Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8026 in DVD
• Brand: A&E HOME ENT.
• Released on: 2008-03-18
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 5.00 pounds
• Running time: 94 minutes

Features

• THE HISTORY CHANNEL and Academy Award-winning special effects studio Industrial Light and Magic (Star Wars, Harry Potter) join forces to imagine the state of planet Earth years after humans disappear. Stunning visual effects show how the environment will change as dams overflow, buildings crumble, and fires engulf once-mighty cities. Domestic animal life will die out and new species will claim the

Studio description
If humans were suddenly to disappear, what would happen to our planet – the structures we've built, the everyday items we take for granted, domesticated and wild animals, plants, trees? What would become of the things that define our species and leave our mark on this Earth?

Visit the ghostly villages surrounding Chernobyl (abandoned by humans after the 1986 nuclear disaster), travel to remote islands off the coast of Maine to search for abandoned towns that have vanished from view in only a few decades, then head beneath the streets of New York to see how subway tunnels may become watery canals.

HISTORY® takes you on an amazing visual journey in Life After People, a though-provoking adventure that combines movie-quality visual effects with insights with insights from experts in the fields of engineering, botany, ecology, biology, geology, climatology, and archeology to demonstrate how the very landscape of our planet will change in our absence.

Amazon.com
The very notion is deliciously ghoulish: What happens to earth if--or when--people suddenly vanished? The History Channel presents a dramatic, fascinating what-if scenario, part science fiction and part true natural science. "Welcome to Earth, Population: 0" is the catchy tagline, Life After People's 94 minutes are so gripping you nearly forget while you watch that you, yourself, will be gone too. It turns out that earth can go along very nicely without us. The hardest part of the special is probably in the first 15 minutes, when pet owners confront what likely will happen to their dogs (thankfully, the show follows those dogs who break out of their houses, and the prognosis for them to survive as scavengers is good). As the fictional days and weeks tick by, the process of nature's reclaiming the planet becomes less grim and more fascinating. The impact of the lack of people will be noticed right away, as most power grids shut down around the planet. The one holdout: Hoover Dam, whose hydro power lights up the American Southwest. Scientists say the dam can continue to operate on its own for months, maybe years, keeping the Vegas Strip alight. Only the eventual accumulation of quagga mussels, an invasive species, in the cooling pipes of the power plant--currently being cleaned by humans--will shut down the dam. Elsewhere, critters and plants will have their run of Manhattan and every other previously "civilized" spot. Inventive photography shows bears clambering out of subway stations, and vines pulling down brownstones, then skyscrapers. It may not be a surprise when the Eiffel Tower and Space Needle meet their eventual fates, but the scenes nonetheless provide a pleasant sting of shock. Life After People is humbling, yet exhilarating. -- A.T. Hurley

Customer Reviews

Eerily Amazing
This show, along with the National Geographic Channel's Aftermath: Population Zero, both bring across the interesting concept of what life on Earth would be like after Humans disappear from the face of the earth, though in the case of both these shows there is no explanation of how we disappeared and only that it was basically overnight. In any case, this and its consort both propose an idea which I myself find intriguing in the one of the most terrifying ways. A must see as well as something I simply could not take my eyes away from while watching it.
This one by the History Channel shows more over a broader range of years since our disappearance, and for a few of the earlier ones compares them to current examples that exist (i.e. 20 years to the land around Chernobyl).
All else I can say is that this is a MUST SEE!

Food for thought
I watched this video on the History Channel. It presents a realistic view of what earth will look like and become after man has managed to destroy himself. Makes you realize just how much we have manipulated earth to suit our needs. Sad to think that everything we've done will be lost and have to be discovered all over again, if human life re-emerges,
at some point in time. The movie doesn't give much hope of preserving
anything between the cock roaches and micro-organisms feeding on and changing the composition of all man made materials. This video will
definitely cause you to think about what really matters.

Very objective vision of one possibility...
I really enjoyed this objective, well-researched and thoroughly explained account of what would happen to the earth if mankind were to disappear. To me, it's not important how this happens, as that would be another film (or several) entirely. This one is about what the results would be on earth if this happened. It does not delve into the causes, but rather the effects, which I thought was enough for any 2-hour program. I was impressed by how well the visuals complimented the dialogue. I didn't feel sad about the loss of mankind's knowledge or achievements- who would they be passed on to, and would they be able to be understood, and would this knowledge only contribute to a faster demise of a future civilization? No, it's up to future beings to develop in their own way. It's good for us to occasionally be reminded how insignificant and expendable we all are. A little humility is not a bad thing!