If Mankind Was Wiped Out Over The Course Of The Next Few Months By A Mysterious Virus That Only Was Harmful To Us

[Henrietta]

I was in bed not being able to get to sleep as usual and this thought came to me so I've popped on for the moment to hear your views (Tomorrow)

What would be your predictions at what would happen to the animal and plant world?

Would the scenario look like the Will Smith film "I am legend?

Would they all thrive?

Die out?

Evolve faster than they would have if we were still here?

Would any species become extinct if we wasn't here?

How would the earth change?

What are your predictions for.

50 years

500 Years

10 000 years

A million years

What a strange thought! Nite!

[weecalf]

Good morning ,what was that other question ,when will xfactor become entertaining ?

[naomi24]

If the virus affected only us, it follows that the plant and animal kingdoms would survive, although some would become extinct as they do now.

In a world so heavily dependent upon technology, I have wondered how we would begin again if all that were wiped out. If we haven't blown ourselves into oblivion before then, we can only imagine what future technology may potentially bring. I'd hazard a guess more than we ever dream of.

[Frank97]

I'd have the animal and plant world would do rather well without us destroying it.

[Frank97]

I'd have thought that the

[oldbillbuck]

The planet would be a far better place without mankind around to *** it up. Everything would get along so much better without us.

[Svejk]

for goodness sake, we bring a bit of order to the chaos which is nature. Try living in the jungle and see how you like it.

[Frank97]

Tarzan seemed to handle it quite well!

[Svejk]

I don't know how to tell you this, frank. Tarzan wasn't real ;-(

[Zacs-Master]

There would be hundreds of thousands of farmed animals who would die without human intervention which would spread disease pretty fast and may affect other animals. Also, thousands of zoo animals would die which could contribute to this.

[Old_Geezer]

Evolution would carry on as usual. Animals dependent on us would have a tough time survivin, wild ones wwill gradually regain habitat. Eventually one species will evolve to fill our present niche.

[jim360]

In the short term the chaos after humans die out would probably cost the lives of many hundreds of thousands of animals, and several species would probably follow us to extinction because there's a lot of them that are one way or the other dependent on us for their own survival. It would be a dreadful mess and ecosystems would probably change drastically. In the longer term live would survive, though, and eventually might get along rather better than it does today.

[beso]

There are many plants that have been introduced to new ecosystems. They will continue to rapidly evolve in their new circumstances along with their competitors.

[ll_billym]

If you are genuinely interested in this there's an excellent book I read on the subject.

Actually it's pretty interesting what would be the 'last' indicators of human activity - but I'll let you read it to find out.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/World-Without-Us-Alan-Weisman/dp/0753513579

[Zacs-Master]

I would imagine that nuclear power stations and their waste product might be the last indicators. Either that or PET bottles.

[jeffa]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_After_People
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/life-after-people/

[atalanta]

Some time ago, the New Scientist printed an article on what London or other large cities would look like 100 years after wipe-out. Almost all traces of Homo Sapiens would have been obliterated.
Mind you, the poor old body-lice and head-lice would die with us.

[jomifl]

https://www.facebook.com/ArchiDesiign/photos/pcb.364065530415375/364064367082158/?type=1

[ludwig]

I'm pretty sure Pandas would become extinct fairly soon.

[SteveD]

I asked a similar question some time ago:

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Science/Question120338.html