilities for ultimate fate of the universe. Matter works itself up into a frenzy and forces governing the universe grow infinitely, building up infinite pressure while the density and cosmic expansion rate remain in steady state. The consequences for time are unclear in this scenario. According to astronomical calculations, there is a finite probability of this scenario actually happening relatively soon, in as little as a few million years.
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Future The future is what will happen in the time after the present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently exists and will exist can be categorized as either permanent, meaning that it will exist forever, or temporary, meaning that it will end. The future and the concept of eternity have been major subjects of philosophy, religion, and science, and defining them non-controversially has consistently eluded the greatest of minds. In the Occidental view, which uses a linear conception of time, the future is the portion of the projected time line that is anticipated to occur. In special relativity, the future is considered absolute future, or the future light cone.
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Rain follows the plow Rain follows the plow is the conventional name for a now-discredited theory of climatology that was popular throughout the American West and Australia during the late 19th century. The phrase was employed as a summation of the theory by Charles Dana Wilber:
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Social science fiction Social science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction, usually soft science fiction, concerned less with technology/space opera and more with speculation about human society. In other words, it "absorbs and discusses anthropology", and speculates about human behavior and interactions.
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Annihilationism Annihilationism (also known as extinctionism or destructionism) is a belief that after the final judgment some human beings and all fallen angels (all of the damned) will be totally destroyed so as to not exist, or that their consciousness will be extinguished, rather than suffer everlasting torment in hell (often synonymized with the lake of fire).
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Soil retrogression and degradation Soil retrogression and degradation are two regressive evolution processes associated with the loss of equilibrium of a stable soil. Retrogression is primarily due to soil erosion and corresponds to a phenomenon where succession reverts the land to its natural physical state. Degradation is an evolution, different from natural evolution, related to the local climate and vegetation. It is due to the replacement of primary plant communities (known as climax vegetation) by the secondary communities. This replacement modifies the humus composition and amount, and affects the formation of the soil. It is directly related to human activity. Soil degradation may also be viewed as any change or ecological disturbance to the soil perceived to be deleterious or undesirable.
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Millennial Day Theory The Millennial day theory, or the Sabbath millennium theory, is a theory in Christian eschatology in which the Second Coming of Christ will occur 6,000 years after the creation of mankind, followed by 1,000 years of peace and harmony. It is a very popular belief accepted by certain premillennialists who usually promote young earth creationism.
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Involuntary park Involuntary park is a neologism coined by science fiction author and environmentalist Bruce Sterling to describe previously inhabited areas that for environmental, economic, or political reasons have, in Sterling's words, "lost their value for technological instrumentalism" and been allowed to return to an overgrown, feral state.
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Anywhere on Earth Anywhere on Earth (AoE) is a calendar designation which indicates that a period expires when the date passes everywhere on Earth. The last place on Earth where any date exists is on Howland Island, in the time zone (the "Hawaii side" of the International Date Line), and so is the last spot on the globe for any day to exist. Therefore, the day ends AoE when it ends on Howland Island.
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Extinction In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms (taxon), normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point. Because a species' potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly "reappears" (typically in the fossil record) after a period of apparent absence.
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Societal collapse Societal collapse is the fall or disintegration of complex human societies. Societal collapse broadly includes abrupt societal failures such as that of the Maya Civilization, as well as more extended gradual declines of cultures, institutions, or a civilization like the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The general subject arises in anthropology, history, sociology, politics and other fields, and more recently in complex systems science.
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Habitat destruction Habitat destruction is the process in which natural habitat is rendered unable to support the species present. In this process, the organisms that previously used the site are displaced or destroyed, reducing biodiversity. Habitat destruction by human activity is mainly for the purpose of harvesting natural resources for industry production and urbanization. Clearing habitats for agriculture is the principal cause of habitat destruction. Other important causes of habitat destruction include mining, logging, trawling and urban sprawl. Habitat destruction is currently ranked as the primary cause of species extinction worldwide. It is a process of natural environmental change that may be caused by habitat fragmentation, geological processes, climate change or by human activities such as the introduction of invasive species, ecosystem nutrient depletion, and other human activities.
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Extraterrestrial liquid water Extraterrestrial liquid water (from the Latin words: "extra" ["outside of, beyond"] and "terrestris" ["of or belonging to Earth"]) is water in its liquid state that naturally occurs outside Earth. It is a subject of wide interest because it is recognised as one of the key prerequisites for life as we know it and thus surmised as essential for extraterrestrial life.
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Space and survival Space and survival refers to the idea that the long-term survival of the human species and civilization requires proper use of the resources of outer space and the need for space colonization and space science. The concept posits that inaction could lead to human extinction. A related observation is that limited time and resources may be available for the colonization of space. Various scenarios for human survival have been discussed in science and popular culture, particularly humanity's prospects after catastrophic events in the solar system and factors that could help or hinder survival.
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Extinction debt In ecology, extinction debt is the future extinction of species due to events in the past. Extinction debt occurs because of time delays between impacts on a species, such as destruction of habitat, and the species' ultimate disappearance. For instance, long-lived trees may survive for many years even after reproduction of new trees has become impossible, and thus they may be committed to extinction. Technically, extinction debt generally refers to the "number of species" in an area likely to become extinct, rather than the prospects of any one species, but colloquially it refers to any occurrence of delayed extinction.
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Vanishing hitchhiker The vanishing hitchhiker (or variations such as the ghostly hitchhiker, disappearing hitchhiker, phantom hitchhiker, or the hitchhiker) is an urban legend in which people traveling by vehicle meet with or are accompanied by a hitchhiker who subsequently vanishes without explanation, often from a moving vehicle. Vanishing hitchhikers have been reported for centuries and the story is found across the world, with many variants. The popularity and endurance of the legend has helped it spread into popular culture.
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Afterglow An afterglow is a broad arch of whitish or pinkish sunlight in the sky that is scattered by fine particulates like dust suspended in the atmosphere. An afterglow may appear above the highest clouds in the hour of fading twilight, or be reflected off high snowfields in mountain regions long after sunset. The particles produce a scattering effect upon the component parts of white light.
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Red Earth, White Earth Red Earth, White Earth is a novel by Will Weaver, about conflicts between white farmers and native Ojibwes in northern Minnesota. The story follows Guy Pehrsson, a California computer entrepreneur who returns to Minnesota twelve years after he ran away at age eighteen. His childhood blood brother, Tom Little Wolf, is now a tribal lawyer intent on reclaiming farmlands mishandled in past treaties, lands which include the Pehrsson's homestead. The novel explores the friendship between the two throughout their boyhood and into adulthood, and finally, to their reunion.