Post Apocolypse Resource

[Inferno!]

For any of you that missed it, History Channel ran a show last night called "Life After People". It doesn't go into why it happens, but the show begins by assuming all people on earth vanish. Then, speaking to scientists, they extrapolate the effects of time and nature encroaching unchecked beginning at one day after...one week...one month...etc.

First it was simply a fascinating show. Second I kept thinking how useful this sort of information could be to a post-apocalyptic game. It will be shown again tomorrow night (Wednesday, Jan. 23) at 8:00 pm

edit: The shows description is:
"Visual effects and expert commentary combine to speculate about what Earth would be like if, suddenly, human were to disappear."

 

[DMH]

It is semibased on the book The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. Be warned, half the book is great and half is pointless drek.

As for the "documentary", it was interesting but glossed over a lot. The book covers the long term effects of weather on nuclear power plants where the show does not (and it even mentions how meltdowns are impossible). The bounce back of life is true, but nothing on how human based invasives are and would seriously impact ecosystems over the globe. The part about the ocean is sad and hopelessly optomistic when all the plastic and other trash introduced, the rising level and acidification due to CO2 levels is taken into account.

Watch it for when buildings fall down and human artifacts decay, not for the effects on life.

 

[Inferno!]

It is semibased on the book The World Without Us by Alan Weisman.

Oh, never heard of the book, thanks.

I'm not a scientist so I can't argue one way or another about what "facts" they presented. Its the rare documentary that is honestly objective. I firmly believe there is a political agenda behind nearly all documentaries. Because of forum rules, I won't go into what I think that agenda is.

Watch it for when buildings fall down and human artifacts decay, not for the effects on life.

Thats what I was getting at. I recall running Gamma World games back in the day and wondered to what extent ruins would actually remain. What surprised me was how long the skeletal ruins of a skyscraper could remain.

 

[Old Drew Id]

Website for the book

Also, it may be a typo in the previous post, but the book shows that (unless humans had at least several days if not weeks to prep the reactors for shutdown) that pretty much every nuclear reactor on the planet (i think around 200-400 of them) would all have meltdowns, so there would be some very large areas of radioactivity.

 

[DMH]

Not a typo, I said that the show "does not (and it even mentions how meltdowns are impossible)." It is an innane statement and I wonder if they did it to reduce tensions over using nuclear power. Why it would matter if humanity is extinct, I have no idea.

 

[richtrickey]

I missed the documentary, have to catch it on a rerun one of these days, but I think the movie I am Legend had a few nice sneak peeks into what a post apoc big city might look like a couple years later. Deer and other animals running around, weeds growing up everywhere, etc.

Made me wonder though, why do the "zombies" waste their time hunting the one uninfected dude in the city instead of just catching a stray deer for dinner...

 

[Kmart Kommando]

I missed the documentary, have to catch it on a rerun one of these days, but I think the movie I am Legend had a few nice sneak peeks into what a post apoc big city might look like a couple years later. Deer and other animals running around, weeds growing up everywhere, etc.

Made me wonder though, why do the "zombies" waste their time hunting the one uninfected dude in the city instead of just catching a stray deer for dinner...

Because he was trapping them for experiments, trying to make a cure.
He had like a hundred pictures of failed cures on the wall.

 

[rgard]

I missed the documentary, have to catch it on a rerun one of these days, but I think the movie I am Legend had a few nice sneak peeks into what a post apoc big city might look like a couple years later. Deer and other animals running around, weeds growing up everywhere, etc.

Made me wonder though, why do the "zombies" waste their time hunting the one uninfected dude in the city instead of just catching a stray deer for dinner...

Hmmm...then the book/movie would have been titled, "Bambi vs. the zombies"?

or better yet, "I am Bambi"?

 

[richtrickey]

Because he was trapping them for experiments, trying to make a cure.
He had like a hundred pictures of failed cures on the wall.

Well, it was just an aside comment, not related to the topic, but I doubt the "zombies" cared much about one of their peers going missing. Aside from being a plot device, there's no reason for them to make suicidal assaults on his lab when dinner is wandering the streets.

 

[Kmart Kommando]

Hmmm...then the book/movie would have been titled, "Bambi vs. the zombies"?

or better yet, "I am Bambi"?

My favorite is Bambi meets Godzilla