Life After People & Aftermath: Population Zero documentaries

[Jeffrey W.]

Board member Sunu started a thread topic called Radioactive Waste, which gave me the idea to include mention of some of his thoughts and ideas here. This is in part, my response, which I have included here to help my fellow gamers.

The "Life After People" film premiered on January 21, 2008 on the History Channel. A similar program called "Aftermath: Population Zero" was a film that premiered on Sunday, March 9, 2008 on the National Geographic Channel.

I have combined and condensed the information featured in those two programs which I believe might be helpful or useful. Although most of the information below was extracted from wikipedia articles on two documentaries, I have only slightly altered some of the theories for use with the Rifts: Chaos Earth RPG game setting.

After the first day of the Great Cataclysm, most power stations shut down, causing cascading black outs worldwide. Wind-driven turbines which have not already been destroyed, without proper maintenance, have their rotors will seize up over time. Solar power doesn't fair much better due to the ash in the atmosphere.

After two days, without steady power consumption, most nuclear power plants will shut down and enter an automatic safe mode to avert a possible meltdown.

After ten days, most food on supermarket shelves and inside home refrigerators has either rotted or been seized by looters. Pets still trapped inside houses die-off; those that can escape homes and yards will begin to scavenge for food, but many domestic dog breeds, especially small dogs and those bred for special qualities like stubby legs and short muzzles, will be unable to survive long in the wild. Meanwhile, household pests like rats and mice thrive on the remaining food supplies; once it runs out, they return back to the wild where their populations will quickly diminish as they become food for predators, and die from the cold.

After six months, without people to suppress them, wild animals will return to the urban landscape. Small predators such as coyotes and bobcats, which roamed on the outskirts of populated areas, will be the first new residents, followed next by larger species such as cougars, wolves and bears.

After one year, wild animals will have found shelter in the abandoned cities. Sparked by lightning and ley line storms, many wild fires will go unchecked without people to fight them. These fires can burn down entire towns and damage the largest cities.

After five years, if they had escaped, it is possible that some zoo animals from exotic areas such as Asia or Africa such as lions, tigers, elephants and rhinos may still survive in the wild if they migrated to the southern climate of the United States.

Any later than that, the game timeline has already started for Chaos Earth. More ideas are included on the other thread in the Rifts section.

Jeffrey W.

[Jeffrey W.]

Just a follow-up thought here. Using Google Earth, go to Latitude 51° 24′ 20″ N, Longitude 30° 3′ 25″ E, and look at a modern city overgrown after a disaster. It's Prypiat, Ukraine, and there are several hundred photos which tourists have posted recently.

Many of these snapshots will fit nicely into a Chaos Earth setting, and are great sources of inspiration for the imagination.

Give it a try whenever you have time. I think you'll like it.

Jeffrey W.

[jaymz]

Exellent, this info is great

[glitterboy2098]

Just a follow-up thought here. Using Google Earth, go to Latitude 51° 24′ 20″ N, Longitude 30° 3′ 25″ E, and look at a modern city overgrown after a disaster. It's Prypiat, Ukraine, and there are several hundred photos which tourists have posted recently.

Many of these snapshots will fit nicely into a Chaos Earth setting, and are great sources of inspiration for the imagination.

Give it a try whenever you have time. I think you'll like it.

Jeffrey W.

likewise This site, has ground level pictures of the same region, part of several pictorial tours of the so-called "deadzone"

After one year, wild animals will have found shelter in the abandoned cities. Sparked by lightning and ley line storms, many wild fires will go unchecked without people to fight them. These fires can burn down entire towns and damage the largest cities.

one good note regarding the fires though will be that once the big blaze sweeps through, fires won't usually get to be that big of a problem again. in nature, fires are the way a healthy ecosystem gets rid of excess underbrush, old trees, and such. human managed forests tend to have these smaller fires put out too early and too often, so the underbrush tends to build up, until it reaches a point the next fire becomes difficult to fight. this is why many national parks have been using programs of controlled burns for the last two decades.

so while there will be a nasty wildfire after civilization goes, afterwards the ecosystem will recover and later fires will return to being smaller and more localized.

[Mech-Viper Prime]

i like it because it given idea of what areas might look like in the times of rifts later on.

[Lt Gargoyle]

i love the shows myself, however i do not see it working well for chaos earth as it was already stated. the conditions on chaos earth are more extreme. not to mention the world is hundred years more advance then current technology. I imagine the nuclear plants are alot safer since they can make a nuclear plant to power a suit of power armor. so there is some heavy advancements.

[keir451]

The funny thing is the areas and radiation levels Elena describe are livable (see the site linked by GB 2098).
The documentaries also don't allow for the possibility of "super natural" predators establishing themselves in the same niches as our own (current) predatory species. Tho' I suppose it is possible that some of the species would bounce back if given enough time .

[Lt Gargoyle]

thats a good point to Keir451.

and they did show that 20 years after the chernobyl inncedent that life will return and i have no doubt that humans could too. if not long term, for the short term. may want to have a giger counter so to test the water. but i would just followed the animals to thiers.

[keir451]

thats a good point to Keir451.

and they did show that 20 years after the chernobyl inncedent that life will return and i have no doubt that humans could too. if not long term, for the short term. may want to have a giger counter so to test the water. but i would just followed the animals to thiers.

It's possible (I think)that with the right water filtration systems they could clean the radiation out of the water and make it potable again.

[Gamer]

The water itself isn't radioactive it's the minerals in it.
You filter out all the radioactive minerals and you will have clean water.
So some water treatment specialists in the army told me anyway.

[Lt Gargoyle]

i was told by my ex father inlaw that the military has a cleaning system that they can use to clean up toxic waste. he was an ex soldier and he always seemed honest. but then again i have not seen this for myself.

but i think it make sense that if you could get the mineral out you would be safe.

[Gamer]

I think he was talking about the very same system I was being told about, the Rowpu made by Meco, in Houston.
The treatment specialists were telling me those things are NBC capable.
I'm betting we are talking about the same sytem though.

"Minerals" was the only thing could think of at the time, but it's the contaminated muck in the water not the water itself, but you get the idea.

[Lt Gargoyle]

i am betting you are right. when i see him this next summer i will ask him the name of the system.
I learn alot from him, he likes to teach people things about surviving disasters.

[Jeffrey W.]

I was thinking about posting this as I read it in German newspaper Der Spiegel recently, but when seeing this story repeated on FoxNews, I decided I should add this information for the benefit of those playing Chaos Earth or Rifts, as it provides more potential second Dark Age info.

The mild winters here in Germany have greatly increased the wild boar population, causing them to run loose through city streets and they attack citizens often.

The last hunting season netted 650,000 boar versus 287,000 in the previous year, but so many are completely inedible due to poisonous radiation, and so the German government is buying contaminated animals from the hunters who catch them.

The explosion at Chernobyl happened a quarter century ago, but high levels of radiation remain in the region’s vegetation. Wild boars are especially susceptible because they eat the mushrooms and truffles, which are especially efficient at absorbing radiation. While general radioactivity in plants should continue to decrease, levels in fungi may even increase, leaving no end in sight for this issue. One expert claimed that the problem will likely remain for at least another 50 years!

Jeffrey W.
(not hunting the glowing boars)