Aftermath (History TV)
Encyclopedia
Aftermath is a four-part 2010 series created by History Television
Canadian station. It also aired in the United States on the National Geographic Channel
. It was produced by Cream Productions
.
It consists of a series of "experiments" looking at what would happen if planetary conditions changed drastically, within our lifetime. It is a follow-up to the TV special Aftermath: Population Zero
The 2010 series was nominated for a 2010 Gemini
award for best documentary.
satellite
s and ground-based atomic clock
s. Then the all-day, all-night stock market
s crash
because the day is longer than 24-hours. As times goes on the oceanic bulge of water at the Equator
moves northward and southward. The water floods Russia
, Canada
and Antarctica. The atmosphere
, once shaking solar heat out over the world and shifting air, stops and whirls to the Poles
. The air starts to thin at the Equator. People have to migrate to more northerly and southerly cities, in order to keep up with denser air. There is a higher risk of ultraviolet radiation as the electromagnetic field
weakens because of the slowing inner core
. The slowing Earth causes friction between the crust
, the inner and outer core
s creating tremendous earthquake
s.
Humans and other animals start suffering from sleep fatigue as their bodies cannot properly work in a day longer than 60 hours.
The new oceans at the poles start flooding most of North America
and Mediterranean Europe
around this time. As the oceans have moved to the Poles, the sea-bed dries out, revealing new land.
Eventually, the Earth stops altogether with one side to the sun, and one face in ice-bound darkness. There are now one ocean in the north, one in the south and the girdle of land around the equator.
vanishing, alarms in oil rig
s sound as pipe pressure plummets.
One day after oil, asphalt
, diesel, petrol and tar
supplies become limited. This causes $2 trillion
of stock to become worthless. Oil-workers are sacked .
Consumers rush to petrol stations to fill their cars up for the last time. Oil tanker
s are called back to their countries of origin to save spending national reserves of oil. Every mode of inter-national transport is now grounded. However, steel
, food
, medical supplies and rubbish are not being moved.
Power-stations start running out of diesel. Power cuts start spreading across the world.
5 days after oil. Martial law
is declared to stop rioting and looting
. Unemployment
rises to 30%. Farm animal
s die due to lack of food. Coal
power stations face shortages of coal.
30 days after oil. Passenger trains are running on oil rations and the roads are empty of cars. Government
s decide to start a program of biofuel
planting.
5 months after oil, Chrysler
, General Motors
and Ford are taken over by the American government.
Famine
and drug-resistant
infection
s threatens death and migration
as food shipments come every second day. Emergency vehicle
s are still getting oil rations. This inspires citizen
s to tinker with chemicals to get biofuel. Governments start to wonder if they should plant crops for food or fuel. They later abandon biofuel planting altogether.
1 year after oil. Emergency vehicles start to be run either by lithium battery
or biofuel. The price of lithium
then shoots up. Populations of wild animal
s bounce quickly back. People resort to growing their own food and keeping livestock.
10 years after oil, satellites burn up in the atmosphere as parts are not being replaced. Electronic equipment
is scavenged for precious metal
s as people start recycling
on a huge scale. Algae
is used as a bio-fuel. Lorries
deliver supplies to hospital
s.
40 years after oil, skies are much clearer and cleaner as pollutants are washed out. Aeroplane
s, trains and ship
s now run on biofuel. Lithium battery cars are expensive. People only grow what they need. New towns grow along railway
points. A world trade based on biofuel and lithium is now growing.
The sun expands to its red giant phase. If the sun aged million
s of years overnight, the average global temperature
would go up by 36 degrees Fahrenheit. In Greenland
and Antarctica, snow and ice would begin to melt
. Sea levels around the world would rise by more than 200 feet (61 m), submerging coastal cities. Regular temperatures this hot, around 130 degrees, are hard for us to handle. If our bodies get just 6 or 7 degrees hotter than normal for an extended period of time, we can suffer permanent injury or death.
At 212 degrees, we can't survive. The heat, hot enough to boil water
, would blind and suffocate
us.
The magnetosphere
, an invisible field circling our planet that protects us from blasts of solar radiation, would begin to weaken. The only place humans could survive is underground, but the underground is also hot, so humans turn to wearing spacesuits.
At 300 degrees, water would begin to evaporate
much faster than it does today. The sun would literally boil water off our Earth. Animals that breathe could not survive these temperatures. Even hardy creatures like cockroaches
, which lack lung
s, couldn't survive. The oxygen
levels are so low that fires don't start and the cloud
s don't rain.
At 700 degrees, all human life on Earth would be finished. We couldn't even survive underground. Oceans would become deserts
. Cement deteriorates, resulting in collapsing buildings. What is left burns, because oxygen levels shoot back up.
The planet would start turning red at 2,400 degrees as the iron
in Earth's crust begins to rust
.
As the sun expands on its way to becoming a Red Giant, its massive outer edges would begin to slow the Earth’s orbit
. Our planet, now a fireball, burning up like a meteorite
, would be swallowed by the sun.
History Television
title for this show is "Red Giant", the National Geographic Channel
title for it is "Swallowed by the Sun".
of the earth doubles, from about 7 billion to nearly 14 billion.
The governments of the world attempt to cope by ordering the construction of gigantic highrise apartment complexes, but in the meantime, Emergency rationing becomes commonplace. Also, food and water resources are becoming strained as countries struggle to support the doubled population
Eventually the complexes prove to be too little, so a mass migration occurs as people become desperate for water. Over the years, a population crash occurs.
The special that started it all. It documents what happens if all humans suddenly disappeared from the planet. The History Television title for this show is "The World After Humans", the National Geographic Channel title for it is "Population Zero".
History Television
History Television is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel that presents programming about history and some non-historical programming of military, science and technology interest. It is owned by Shaw Media. Its French language counterpart is Historia.The channel operates two...
Canadian station. It also aired in the United States on the National Geographic Channel
National Geographic Channel
National Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...
. It was produced by Cream Productions
Cream Productions
Cream Productions is a Canadian award winning Factual Entertainment company based in Toronto, Ontario. It has produced several documentaries that include Canadian and international content...
.
It consists of a series of "experiments" looking at what would happen if planetary conditions changed drastically, within our lifetime. It is a follow-up to the TV special Aftermath: Population Zero
Aftermath: Population Zero
Aftermath: Population Zero is a two-hour Canadian special documentary film that premiered on Sunday, March 9, 2008 on the National Geographic Channel...
The 2010 series was nominated for a 2010 Gemini
2010 Gemini Awards
The 25th Gemini Awards were held on November 13th, 2010 to honour achievements in Canadian television. The ceremony will broadcast on Showcase and Global from the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto. Nominations were announced on August 31. The host will be Cory Monteith...
award for best documentary.
When the Earth Stops Spinning
The spin of the Earth starts slowing down dramatically. It is estimated Earth would stop spinning in little as 5 years. The first effect is the isolation between the Global Positioning SystemGlobal Positioning System
The Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...
satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
s and ground-based atomic clock
Atomic clock
An atomic clock is a clock that uses an electronic transition frequency in the microwave, optical, or ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum of atoms as a frequency standard for its timekeeping element...
s. Then the all-day, all-night stock market
Stock market
A stock market or equity market is a public entity for the trading of company stock and derivatives at an agreed price; these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately.The size of the world stock market was estimated at about $36.6 trillion...
s crash
Stock market crash
A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock prices across a significant cross-section of a stock market, resulting in a significant loss of paper wealth. Crashes are driven by panic as much as by underlying economic factors...
because the day is longer than 24-hours. As times goes on the oceanic bulge of water at the Equator
Equator
An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass....
moves northward and southward. The water floods Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and Antarctica. The atmosphere
Atmosphere
An atmosphere is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, and that is held in place by the gravity of the body. An atmosphere may be retained for a longer duration, if the gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low...
, once shaking solar heat out over the world and shifting air, stops and whirls to the Poles
Geographical pole
A geographical pole is either of the two points—the north pole and the south pole—on the surface of a rotating planet where the axis of rotation meets the surface of the body...
. The air starts to thin at the Equator. People have to migrate to more northerly and southerly cities, in order to keep up with denser air. There is a higher risk of ultraviolet radiation as the electromagnetic field
Electromagnetic field
An electromagnetic field is a physical field produced by moving electrically charged objects. It affects the behavior of charged objects in the vicinity of the field. The electromagnetic field extends indefinitely throughout space and describes the electromagnetic interaction...
weakens because of the slowing inner core
Inner core
The inner core of the Earth, its innermost hottest part as detected by seismological studies, is a primarily solid ball about in radius, or about 70% that of the Moon...
. The slowing Earth causes friction between the crust
Crust (geology)
In geology, the crust is the outermost solid shell of a rocky planet or natural satellite, which is chemically distinct from the underlying mantle...
, the inner and outer core
Outer core
The outer core of the Earth is a liquid layer about 2,266 kilometers thick composed of iron and nickel which lies above the Earth's solid inner core and below its mantle. Its outer boundary lies beneath the Earth's surface...
s creating tremendous earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
s.
Humans and other animals start suffering from sleep fatigue as their bodies cannot properly work in a day longer than 60 hours.
The new oceans at the poles start flooding most of North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and Mediterranean Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
around this time. As the oceans have moved to the Poles, the sea-bed dries out, revealing new land.
Eventually, the Earth stops altogether with one side to the sun, and one face in ice-bound darkness. There are now one ocean in the north, one in the south and the girdle of land around the equator.
World Without Oil
In the first few minutes of approximately 100000 Goilbbl of under-ground oilOil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
vanishing, alarms in oil rig
Oil platform
An oil platform, also referred to as an offshore platform or, somewhat incorrectly, oil rig, is a lаrge structure with facilities to drill wells, to extract and process oil and natural gas, and to temporarily store product until it can be brought to shore for refining and marketing...
s sound as pipe pressure plummets.
One day after oil, asphalt
Asphalt
Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...
, diesel, petrol and tar
Tar
Tar is modified pitch produced primarily from the wood and roots of pine by destructive distillation under pyrolysis. Production and trade in tar was a major contributor in the economies of Northern Europe and Colonial America. Its main use was in preserving wooden vessels against rot. The largest...
supplies become limited. This causes $2 trillion
Trillion
-Numbers:Either of the two numbers :* 1,000,000,000,000 for all short scale countries...
of stock to become worthless. Oil-workers are sacked .
Consumers rush to petrol stations to fill their cars up for the last time. Oil tanker
Oil tanker
An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a merchant ship designed for the bulk transport of oil. There are two basic types of oil tankers: the crude tanker and the product tanker. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crude oil from its point of extraction to refineries...
s are called back to their countries of origin to save spending national reserves of oil. Every mode of inter-national transport is now grounded. However, steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
, food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
, medical supplies and rubbish are not being moved.
Power-stations start running out of diesel. Power cuts start spreading across the world.
5 days after oil. Martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
is declared to stop rioting and looting
Looting
Looting —also referred to as sacking, plundering, despoiling, despoliation, and pillaging—is the indiscriminate taking of goods by force as part of a military or political victory, or during a catastrophe, such as during war, natural disaster, or rioting...
. Unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
rises to 30%. Farm animal
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
s die due to lack of food. Coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
power stations face shortages of coal.
30 days after oil. Passenger trains are running on oil rations and the roads are empty of cars. Government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
s decide to start a program of biofuel
Biofuel
Biofuel is a type of fuel whose energy is derived from biological carbon fixation. Biofuels include fuels derived from biomass conversion, as well as solid biomass, liquid fuels and various biogases...
planting.
5 months after oil, Chrysler
Chrysler
Chrysler Group LLC is a multinational automaker headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925....
, General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
and Ford are taken over by the American government.
Famine
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...
and drug-resistant
Drug resistance
Drug resistance is the reduction in effectiveness of a drug such as an antimicrobial or an antineoplastic in curing a disease or condition. When the drug is not intended to kill or inhibit a pathogen, then the term is equivalent to dosage failure or drug tolerance. More commonly, the term is used...
infection
Infection
An infection is the colonization of a host organism by parasite species. Infecting parasites seek to use the host's resources to reproduce, often resulting in disease...
s threatens death and migration
Human migration
Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic...
as food shipments come every second day. Emergency vehicle
Emergency vehicle
An emergency vehicle is any vehicle that is designated and authorized to respond to an emergency. These vehicles are usually operated by designated agencies, often part of the government, but also run by charities, non-governmental organizations and some commercial companies...
s are still getting oil rations. This inspires citizen
Citizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
s to tinker with chemicals to get biofuel. Governments start to wonder if they should plant crops for food or fuel. They later abandon biofuel planting altogether.
1 year after oil. Emergency vehicles start to be run either by lithium battery
Lithium battery
Lithium batteries are disposable batteries that have lithium metal or lithium compounds as an anode. Depending on the design and chemical compounds used, lithium cells can produce voltages from 1.5 V to about 3.7 V, over twice the voltage of an ordinary zinc–carbon battery or alkaline battery...
or biofuel. The price of lithium
Lithium
Lithium is a soft, silver-white metal that belongs to the alkali metal group of chemical elements. It is represented by the symbol Li, and it has the atomic number 3. Under standard conditions it is the lightest metal and the least dense solid element. Like all alkali metals, lithium is highly...
then shoots up. Populations of wild animal
Wildlife
Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....
s bounce quickly back. People resort to growing their own food and keeping livestock.
10 years after oil, satellites burn up in the atmosphere as parts are not being replaced. Electronic equipment
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
is scavenged for precious metal
Precious metal
A precious metal is a rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical element of high economic value.Chemically, the precious metals are less reactive than most elements, have high lustre, are softer or more ductile, and have higher melting points than other metals...
s as people start recycling
Recycling
Recycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse...
on a huge scale. Algae
Algae
Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelps that grow to 65 meters in length. They are photosynthetic like plants, and "simple" because their tissues are not organized into the many...
is used as a bio-fuel. Lorries
Truck
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, with the smallest being mechanically similar to an automobile...
deliver supplies to hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
s.
40 years after oil, skies are much clearer and cleaner as pollutants are washed out. Aeroplane
Fixed-wing aircraft
A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft capable of flight using wings that generate lift due to the vehicle's forward airspeed. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft in which wings rotate about a fixed mast and ornithopters in which lift is generated by flapping wings.A powered...
s, trains and ship
Ship
Since the end of the age of sail a ship has been any large buoyant marine vessel. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas, and rivers for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing,...
s now run on biofuel. Lithium battery cars are expensive. People only grow what they need. New towns grow along railway
Rail transport
Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
points. A world trade based on biofuel and lithium is now growing.
Red Giant
Swallowed by the SunThe sun expands to its red giant phase. If the sun aged million
Million
One million or one thousand thousand, is the natural number following 999,999 and preceding 1,000,001. The word is derived from the early Italian millione , from mille, "thousand", plus the augmentative suffix -one.In scientific notation, it is written as or just 106...
s of years overnight, the average global temperature
Temperature
Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...
would go up by 36 degrees Fahrenheit. In Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
and Antarctica, snow and ice would begin to melt
Melt
Melt can refer to:* Melting, in physics, the process of heating a solid substance to a liquid*Melt , the semi-liquid material used in steelmaking and glassblowing*Melt inclusions, a feature of igneous rock...
. Sea levels around the world would rise by more than 200 feet (61 m), submerging coastal cities. Regular temperatures this hot, around 130 degrees, are hard for us to handle. If our bodies get just 6 or 7 degrees hotter than normal for an extended period of time, we can suffer permanent injury or death.
At 212 degrees, we can't survive. The heat, hot enough to boil water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
, would blind and suffocate
Suffocation
Suffocation is the process of Asphyxia.Suffocation may also refer to:* Suffocation , an American death metal band* "Suffocation", a song on Morbid Angel's debut album, Altars of Madness...
us.
The magnetosphere
Magnetosphere
A magnetosphere is formed when a stream of charged particles, such as the solar wind, interacts with and is deflected by the intrinsic magnetic field of a planet or similar body. Earth is surrounded by a magnetosphere, as are the other planets with intrinsic magnetic fields: Mercury, Jupiter,...
, an invisible field circling our planet that protects us from blasts of solar radiation, would begin to weaken. The only place humans could survive is underground, but the underground is also hot, so humans turn to wearing spacesuits.
At 300 degrees, water would begin to evaporate
Evaporation
Evaporation is a type of vaporization of a liquid that occurs only on the surface of a liquid. The other type of vaporization is boiling, which, instead, occurs on the entire mass of the liquid....
much faster than it does today. The sun would literally boil water off our Earth. Animals that breathe could not survive these temperatures. Even hardy creatures like cockroaches
Cockroaches
A cockroach is an insect of the order Blattaria. "Cockroach" may also refer to:*Cockroach , a 2001 album by Danger Danger*Cockroach , a 2008 novel by Rawi Hage...
, which lack lung
Lung
The lung is the essential respiration organ in many air-breathing animals, including most tetrapods, a few fish and a few snails. In mammals and the more complex life forms, the two lungs are located near the backbone on either side of the heart...
s, couldn't survive. The oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
levels are so low that fires don't start and the cloud
Cloud
A cloud is a visible mass of liquid droplets or frozen crystals made of water and/or various chemicals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of a planetary body. They are also known as aerosols. Clouds in Earth's atmosphere are studied in the cloud physics branch of meteorology...
s don't rain.
At 700 degrees, all human life on Earth would be finished. We couldn't even survive underground. Oceans would become deserts
Déserts
Déserts is a piece by Edgard Varèse for brass , percussion , piano, and tape. Percussion instruments are exploited for their resonant potential, rather than used solely as accompaniment...
. Cement deteriorates, resulting in collapsing buildings. What is left burns, because oxygen levels shoot back up.
The planet would start turning red at 2,400 degrees as the iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
in Earth's crust begins to rust
Rust
Rust is a general term for a series of iron oxides. In colloquial usage, the term is applied to red oxides, formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the presence of water or air moisture...
.
As the sun expands on its way to becoming a Red Giant, its massive outer edges would begin to slow the Earth’s orbit
Orbit
In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...
. Our planet, now a fireball, burning up like a meteorite
Meteorite
A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. Meteorites can be big or small. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...
, would be swallowed by the sun.
History Television
History Television
History Television is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel that presents programming about history and some non-historical programming of military, science and technology interest. It is owned by Shaw Media. Its French language counterpart is Historia.The channel operates two...
title for this show is "Red Giant", the National Geographic Channel
National Geographic Channel
National Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...
title for it is "Swallowed by the Sun".
Population Overload
Overnight, the populationPopulation
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
of the earth doubles, from about 7 billion to nearly 14 billion.
The governments of the world attempt to cope by ordering the construction of gigantic highrise apartment complexes, but in the meantime, Emergency rationing becomes commonplace. Also, food and water resources are becoming strained as countries struggle to support the doubled population
Eventually the complexes prove to be too little, so a mass migration occurs as people become desperate for water. Over the years, a population crash occurs.
The World After Humans
Population ZeroThe special that started it all. It documents what happens if all humans suddenly disappeared from the planet. The History Television title for this show is "The World After Humans", the National Geographic Channel title for it is "Population Zero".
See also
- Life After PeopleLife After PeopleLife After People is a television documentary series where scientists and other experts speculate about what the Earth might be like if humanity no longer existed, as well as the impact humanity's disappearance might have on the environment and the artificial aspects of civilization...
, similar TV series - Aftermath: Population ZeroAftermath: Population ZeroAftermath: Population Zero is a two-hour Canadian special documentary film that premiered on Sunday, March 9, 2008 on the National Geographic Channel...
- The World Without UsThe World Without UsThe World Without Us is a non-fiction book about what would happen to the natural and built environment if humans suddenly disappeared, written by American journalist Alan Weisman and published by St. Martin's Thomas Dunne Books. It is a book-length expansion of Weisman's own February 2005 Discover...