A WORLD WITHOUT US

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 A World Without us

Researchers
Anna Stolk
Student number: 112125
Class: V6D
Profile: Natuur & Gezondheid met Natuur & Techniek met Aardrijkskunde

Yurian Lagrand
Student number: 112122
Class: V6C
Profile: Natuur & Gezondheid met Natuur & Techniek met Economie

Accompanist
Mr. Spierings

Location
Libanon Lyceum
Rotterdam
13 – 01 – 2022
Foreword

We are Anna Stolk and Yurian Lagrand, students of Libanon Lyceum Rotterdam.

We live in a time where the news is rarely anything good, with climate change, wars, pollution, the
coronavirus, et cetera. We kept seeing all these problems arise, but a solution often was not
presented. At this rate, our generation will be left with an unsalvageable planet. To maybe try to fix
one of these problems, we wanted to focus our project on a solution for one. So, we had to choose a
problem, with a long list of problems in hand we realised that all of them have one thing in common:
they are all caused by us, humans. So the simplest solution to our problems would be to take the
‘our’ out of it. We started thinking about what the world would look like without us, resulting in our
chosen topic.

We want to thank our teacher Mr Spierings for guiding us through our project. We also want to
thank Alan Weisman for the many insights his book ‘The World Without Us’ has given us.

We hope you enjoy reading this, that is if you would also like to know how the world would ‘move
on’ without us, humans.

Table of Contents
Summary...............................................................................................................................................1
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Research Setup......................................................................................................................................4
Main question....................................................................................................................................4
Sub questions....................................................................................................................................4
Methods of research.........................................................................................................................4
Part I: A World With Us.........................................................................................................................6
In which ways do humans influence the Earth?....................................................................................6
Deforestation.....................................................................................................................................7
On what scale is deforestation happening?...................................................................................7
What are the effects of deforestation?.........................................................................................8
Coral bleaching................................................................................................................................10
What is coral bleaching?..............................................................................................................10
What causes coral bleaching?......................................................................................................10
What are the effects of coral bleaching?.....................................................................................11
Overfishing......................................................................................................................................12
What is overfishing?....................................................................................................................12
What causes overfishing?............................................................................................................12
What are the effects of overfishing?...........................................................................................12
Burning fossil fuels...........................................................................................................................14
What are fossil fuels?..................................................................................................................14
Why do we burn fossil fuels?.......................................................................................................15
What are the effects of burning fossil fuels?...............................................................................15
Plastic pollution...............................................................................................................................16
What is pollution?........................................................................................................................16
What causes plastic pollution?....................................................................................................16
What are the effects of plastic pollution?....................................................................................19
Water pollution...............................................................................................................................20
What is water pollution?.............................................................................................................20
What causes water pollution and what are the effects?.............................................................21
Light pollution..................................................................................................................................23
What is light pollution?................................................................................................................23
What causes light pollution?.......................................................................................................25
 What are the effects of light pollution?.......................................................................................25
Air pollution (NOT DONE, IP)...........................................................................................................26
What is air pollution?...................................................................................................................26
What causes air pollution?..........................................................................................................26
What are the effects of air pollution?..........................................................................................26
Pesticides.........................................................................................................................................29
What are pesticides?...................................................................................................................29
What are the effects of pesticides?.............................................................................................29
Poaching..........................................................................................................................................30
What is poaching?.......................................................................................................................30
What are the effects of poaching?...............................................................................................30
Release of CFCs..............................................................................................................................31
What are CFCs?............................................................................................................................31
What causes the release of CFCs?...............................................................................................31
What are the effects of CFCs?.....................................................................................................31
Overpopulation................................................................................................................................33
What is overpopulation?.............................................................................................................33
What are the effects of overpopulation?.....................................................................................34
Desertification.................................................................................................................................35
What is desertification?...............................................................................................................35
What causes desertification?.......................................................................................................35
What are the effects of desertification?......................................................................................36
Extraction of natural resources.......................................................................................................37
Extraction of oil and gas...............................................................................................................37
Extraction of coal.........................................................................................................................38
Forest fires.......................................................................................................................................39
What causes forest fires?............................................................................................................39
What are the effects of forest fires?............................................................................................40
Radiation.........................................................................................................................................41
What is radiation?........................................................................................................................41
What causes radiation?................................................................................................................42
What are the effects of radiation?................................................................................................46
Urbanisation....................................................................................................................................47
What is urbanisation?..................................................................................................................47
What are the effects of urbanisation?.........................................................................................47
Conflicts and wars (NOT CHECKED).................................................................................................48
 What are the effects of conflicts and wars?................................................................................48
Transportation (NOT CHECKED).......................................................................................................50
What are the effects of transportation?......................................................................................50
Construction (NOT CHECKED)..........................................................................................................54
What are the effects of construction?.........................................................................................54
Concrete..............................................................................................................................................56
What are the effects of concrete?...............................................................................................56
Landfill (NOT CHECKED)...................................................................................................................57
What is a landfill?........................................................................................................................57
What are the effects of landfills?.................................................................................................57
Food waste......................................................................................................................................58
What are the effects of food waste?...........................................................................................58
Fast fashion.....................................................................................................................................59
What is fast fashion?...................................................................................................................59
What are the effects of fast fashion?...........................................................................................59
Overuse of electricity.......................................................................................................................60
What causes the loss of electricity and what are the effects?.....................................................60
Factory farming...............................................................................................................................61
What are the effects of factory farming?.....................................................................................61
Part II: A World Without Us.................................................................................................................63
What would happen to our constructions?.........................................................................................64
Urban areas.....................................................................................................................................64
Rural and suburban areas................................................................................................................64
Our monuments..............................................................................................................................64
Mount Rushmore.........................................................................................................................64
The Eiffel Tower...........................................................................................................................65
The Statue of Liberty...................................................................................................................65
The Great Pyramid of Giza...........................................................................................................65
Bronze sculptures........................................................................................................................66
Chlorofluorocarbons........................................................................................................................66
Nuclear reactors and storage..........................................................................................................66
What would change about the current location of the climate zones?...............................................67
What would the new geological map look like over time?..................................................................68
What would happen to the flora and fauna?......................................................................................70
Oceanic............................................................................................................................................70
Flora.............................................................................................................................................70
 Fauna...........................................................................................................................................70
Terrestrial........................................................................................................................................70
Flora.............................................................................................................................................70
Fauna...........................................................................................................................................70
Our pets...........................................................................................................................................71
What would happen to the climate and its recent change?................................................................72
What would happen to our litter?.......................................................................................................73
A timeline of events.............................................................................................................................74
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................75
Recommendations...............................................................................................................................76
Logbook...............................................................................................................................................77
Reflection............................................................................................................................................78
Sources................................................................................................................................................79
Appendix I: Maps of extraction of natural resources...........................................................................93
Summary

There are many different ways that humanity is changing the planet. Every industry has its path to
pollution and damage. Those paths are often intertwined and connected but never the same. The
longer humanity exists, the more our effects on the planet stack and start causing consequences, of
which we do not yet know whether they are reversible. We pollute the sky: warming up the Earth
and causing health complications for all organisms that need air. We pollute the waters: warming
them up and killing coral reefs, filling them with toxin-releasing plastics and killing other creatures.
We even pollute the ground: microplastics are found at depths where the ground is older than the
invention of plastic.

Where we are right now, it looks like the planet can still save itself and regrow to its natural balance
over the course of millions of years, removing most of humanity’s traces of the face of the Earth,
almost as if we have never existed. The planet is capable of undoing global warming, shifting back
the climate zones, eroding away all of our structures, for now. The question is when we break
through the point of no return.  

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Introduction

In the last few hundred years, mankind's impact on our planet has grown exponentially: we have
disrupted the ecosystems, polluted the skies and infected the Earth with nuclear waste, not even
mentioning acid rain, desertification, deforestation, overharvesting, the introduction of invasive
species and more!

Settled in every continent, in isolated corners of Earth's jungles, tundras and oceans, humans can be
found everywhere. Our profound impact has led scientists to believe humanity has left a permanent
mark on Earth's geological record. So, what would happen with the factors influenced by humans if
suddenly every human on Earth were to vanish in 2021?

Combining all our greenhouse gases, humans emit 50 billion tons of carbon dioxide counterparts
each year1, nothing stopping these emissions from rising. Recently the consequences have become
more severe and noticeable. Almost every year breaks some dreadful record: may it be the most
glaciers melting, most heatwaves, or the lowest amount of ice ever recorded at the North Pole. At
our current CO₂ emission rate, the ocean near Antarctica will be ice-free by 2050, more than one
million species may be extinct. Furthermore, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, sea levels will rise as much as 2 feet or 0.61 meters. As we constructed it in the last 150
years, Modern industrial society is inherently destructive to the planet. In short, all we do to make
our lives safer, easier and more comfortable is making things worse for the biosphere.

Our not-so-far-away future, the year 2090, looks even grimmer. At this point, the rapid spike in our
population will have depleted the Earth's resources, having risen from 7.8 billion to an astonishing
11 billion, a number our planet simply cannot sustain. Rainforests will be on the verge of extinction
as a result of our ever-increasing need for fuel, land and paper. This, the death of the world's most
biologically diverse ecosystem, will lead to the displacing and endangering of millions of species. Not
long after the vanishing of the creatures of the rainforest, marine life will follow, caused by our
enormous population and their alarming consumption of seafood daily. Countless ecosystems will
die while the rising oceans swallow coasts and the cities we build on them.

After humans, ultimately, fail to reduce their water consumption, the oceans will become empty,
and rivers will run dry, leading to the most substantial fresh-water shortage in history.

Record-breaking heatwaves resulting from climbing global temperatures are a price the agricultural
industry will be paying. Consequently, the world will grow fewer natural produce than ever before,
resources, from fresh fruit to drink water, are dwindling.

Saving our beloved planet seems almost impossible, with big corporations shifting the blame on
their sole consumers. Politicians struggling to find solutions for the real problems, unlike banning
plastic straws. A rapidly increasing population size and their need for food, homes and clothing. Not
to overlook their demand for luxury products, from one-dollar cheeseburgers to iPhones. A side-
effect of our population growth is that the richer and more developed we are, the more emissions
our lifestyle produce. Reducing CO₂ emissions seems impossible with the unlikeliness that rich
countries will give up the concept of (economic) growth anytime soon.

1
Ritchie, 2020a
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The people are more divided than ever, the rich vs the poor, the pro- vs the anti-nuclear energy 2, the
scientists vs the conspiracy theorists. Developed countries, blaming the developing countries on the
rise, like China: the world's greatest CO₂ emitter today, accounting for 27 per cent of global
emissions3, also making up 18.5 per cent of the world's population 4. Meanwhile, developing
countries shift the blame on developed countries and their 'lifestyle' emissions.

These problems mainly lay in our future, but what if there was no future for humanity? Of all species
on Earth, humans have left the most substantial impact on our planet, but to fully understand the
scale of our impact, we need to see what the world would be like without us. If we suddenly
disappeared: what would happen to our cities, our highways, our rivers, and our greatest
monuments? What would happen to the factors we humans have so heavily influenced in the last
few centuries? What would this new world be like? A world without us.

2
Keele University, 2011
3
Ritchie, 2019
4
China Population (2022) - Worldometer, z.d.
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Research Setup

Main question
“What would happen with the factors influenced by humans if suddenly every human on Earth were
to vanish in 2021?”

Sub questions
“In which ways do humans influence the earth?”

“What would happen to our constructions?”

“What would change about the current location of the climate zones?”

“What would the new geological map look like over time?”

“What would happen with the flora and fauna?”

“What would happen with the climate and its recent change?”

“What would happen with our litter, like the plastic soup?”

Methods of research
Literature review (internet, libraries)

Consider other people's hypotheses

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Part I: A World With Us

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Part I: A World With Us
In which ways do humans influence the Earth?

According to a recent report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, abbreviated
to IPCC, the human race is headed for a climate catastrophe. The events that have recently
devastated many parts of the planet, for example, floods, fires and other extreme weather events
are only set to become more frequent due to human-induced climate change.

From the use of pesticides to deforestation, food waste and fast fashion, here are the most
significant ways we humans are killing our home planet.

Figure 1 New Delhi pollution

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Deforestation

Figure 2 Deforestation

On what scale is deforestation happening?

Earth without its forests is hard to imagine, after all: forests cover about 30 per cent of the Earth’s
land area, helping people thrive and survive by, for example, purifying air and water. Trees absorb
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and are an essential resource for mitigating global heating,
heat-trapping greenhouse gases that human activities emit, slowing down the pace of climate
change. Forests also hold a vital part of the answer to preserving wildlife, as, according to WWF, 80
per cent of the world’s land-based species, for instance, rhinos and elephants, live in forests.

However, forests are disappearing at an alarming rate. Deforestation, the mass destruction of trees,
continues as we sacrifice the long-term benefits of standing trees for our short-term gain.

According to the World Bank: between 1990-2016, the Earth lost 1.3 million square kilometres of
forest, an area larger than South Africa. And according to data released by Imazon, the Amazon
rainforest lost 10,476 square kilometres between August 2020 and July 2021, an area roughly the
size of Jamaica, making this the highest rate of deforestation since 2012 and 57 per cent higher than
the year before.

According to the Journal Nature, ever since our tree cutting antics started, 46 per cent of all trees
have been felled. Over the past 50 years, about 17 per cent of the Amazonian rainforest has been
destroyed. Losses recently have been on the rise. Most of this decline was caused by the growing
demand for wood, paper products and agricultural land use.

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If no action is taken, 11 of the world’s most ecologically forest landscapes, including forest homes of
tigers, elephants and orangutans, will account for over 80 per cent of forest loss globally by 2030,
according to a WWF report. Between 2010 and 2030, up to 420 million acres of forest could be lost if
current trends continue. The ‘deforestation hot spots’ are located in the Amazon, the Atlantic Forest
and Gran Chaco, Borneo, the Cerrado, Choco-Darien, the Congo Basin, East Africa, Eastern Australia,
Greater Mekong, New Guinea, and Sumatra.

Figure 3 Area of forest lost per hour from 1990 - 2015

What are the effects of deforestation?

The loss of this forest means it can no longer remove CO 2 from the air and no longer house species
living in it. The reduced CO2 intake leads to the amount of CO2 increasing even faster, causing the
planet to warm up more rapidly than it would with forests. Species having to move can lead to two
things: they can either adapt to their new living conditions or fail to do so, which will result in the
population dying off.

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Figure 4 Change in forest area by country (1990)

Figure 5 Change in forest area by country (2000)

Figure 6 Change in forest area by country (2015)

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Coral bleaching

Figure 7 Coral before and after coral bleaching

What is coral bleaching?

Coral bleaching is the process of corals losing their vibrant colours and turning white. However,
there is a lot more to it than that. Corals have a symbiotic relationship with microscopic algae called
zooxanthellae. These algae are the coral's primary food source and give them their bright and
colourful appearance. But when the mutually beneficial relationship becomes stressed due to
environmental changes, the algae leave the coral's tissue. This stress can be caused by changes in
ocean temperature, runoff and pollution, overexposure to sunlight or extremely low tides. Without
the algae, the coral loses its primary food source, turns white or very pale looking like it has been
bleached and becomes more susceptible to disease. If the coral remains stressed and the
temperature stays high, the coral will not get the algae back. This causes the coral to lose its ability
to gain energy from photosynthesis, eventually killing the coral.

What causes coral bleaching?

These rising temperatures are mainly caused by global climate change, for the reason that a
warming planet means a warming ocean. A water temperature rise of as little as 2 degrees Celsius
can already cause coral to dispel algae. However, a drop in temperature can also cause this
phenomenon. For example, in the Florida Keys, the water temperature dropped by 6,7 °C below
average, causing the coral to bleach. Research by a joint collaboration between Bar-Ilan University's
Mina, Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences and the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Science
in Eilat about whether a drop in temperature, like a temperature rise, also makes the coral more
susceptible to disease is still being conducted.

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What are the effects of coral bleaching?
When these corals bleach and finally die, the once magnificently looking reefs rarely ever come back.
The few surviving corals struggle to reproduce, causing entire reef ecosystems, on which wildlife and
people depend, to deteriorate.

Bleaching, however, is not an isolated phenomenon. According to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Association, between 2014 and 2017, around 75 per cent of the world’s tropical coral
reefs experienced heat stress severe enough to trigger bleaching. That heat stress was enough to kill
coral for 30 per cent of the world’s reefs.

Supporting some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet: coral reefs have thousands of
marine animals that depend on them for survival, including fish, shrimp, crabs, jellyfish, starfish, sea
birds, some species of sea turtles and more. Coral reefs support organisms at the base of oceanic
food chains and, in addition, provide shelter, protection from predators and spawning grounds.
Already at-risk species may face extinction as reef ecosystems collapse.

Figure 8 Coral bleaching

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Overfishing

Figure 9 A boat bottom trawl fishing

What is overfishing?
Overfishing is the use of industrial-scale fishing techniques to meet our ever-growing demand for
fish, consequently depleting our oceans and taking a substantial toll on sea- and human life.

What causes overfishing?

Several factors explain why we are overfishing. The most influential factor is that fisheries do not
care about the environment: they fish whatever they can and throw away all the fish they did not
intend to catch. Take bottom trawl fishing as an example, a method used across the globe, whereby
a large weighted net is swept along the ocean floor to catch fish. Bottom trawl fishing harms corals
and picks up unwanted species, including sea turtles and dolphins, in a process known as bycatch. As
reported by the UN in 2018, one-third of all fish caught globally never make it onto people's plates.

Another sizeable factor is the lack of action from politicians: there are not enough restrictions on the
fishing industry as a whole, allowing them to fish over 20 per cent above advised quotas in some
well-developed countries. Neither national governments nor the EU is actively trying to stop this
issue, and thus it is likely that it will remain unsolved in the foreseeable future.

What are the effects of overfishing?

The most noticeable effect of overfishing is the endangering of ocean ecosystems, which may
collapse if there is no proper balance between fish and the other species that make up the
ecosystem.

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A less obvious effect is that the lack of fish in these ecosystems also affects the amount of fish
caught by the fisheries. Estimated is that almost half of the Earth's population depends on seafood
as a source of protein. If there is a shortage of fish and other seafood because we fished it into
extinction, all those people will need a different source of protein. This source will most likely be
produced on land and cause a few other side effects.

The most impactful effect of them all might be the possible collapse of entire ecosystems with the
withdraw of just a single species of fish. The downfall of one ecosystem can lead to countless
different effects that influence the planet in many ways, some may be positive, but most will be
negative.

Figure 10 Graph of the cod landings in Newfoundland

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Burning fossil fuels

Figure 11 Burning of fossil fuels

What are fossil fuels?

Fossil fuels are natural non-renewable energy sources, like oil, coal, and natural gas. Fossil fuels were
formed during the carboniferous period, approximately 360 to 286 million years ago, over hundreds
of millions of years. Below the Earth’s surface, decomposing organic matter was trapped under rocks
and sediment and subjected to pressure and heat. This process resulted in the energy-dense
hydrocarbon-filled fossil fuels that we use today.

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Figure 12 Forming of fossil fuels

Why do we burn fossil fuels?

Fossil fuels can be burned to produce electricity, or refined to use as fuel for heating or
transportation. They are sought after energy sources due to their high energy density, the amount of
energy (as in a beam of radiation) per unit volume, and are the world’s dominant energy source.
According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, fossil fuels supply about 80 per cent of
the world’s energy. Fossil fuels can also be used to make a variety of common products like plastics,
cosmetics and even some medicines.

What are the effects of burning fossil fuels?

The burning of fossil fuels, the world’s primary energy source, releases carbon dioxide. This activity
creates the majority of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, leading to the warming of the
planet. In addition, their production causes both environmental and human health issues.

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Plastic pollution

Figure 13 Plastic pollution

What is pollution?
Since its invention, we have produced about 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic. Plastic has saturated
our environment, invaded the animals we eat and is now finding its way into our bodies. Plastic,
made from polymers, is a cheap, sterile and convenient material. Today, plastic can be found in
almost anything: our clothes, phones, computers, furniture, appliances, houses, cars and packaging:
40 per cent of plastics are used to create packaging. In the United States, packaging makes up 1/3 of
all the waste that is generated annually. More than 6.3 billion metric tons of plastic have become
waste since 1907. Piled up in one place, that makes a cube with a side length of 1.9 kilometres.
Plastic, being an incredibly durable material, takes between 500 and 1,000 years to break down. Due
to this 79 per cent of our plastic waste is sticking around still. A lot ends up in the ocean, around 8
million tons a year. That's so much plastic that it will outweigh all the fish in the ocean by 2050. All
the plastic that ends up in the environment attributes to plastic pollution, creating problems for
wildlife and their habitats as well as for human populations.

What causes plastic pollution?

40 per cent of the plastic we use is single-use plastic, items such as bags, trays, bottles and food
packaging. Every year we use several billion of these items, throwing them away after using them
just once. Much of this single-use plastic ends up in the environment due to littering or bad
infrastructure, like no waste collection system. However, single-use plastic is not the only villain of
this story. The real villain is microplastics - plastics smaller than 4.75 millimetres - polluting the
environment yet remaining invisible to the naked eye.

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For example, machine washing and drying of synthetic clothes let loose millions of microfibers into
the drainage system, reaching the oceans when carried to the sea by downhill water flows.

In 1950 the world produced no more than 2 million tonnes of plastic per year. Ever since, this
amount has increased nearly 200-fold, reaching 381 million tonnes in 2015. From 1950 to 2015, the
world had produced 7.8 billion tonnes of plastic, which is more than one tonne of plastic per person
alive today.

Figure 14 Cumulative global plastics production, 1950 to 2015

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Figure 15 Annual global plastics production, 1950 to 2015

In 2015 only 19.5 per cent of plastics were recycled, 25.5 per cent were incinerated, and 55 per cent
was discarded. From 1950 to 2015, 4600 million tonnes of plastic went straight to landfill or was
discarded, and only 500 million tonnes were recycled.

Figure 16 Global plastic waste by disposal, 1980 to 2015

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Figure 17 Global plastic production and its fate (1950-2015)

What are the effects of plastic pollution?

As indicated before plastic has a vast impact on ecosystems and wildlife, however, the full extent of
the impact plastic has on ecosystems is not yet known. There are three major ways plastic debris can
affect wildlife: entanglement, ingestion and interaction. In 2015 already 90 per cent of seabirds had
eaten plastic, adding to that at least 233 marine species have been documented containing plastic.

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Water pollution

Figure 18 Toxic green algae in Copco Reservoir, northern California

What is water pollution?

Water pollution is the contamination of lakes, rivers, oceans or other bodies of water by harmful
(toxic) substances, degrading the quality of water. Pollutants include trash, chemicals, parasites and
bacteria. These forms of pollution eventually make their way to the water, rendering it toxic to
humans or the environment.

For example, waste dumped in a vacant lot can, by land pollution, seep into an underground stream,
thus, polluting a water supply, making the water unusable for cooking, drinking, cleaning, swimming
and other activities.

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What causes water pollution and what are the effects?
There are several types of water pollution: sewage and wastewater, radioactive substances, oil spills
and eutrophication. They all have different but devastating effects on the world.

Sewage and Wastewater

In simple terms, used water is wastewater. Most, if not all, wastewater comes from sinks, showers,
dishwashers and other household appliances that use water. Sewage, a subcategory of wastewater,
contains faeces, urine or laundry detergent and, for example, comes from toilets or laundry
machines. Additionally, wastewater can come from industrial or agricultural activities. This
wastewater can contain biological contaminants like pathogens, inorganic materials such as metals
and compounds or even organic matter that can cause eutrophication.

Eutrophication
Sometimes fertilizers end up in natural waters, rivers, lakes or other habitats, leading to a couple of
consequences for the inhabitants of this water. Because there are way too many nutrients like
phosphate and nitrate in the water after fertilizers enter it, the aquatic plants start rapidly growing.
This leads to fish having more food to consume, causing them to grow too and reproduce at higher
rates, leading to a larger fish population and a higher amount of dead fish. Due to the bacteria
breaking down dead biomass consuming increasing amounts of oxygen, the water enters a state of
hypoxia. The increasing number of algae shields the deeper parts of the water from sunlight, causing
aquatic plants to die, releasing even more nutrients for fish. In the end, this creates a causal loop,
leading to less biodiversity in the habitat.

Radioactive substances
Water can get contaminated with radioactive substances. This can happen to groundwater because
of erosion and exposure underground, but it can also happen to other water because of human-
caused processes. For example, nuclear submarines can cause radioactive contamination during
accidents like sinking, and other nuclear-related accidents can lead to a large spread of radioactive
particles that may end up in the water. When water is radioactive, it will emit radiation and cause
damage to organisms living in it, living around it, or even consuming it.

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Oil spills
Oil has many different ways it can end up in sea or ocean water, a pipeline transporting oil breaks,
some oil is leaked while refuelling a ship, a drilling operation goes wrong, an oil tanker sinks. The
effects can last for decades. Plants or animals get covered in oil, bird wings coated in oil render the
bird unable to fly, a sea otter’s fur’s insulating properties are removed, exposing it to the cold. Not
only that but oil consists of many toxic compounds. These compounds can cause heart damage,
immune system effects, stunned growth, or ultimately death.

Figure 19 Largest oil spills affecting U.S. waters

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Light pollution

Figure 20 Light pollution

What is light pollution?

Light pollution is the excessive or inappropriate use of outdoor artificial light, light created by people
and industry. Light pollution, a global issue, is clearly visible on the World Atlas of Night Sky
Brightness, a map published in 2016 generated by a computer and based on thousands of satellite
photos. Some of the most light-polluted countries on Earth are: Singapore, Qatar, and Kuwait,
meanwhile the least light-polluted countries on Earth are: Chad, the Central African Republic, and
Madagascar.

Figure 21 World Atlas of Night Sky Brightness

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Light pollution has many different types and sources. When we talk about light pollution, we tend to
mean one of five specific types:

Over-illumination
Over-illumination, caused by the misuse of light, is
when lights that do not have to be turned on are. For
example, offices in a building not turning off their
lights at night or streetlights turning on too early.

Glare
Glare, a two-fold problem, is when lights are
reflected off surrounding surfaces, making the light
scatter and cause vision problems, making normal
sight of a particular area difficult due to a painful and
uncomfortably bright ‘gleam’.

Light Clutter
Light clutter, a uniquely man-made issue, stems from
poor placement design, for example, a cluster of
business lights or streetlights.

Figure 22 Unwanted glare

Skyglow
Skyglow, the almost dome-like cover of light hovering in the clouds and sky above major
metropolitan areas, is the light escaping from outdoor advertising, street lamps, cars, factories,
offices and buildings. This light goes up to change the quality of light in the atmosphere, bouncing it
back down to the city from the atmosphere, brightening the night sky and turning night into day.
Over 80 per cent of the world’s population, and 99 per cent of Europeans and Americans, live under
sky glow.

Figure 23 Skyglow Ashurst Lake July 8 2016

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Light Trespass
Light trespass, a crime in many areas, refers to unwanted light entering someone’s property, for
example, the light from a sign coming into a residential area.

What causes light pollution?

Light pollution is a man-made problem and has no comparable natural form, unlike the carbon
dioxide cycle. The main causes of light pollution are: infrastructure planning, irresponsible use,
overpopulation, excessive use of light, smog and clouds, lights from cars and other motor vehicles,
street lamps, light from houses, garage lamps, nighttime-lighting and downtown areas.

What are the effects of light pollution?

Light pollution affects both humans and animals. It disrupts our circadian rhythm, thereby impacting
our health and throwing animals their diurnal or nocturnal system out of sync. Light pollution also
affects the Earth’s ecosystem, causes sleeping problems, pollutes the air and atmosphere, affects
traffic and is a waste of resources.

25
Air pollution

Figure 24 Air pollution in Tokyo

What is air pollution?

Air pollution is the contamination of the indoor or outdoor environment by any chemical or particle
in the air modifying the natural characteristics of the atmosphere. Air pollution causes harm to the
health of humans, animals and plants, as well as damaging buildings. Pollutants in the air take many
forms. They can be gases, solid particles, or liquid droplets. These pollutants commonly originate
from household combustion devices, motor vehicles, industrial facilities and forest fires. Pollutants
that concern public health include carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and
particulate matter.

What causes air pollution?

There are two main types of air pollution: ambient and household air pollution. We use the term
ambient air pollution to describe air pollution in outdoor environments; typical sources of ambient
air pollution include combustion processes from motor vehicles, industry and solid fuel burning.
Household air pollution is a broader term used to describe air pollution commonly caused by
tobacco smoke, wood-burning heaters, mould and unflued gas heaters. These are all man-made
sources of pollution called anthropogenic sources. Natural sources of air pollution include ash from
volcanoes and smoke from wildfires.

What are the effects of air pollution?

Household air pollution causes an estimated 3.8 million deaths yearly. In that same time, ambient air
pollution causes another estimated 4.2 million deaths due to heart disease, stroke, lung cancer or
acute and chronic respiratory diseases. Not only humans, but also animals are affected by ambient
air pollution, dying from diseases caused by the bad air quality.

Pollution in the air can also affect waterways, since water takes up some of the particles causing the
water to be polluted as well. Even the rain can become dangerous, certain pollutants can react with
the oxygen and water in the air to form acids. These acids can be transported long distances by the
wind, leading to a large area of effect. When acid rain reaches the ground the acidic water flows
through the ground, damaging organic matter wherever it goes.

26
In the following images, the increase in deaths attributable to outdoor air pollution from 2004 to
2016 is visible.

Figure 25 Deaths attributable to ambient air pollution, 2004

Figure 26 Deaths attributable to ambient air pollution, 2008

27
Figure 27 Deaths attributable to ambient air pollution, 2016

Figure 28 Death attributable to household air pollution, 2016

28
Pesticides

Figure 29 Tractor spraying pesticides

What are pesticides?

Pesticides are substances used to control, destroy or prevent pests, harmful organisms or diseases.
Farmers around the world increasingly use pesticides to protect their crops.

What are the effects of pesticides?

Pesticides can contaminate water, soil, turf, and other vegetation. In addition to killing weeds or
insects, pesticides can be toxic to hosts of other organisms like fish, birds, non-target plants and
beneficial insects.

29
Poaching

Figure 30 A Thai citizen convicted in South Africa in a rhino-hunting scheme

What is poaching?
Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of
wild animals, such as tigers for their skins and
bones, elephants for their tusks made of ivory,
pangolins for their scales, and turtles for their
shells. Even though poaching is an illegal
activity it is still rife in many parts of the world
due to the profitability of these animal parts
on the black market. Between 2007 and 2013
rhino poaching in South Africa increased from
13 to 1,004, amounting to an increase of
roughly 7,700 per cent.
Figure 31 Poached elephant tusks

What are the effects of poaching?

Poaching, one of the primary reasons animals face a risk of extinction, has devastating consequences
for wildlife. Between 2014 and 2017 alone, more than 100,000 African elephants were killed for
ivory. Another species heavily affected by poaching are rhinos, with over a thousand slaughtered a
year, for their horns. Not only does poaching affect animal numbers in the wild, but poaching also
affects their welfare. Captured animals are stuffed into suitcases, boxes, or sacks, and even though
they might survive transport, they often suffer in their unusual, man-made situations.

30
Release of CFCs
What are CFCs?
CFC is short for chlorofluorocarbon, a chemical released into the air by running various applications.
Because the CFCs diffused in the air, the ocean absorbed some of them. Since then, the use of CFCs
has reduced greatly and currently, this allows us to date water based on its CFC-12/CFC-11 ratio
using similar techniques used in radiocarbon dating.

What causes the release of CFCs?

CFCs are released into the environment by applicants like air-conditioning, refrigeration, blowing
agents in foams and propellants in aerosol cans. They are fit for these uses because of their low
toxicity, reactivity and flammability. Every form of CFC made from the two simplest alkanes and
halogens has been researched, and most have been commercialised. This commercialisation led to
widespread usage of these CFCs.

What are the effects of CFCs?

After the CFCs had become widely used, scientists discovered it was harmful to the environment.
One of the main effects of CFCs on the environment is depleting the ozone layer. This layer protects
the Earth from potentially dangerous radiation, like UV rays. Moreover, they are also one of the
most effective greenhouse gases, sometimes even being referred to as causing a super greenhouse
effect.

Figure 32 Ozone analysis over the years at 25 September

31
Figure 33 depicts the effects of various greenhouse gases. It might seem like CO₂ is the most
impactful. However, the greenhouse effect’s sensitivity for increasing CO₂ concentration is very low,
causing the global temperature to rise only slightly with a rise in the CO₂ concentration because CO₂
is very close to saturation. CFCs, however, are far from reaching saturation, and thus their effects on
the global temperature are more severe.

One of the reasons CFCs are applicable is because of their low reactivity. Their low reactivity seemed
like an advantage at first, allowing it to be a relatively safe gas for usage. However, their low
reactivity turned out to be a massive flaw when discovered that this causes the lifespan of CFCs to
be incredibly long, with their effects lasting just as long.

Figure 33 Influence of some of the greenhouse gases per year

32
Overpopulation

Figure 34 Overpopulation

What is overpopulation?
As of right now, never before in history have there been so many people on Earth. Our numbers
have skyrocketed, from 1 billion in 1800 to 2.3 billion in 1940, 3.7 billion in 1970, and 7.4 billion in
2016. By 2024 Earth’s population is estimated to reach nine billion, with the populace still growing
by about 80 million each year. Our planet is becoming overpopulated, with environmental resources
failing to meet our requirements regarding nutrition, shelter and so forth.

33
Figure 35 Population 1800 to 2021

What are the effects of overpopulation?

Overpopulation is a climate concern, as it is an unavoidable fact that each person on Earth increases
carbon emissions. Not only does overpopulation cause an increase in carbon emissions, but also a
depletion of natural resources. Our current needs for water and food are far greater than the limited
amount the Earth can produce, leading to environmental damage. Overpopulation can lead to a rise
in deforestation due to the need for more land and can worsen noise pollution due to a higher
population density. Overpopulation also contributes to the urban sprawl issue.

34
Desertification

What is desertification?
Desertification is the process of fertile land turning into desert, permanently degrading land that was
once arable. Desertification occurs during extended periods of drought in arid, semi-arid, or dry sub-
humid areas, known as drylands. Due to these extended periods of drought drylands get sapped of
their productivity until they become dead soil. These drylands make up over 40 per cent of the
world's terrestrial surface area. Today roughly 2 billion people inhabit drylands across the globe,
making pressure upon the land greater than ever. By 2045 as many as 135 billion people are
expected to be displaced due to desertification.

What causes desertification?

Desertification can be caused by over-cultivation, overgrazing and extreme weather events,
including drought. Other factors including urbanization, mining, ranching, and excessive use of water
can cause the permanent degradation of land too. During these activities, animal hooves pound the
dirt, crops deplete nutrients in the soil and the trees and other vegetation, are cleared away. Climate
change also increases the process of desertification, increasing the risk of extended periods of
drought.

Since subsistence farming is most common across the poorest and most vulnerable populations, the
widespread risk of desertification hits these affected regions the hardest, spanning more than 100
countries. According to the European Commission’s World Atlas of Desertification, over 75 per cent
of the Earth’s dry area is already degraded. By the year 2050, this percentage could rise to more
than 90 per cent. Annually a total area half the size of the European Union (4.18 million square
kilometres) is degraded, with Asia and Africa being the most affected, as found by the commission's
Joint Research Centre.

35
What are the effects of desertification?
The ability to support surrounding populations of animals and peoples of land acutely declines as it
becomes a desert. Habitats shift, food often does not grow, and the collecting water becomes nearly
impossible. Desertification can lead to all kinds of health problems for humans, some examples re
respiratory disease caused by dusty air, other afflictions stemming from a lack of clean water, and
malnutrition.

36
Extraction of natural resources

Figure 36 Flames rise from burning excess of hydrocarbons at Nahr Bin Omar natural gas field in Iraq

Whether they are at the surface or deep down underground, humans extract natural resources from
Earth. Resources like oil, coal and gas make up the top five most extracted resources together with
water and phosphorus. We extract each of these resources differently. Appendix I shows maps of
where resources around the world are extracted.

Extraction of oil and gas

Oil is extracted from the ground using oil rigs or oil platforms for usage in many industries. Both the
extraction and the usage of oil damage the environment. Most oil is extracted in The extraction itself
continues non-stop, polluting the area it happens around. Not only is the pollution harmful to the
surroundings, but also the oil rigs themselves and the required infrastructure are scars on the
landscape. Sometimes it happens that gas and oil are trapped together underground. If that is the
case, a single drilling rig will be set up to extract both resources using a couple of processes. These
more advanced rigs make use of a technique called horizontal drilling, allowing a single rig to access
multiple underground wells and reducing the damage to the environment visible at the surface.

We use two different techniques when drilling oil and gas, the one mentioned before, horizontal
drilling, and its counterpart, vertical drilling. Vertical drilling is a much simpler technique, a rig is set
up above a well, and a hole is drilled in the ground to extract the resources. Horizontal drilling is
more advanced and requires less area on the surface. A single rig is equipped with a drill that can
turn underground and reach wells miles away. The benefit of this is that only a single rig is required
to extract resources from a large area.

37
Figure 37 Oil rigs and infrastructure in Bakersfield, California, USA

Extraction of coal
Coal is extracted all around the world in coal mines. These mines not only have long-term effects on
their direct surroundings but also affect adjacent waste-disposal sites, neighbouring areas by water
pollution, distant areas by dust emissions and infrastructure. All these effects combined impact the
environment more than most people think, causing coal mines to be an underestimated problem.

Figure 38 An underground coal mine

38
Forest fires

Figure 39 Smoke rises from an illegally lit fire in Amazon rainforest reserve, south of Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil, on
August 15, 2020

What causes forest fires?

Some forest fires originate from natural causes like lightning or extreme droughts, but nearly all
derive from human causes. There are plenty of ways that humans cause these fires. The state of
California has documented what causes forest fires and what their effects are on their land. Figure
40 shows a comparison between the natural cause: lightning and all human causes in California and
gives a couple of examples of said human causes.

Figure 40 Causes of California wildfires

39
What are the effects of forest fires?
Fires annually burn down substantial areas of forest. To compare, the UN estimates that we lost a
little under 2 million acres of forest in 2020 to deforestation in North America, while we lost over 3
million acres in 2020 to wildfires in California alone. In short, wildfires lead to losing forests, which in
some places happens at a faster rate than humans cut them down. The loss of forests by fire has a
similar effect as deforestation, the only difference being the emission of a large amount of CO₂ in the
air due to combustion. However, there is one positive effect of these fires. Soil, where the forest
used to be, is made more fertile due to nutrients in dead plants being converted to more available
forms.

Figure 41 Number of acres burned annually in California wildfires

40
Radiation

Figure 42 Chernobyl nuclear power plant, reactor No. 4

What is radiation?
Radiation is the emittance of alpha-, beta- or gamma particles caused by the decay of an unstable
isotope into another isotope. These released particles are dangerous because they ionise other
particles, and if a particle in your body is ionised, this can cause massive amounts of damage.

Each type of radiation causes damage in the same way, but all have different distances before they
lose their effect and different amounts of impact on what they affect.

41
What causes radiation?
α-radiation
α-radiation is the most potent type of radiation, but also the one with the shortest distance of effect.
4
This type is emitted by an unstable isotope releasing a 2H -atom. This atom can crash into electrons
circling other nuclei and bounce them out of their trajectory, away from the nucleus. After losing the
4
electron, the nucleus has become ionised. Because a 2H -particle is relatively large, it only has effect
on super short distances, it ionises air molecules and does not always reaches living creatures.
However, thanks to its size the particle can ionise multiple particles, and thus it is very dangerous on
those short distances, but ineffective at long distance. The outer layer of the human skin can absorb
the α-particle it is only dangerous when ingested.

Figure 43 α-decay

42
β--radiation
β--radiation is the first variant of β-radiation, this radiation originates from a neutron decaying into a
proton and electron, releasing this electron which we from then on call a β-particle. This particle
4
works similar to the 2H -particle, except it is smaller and thus crashes into electrons less often.
Because it crashes less often it is able to reach further. Just a couple of millimetres of metal can
absorb a β-particle.

Figure 44 Negative β-decay

43
β+-radiation
β+-radiation is the second variant of β-radiation. It functions very similarly to the β --radiation, except
instead of releasing an electron from a neutron decaying into a proton, it releases a positron from
the decaying of a proton into a neutron, the antiparticle of an electron. This positron has the same
effects as an electron, but when it meets an electron, they can turn into two photons travelling
opposite directions, because the positron and electron are antiparticles.

Figure 45 Positive β-decay

44
γ-radiation
γ-radiation is the least damaging type of radiation, but also the most effective type over long
distances. It often occurs after another nuclear reaction to rid the remaining atom of excess energy.
In contrast to the other types of radiation, γ-radiation doesn’t release particles with mass and
electric charge, but it releases photons, particles travelling with the speed of light without mass or
electric charge. These photons have very high frequencies and low wavelengths, meaning they have
a lot of energy. They can bounce one electron away from its original nucleus, which absorbs the
photon in this process. To stop γ -radiation, you need a thick, solid object or wall.

Figure 46 γ-decay

45
What are the effects of radiation?
Living organisms affected by radiation can get all sorts of health conditions, from cancer to genetic
damage. Radiation lingers around for centuries after the event from which it originated. Examples of
this are Fukushima and Chernobyl. The radiation will affect all living organisms in a huge area around
it while it lasts. Radiation can damage DNA, leading to a wide range of cancer types and mutations.
This will cause species to rapidly mutate, often into creatures that are inviable, either born dead or
dying soon after birth.

Figure 47 Affected area around Fukushima

Figure 48 Affected area around Chernobyl

46
Urbanisation

Figure 49 Guangzhou, China

What is urbanisation?
Urbanization is the process in which cities grow due to an increase in the number of people living
and working in a city or metropolitan area. Currently over half of the world’s population lives in
cities, a number likely to increase to over two thirds by 2030, according to the UN.

What are the effects of urbanisation?

Urbanization causes many problems. The concentrated energy use in cities and the ever-increasing
number of buildings that still use fossil fuels contribute significantly to air pollution, which causes
detrimental effects on human health and the environment. According to the UN, the world’s cities
are responsible for around 70 per cent of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions.

Automobile exhaust produces elevated lead levels in urban air and contributes to carbon emissions.
This increase in automobiles is due to a sizeable number of cars on the road. Citizens have to drive to
work and shops, as opposed to using cleaner modes of transport, a result of poor infrastructure and
urban planning. Another effect of urbanization is the hindrance of animal populations by vehicles,
toxic substances, and the loss of food sources and habitat.

Urbanization also leads to poor air and water quality, waste-disposal problems and insufficient water
availability, exacerbated by the increasing demands of urban environments and population density.

47
Conflicts and wars (NOT CHECKED)

W
hat
are
the

Figure 50 A member of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) runs to take cover from sniper shots near the central
hospital of Raqqa on October 1, 2017
effects of conflicts and wars?
Military conflicts and large scale wars have environmental impacts long before any action happens.
The sustaining of a military force drains resources and energy, training with military vehicles requires
oil and operating equipment requires electricity. Research conducted in 2019 shows that the US
military singlehandedly consumes more liquid fuels and emits more CO₂ than most countries,
explaining that if the US military were a nation-state, it would be ranked as the 47th largest emitter
of greenhouse gases, accounting only for emissions from fuel usage. All of this does not take into
account the production of all the vehicles and equipment, nor the pollution of vehicles after being
abandoned in a junkyard.

Sustaining a military is not the only thing harming the environment though, as another result of
military conflicts is the destruction of diplomatic relations. This might not sound very important, but
it prevents countries from collaborating to tackle global environmental threats.

The conflicts themselves have very different levels of impact on the environment, depending on the
time duration, intensity of battles, location of the conflict and the weapons of choice. Wars may last
decades consisting of only a few battles fought with basic firearms and tanks, may last only a short
period consisting of very intensive battles with chemical or nuclear warfare, or anywhere in
between. Intensive fights consume substantial amounts of fuel, emitting CO₂. Tanks moving from
one strategic point to another might damage sensitive landscapes. Explosive weapons in a rural area
can collapse entire structures, covering the ground in debris and rubble and polluting the air.

48
Those are all examples of conventional warfare, but throughout history, we have also seen less
conventional strategies with massive effects on the environment. A well-known example is the
scorched earth policy where a retreating army destroys everything on their way back, from facilities
to whole towns and infrastructure. The goal of this destruction is to deprive the enemy’s forces of
much-needed resources like food and shelter. Destroying in this manner usually requires fires or
explosives. The CO₂ released from entire towns being burnt down pollutes the air. The Soviet Union
used this technique when retreating from the German invasion in 1941.

Another well-known example is the Vietnam war and the chemical warfare conducted by the
Americans. The US military used a herbicide mixture called Agent Orange in the 1960s. The mixture
contains a dangerous chemical contaminant called dioxin, and even though Agent Orange was
banned in 1971, the effects are still visible to this day. Agent Orange causes different types of cancer,
diabetes, birth defects and other disabilities. Estimates by the Red Cross suggest that three million
Vietnamese people have been affected by dioxin and that millions of Vietnamese and American
people are still affected directly or indirectly to this day. Agent Orange wasn’t only harmful to
humans, but also to many animals and plants. Dioxin buried under the surface can have a half-life of
more than 100 years, meaning it will last even longer.

49
Transportation (NOT CHECKED)

Figure 51 Beijing traffic jam

What are the effects of transportation?

Humanity has a wide variety of ways to transport ourselves and our goods. These different manners
of transporting have various impacts on the environment, ranging from minor short-term impacts to
almost permanent impacts. The impacts of different types of transportation compared to impacts of
some industries are shown in figure 52.

Figure 52 The impact of different industries on the global energy-related CO₂ emissions as of 2014

50
Aviation
Transportation by aeroplane, helicopter or any other flying vehicle is a commonly used method to
transport people and goods. Its most controversial contribution is the emission of CO₂, as its
emissions are increasing at the same rate as the other industries around the world. As shown in
figure 53, the emissions caused by aviation are relatively stable around 2% to 2.5%. but are
increasing rapidly in absolute numbers. A report by the European Environment Agency and the
European Maritime Safety Agency concluded that aviation produces 14.4% of all greenhouse gas
emissions from transport in the EU.

Not only the emissions from aviation are important, but also the required supporting infrastructure
to provide the necessary transport to and from airports. This can be marine, rail, on-road transport
or any combination of these. All of these supporting infrastructures also exist outside of its
supportive role. That’s why, usually, the impact of the supporting infrastructure is counted as impact
from its own category. For example, the impact of a highway being built between a seaport and an
airport will be counted as impact from on-road transportation, while in reality it is an indirect
consequence of aviation. This leads to the impact of aviation being slightly higher than often
depicted.

Figure 53 CO₂ emissions caused by aviation and its share of global CO₂ emissions over time

51
Marine
Another commonly used method to transport goods is using ships. Ships are also used to transport
people, but less commonly. Ships transporting people usually either are ferries, travelling short
distances functioning as a connection from one coast to another, or cruise ships, travelling long
voyages around the world. Only a small portion of the ships are cruise ships, but they have more
impact on emissions than an average ship because they require more fuel due to the higher energy
usage by onboard facilities.

The industry around shipping goods is a fundamental aspect of the modern economy, making sure
products get to where they should be on time. A report by the European Environment Agency and
the European Maritime Safety Agency concluded that ships produce 13.5% of all greenhouse gas
emissions from transport in the EU. In 2018, this sector accounted for 18% of global CO₂ emissions.

Rail
Unlike aviation and marine transport, both of which only require infrastructure stations at their
locations of departure and arrival, railroad transport required train tracks to be laid down over the
entire course of the route. To achieve this in mountainous train bridges are built and tunnels are
drilled. In the long term, this has minimum impact on the environment, as the bridges collapse in
about 100 years, and the tunnels barely impact the area around them. They may act as a connection
between habitats but won’t massively negatively impact the surroundings. The usage of railroads
has little impact on its direct surroundings, it makes some sound that may startle or disturb wildlife,
but that’s it. Its real impact lies around the source where the energy originally is generated, all the
energy used by railroads contributes to CO₂ emissions. Although it has low emissions compared to
other methods of transportation, it still has a contribution. The global rail networks together
spanned a distance of over 1.37 million kilometres as of 2006.

52
On-road
Just like railroads, roads also require extra infrastructure. All the world’s road networks together
span a distance of over 64 million kilometres as of 2021. Figure 54 depicts a map of roads all over
the world.

Figure 54 World map with roads coloured in red

The roads through every country have substantial impacts on the environment by polluting the air,
splitting habitats into pieces and making a lot of noise. A report by the European Environment
Agency and the European Maritime Safety Agency concluded that transport by cargo trucks
produces 71% of all greenhouse gas emissions from transport in the EU.
The air pollution from cars only accounts for 85% of all the environmental damage caused by cars,
the other 15% is divided over other factors. But not only the usage of a car has an environmental
impact. The automotive production industry requires many materials like glass, plastics, steel and
rubber from which the production has various ways of damaging the environment before even being
used. After a car has caused harm being produced and used, it has a last way of causing harm when
it is no longer in use. The plastics, battery acids and other harmful products are often not removed,
and old cars are put in large junkyards, causing the harmful substances to slowly degrade and be
released into nature, causing harm for many years to come.

53
Construction (NOT CHECKED)

Figure 55 Apartment building being constructed

Humanity has constructed countless buildings, towns and cities. Some cities cover thousands of
square kilometres, permanently changing the ecosystems that used to be in place there. Animals are
forced to adapt, have to live in different areas, sometimes even change their sleep schedules and
become nocturnal with the intent of avoiding humans.

What are the effects of construction?

Different constructions have various continuous effects on their direct surroundings. Not only do
they pollute or affect the environment while they are being lived in or worked in, but also during
construction and after abandonment.

Modern buildings are often made of glass, steel and reinforced concrete. Casting the production of
glass and steel aside, the process of making concrete pollutes the air with CO₂. An important
component of concrete is cement. With 5% of global CO₂ emissions, cement production ranks third
in the production of man-made CO₂. Not only during the production of cement but also during the
usage it releases CO₂, totalling to release 780 kg of CO₂ per tonne of cement. Figure 56 shows the
entire process of the pollution of concrete. If the cement industry were a nation-state, it would be
ranked as the 3rd largest emitter of CO₂.

54
Figure 56 The life of concrete

But not only does the production of a building affect the environment. Humans tend to build large
cities, leading to multiple extra effects compared to building a single building. Cities are paved with
asphalt and concrete, buildings everywhere, some parks, but by far not enough to counter the
effects. All these pavements block the rainwater from entering the ground naturally. To counter this,
all cities have sewage systems, collecting both the rainwater from the streets and the water used by
households. This sewage water is treated in sewage treatment plants before being dumped in
oceans or natural waters to prevent it from contaminating those waters. If these sewer plaints fail,
ecosystems may be destroyed.

Another influential factor of cities is the air quality. Cities have a highly concentrated number of
emissions in them, causing the air in and around them to have low quality. Animals living in or
around these cities breathe toxic air or air that is so polluted it endangers their health.

But not all buildings are modern, some are old or ancient. Some statues or buildings made from
noble materials like copper, gold or platinum, like the Statue of Liberty, will last millennia. Another
example of buildings that will last long has already lasted over 4000 years, The Great Pyramid of
Giza. These buildings will last long because their materials do not react with salt and oxygen and will
only slowly erode over time. Scientists estimate that Mount Rushmore, carved in granite, will last
over seven million years.
55
Concrete

Figure 57 Cement mine

What are the effects of concrete?

Concrete is the most-used material on Earth, often a vital component in building construction today.
By volume, cement accounts for 10 to 15% of the concrete mix. The production of concrete is very
energy-intensive. Its high level of CO₂ emissions, 4-8% of the world’s CO₂, potentially makes concrete
the most harmful (to the environment) material on Earth. According to The Bulletin of the
Polytechnic Institute of Jassy, for every ton of cement produced, 1.25 tons of CO₂ are released into
the Earth's atmosphere. Cement production now accounts for almost 1.6 x 10⁹ t of CO₂ emissions
from all human activities worldwide. Additionally, concrete impedes irrigation and absorbs heat,
contributing to warming in cities. Concrete also impedes the soil’s natural ability to soak up floods,
making urban areas even more vulnerable to destruction.

56
Landfill (NOT CHECKED)

Figure 58 A landfill

What is a landfill?
Before government restrictions were in place, nothing was stopping companies from taking their
trash, digging a hole, dumping the trash in the hole and covering the hole up again. Later entire
towns would be built upon these places without the inhabitants knowing about it.

What are the effects of landfills?

Organic mass underground decomposes, releasing methane gas, which is 84 times more effective at
absorbing the sun’s heat than CO₂. This makes methane one of the most dangerous greenhouse
gases and a large contributor to climate change. The toxic materials underground can also cause the
soil to become less fertile.

When a landfill is created somewhere, something else has to sacrifice space for it. Usually, this
means natural habitats are destroyed. On average, the area of a landfill, which equals the destroyed
habitat, is 600 acres. All the rain that lands on this area seeps through the toxic materials and
becomes polluted groundwater, which often even is toxic because of the high levels of toxic metals
and organic compounds in the landfill.

Landfills have a detrimental effect on the health of living creatures around them. Not only do they
stink, but they are also a bacteria breeding ground and lots of vermin like to live around them,
leading to disease becoming an issue that causes other health complications in their turn.

These effects can last long, as it can take buried materials decades to decompose or decay. All this
time it will affect the area around it in a negative, destructive way.

57
Food waste

Figure 59 Food waste

What are the effects of food waste?

In 2011, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimated that around 1/3 of
the world’s food is wasted, annually. Food waste, referring to the decrease in the quality or quantity
of food, results from decisions and actions by consumers, retailers and foodservice providers. By
wasting food we also waste all the resources that went into growing it. As shown in a report by the
NRDC, food waste nullifies nearly a quarter of our water supply in the form of uneaten food.
Growing food that goes to waste ends up using up 21 per cent of our landfill volume, 18 per cent of
our cropland, 19 per cent of our fertilizer and 21 per cent of our freshwater.

Another effect of food waste is that it becomes a significant source of methane when it is disposed
of in a landfill and rots. The transporting and growing of food that goes to waste emits as much
carbon pollution as 39 million passenger vehicles, creating a heavy carbon footprint. According to
the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research, the global food system is one of the
most sizeable contributors to climate change. It is responsible for up to one-third of all human-
caused greenhouse gas emissions.

58
Fast fashion

Figure 60 A mountain of unsold clothing from 'fast fashion' companies piles up in a desert in Chile

What is fast fashion?

Fast fashion, referring to cheaply priced and produced items of clothing copying the latest catwalk
styles, gets pumped rapidly through stores to maximise current trends. Fast fashion, involving rapid
design, production, distribution and marketing, enables retailers to pull large quantities of greater
product variety and allow consumers to get more product and fashion differentiation at a much
lower price. The key contributors to fast fashion are H&M, Forever 21, UNIQLO and Zara.

What are the effects of fast fashion?

On average, people bought 60 per cent more clothing in 2014 than in 2000, only keeping the clothes
half as long. Fast fashion with clothes getting continuously cheaper comes at the cost of our planet,
impacting the environment due to material, chemical, water and energy use. Materials including
acrylic, nylon and polyester, made from plastics and found in 60 per cent of garments, are not only
responsible for releasing harmful microplastics into the environment, but also rely on carbon to be
produced. The production of this carbon is responsible for 10 per cent of humanity's carbon
emissions. For every cotton T-shirt manufactured, 700 gallons of water are needed, and according to
Business Insider, textile dyeing is the world’s second-largest polluter of water.

59
Overuse of electricity

Figure 61 Energy use per person, 2019

What causes the loss of electricity and what are the effects?
It is not just our energy use that is harming the environment, but the energy we waste. Overuse of
electricity and energy waste causes an increase in our carbon footprint, increasing the risks of
climate change. According to the Energy Information Administration, only 34 per cent of the primary
energy is delivered to the customer. Meaning that of the primary energy used to create electricity,
66 per cent is wasted before it even arrives at the customer meter. Most of this energy is lost in the
generation process, totalling 59 per cent. This energy is lost due to inefficiencies in converting
primary energy to electricity, causing waste heat to occur (54 per cent) or due to the electricity used
internally by the power plant during operations (5 per cent). Another 5 per cent is lost through the
transmission and distribution grid (T&D). After arriving at the customer premise, additional
electricity is lost within the building and inefficiency in converting the energy to useful services like
light, heat, electronic processing, et cetera.

Figure 62 Losses through the electric delivery system

60
Factory farming

Figure 63 Intensive poultry farm

What are the effects of factory farming?

Each year, in the United States solely, about 10 billion land animals are raised for dairy, eggs and
meat. Factory farming, also called industrial livestock operations, is an energy-hungry industry. Per
year, the burning of fossil fuels to produce fertilizers for animal feed crops can emit 41 million metric
tons of CO₂ alone. In addition, it is estimated that each year, deforestation for feed crops and animal
grazing emit 2.4 billion tons of CO₂ globally. Factory farming also releases other greenhouse gases,
accounting for 37 per cent of methane emissions, a gas with over 20 times the global warming
potential of CO₂. Additionally, by releasing compounds like hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, and
methane factory farming also plays a part in air pollution.

Another substantial effect of factory farming is manure, animal faeces used to fertilize farmland. It is
estimated by the US Department of Agriculture that confined farm animals annually generate over
450 million tonnes of manure, a number 3 times larger than the raw waste generated by Americans.
Manure can contain quantities of salt and heavy metals, which can wind up in bodies of water and
gather in sediment, condensing as they migrate up the food chain. Manure can also cause dangerous
levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in the water supply when repeatedly overapplied to farmland.
Nitrogen depletes the water of oxygen and kills aquatic life when presented in such large quantities.

61
Part II: A World Without Us

62
Part II: A World Without Us

It does not matter how it happens, what matters is what happens when we are gone. There are 7.9
billion of us5, half of whom live in cities. Our farms and postures cover roughly 40 per cent of all dry
land6, we have dammed and diverted 60 per cent of the world’s major rivers to suit our needs 7, an
estimated total of 1.4 billion cars clog the roads and highways 8, and we have altered the air, sea and
the land. If we disappeared, could the world repair itself and erase all evidence that we ever existed?
Humanity hasn’t always been here, and we won’t be here forever. But by investigating the world
without us, perhaps we can learn more about the world we live in now.

5
Worldometer, z.d.
6
Foley, z.d.
7
International Rivers, 2008
8
Chesterton, 2021
63
What would happen to our constructions?

The buildings and infrastructure we have carefully constructed over the last centuries only are able
to withstand time with proper maintenance. As soon as there is no one to restore the damage and
fix the errors, our buildings will soon be overgrown, the roads buried under a thick layer of dirt.

Urban areas
The tunnels in underground rail systems like those in London, New York City and Moscow, flood in
just three days after hundreds of drainage pumps are abandoned. In less than 20 years, weeds and
tree roots have torn apart sidewalks. Around this time, the streets above now submerged tunnels
erode into city rivers. In temperate climates, the cycle of seasons freezes and melts these
waterways, cracking concrete foundations and pavement. Leaking pipes cause the same reaction in
buildings made of concrete, and in under 200 years, most skyscrapers buckle and tumble down. In
cities built in river deltas like Houston, these buildings eventually wash away, filling nearby
tributaries with crushed concrete.

Rural and suburban areas

Rural and suburban areas decay more slowly but in largely unsurprising ways. Now, the usual
enemies of the homeowner, like leaks, mould, bug and rodent infestations, go uncontested. It only
takes most houses' supporting beams 75 years to have sagged and rotted. Local rodents and lizards
now reside in the resulting collapsed heap. But in this post-human world, 'local' has a new meaning.

Our monuments
Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore, a 5,525-foot uplift composed of
fine-grained granite from the Precambrian era, was
commissioned in 1923 to immortalize the greatest
American presidents and opened in 1941. According
to geologists, Mount Rushmore's granite erodes
only one inch every year. At that rate, the so-called
Shrine of Democracy will be around for the next 7.2
million years, if not for an asteroid collision or a
particularly violent earthquake in this seismically
stable centre of the continent.

64
The Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower, constructed in 1889 for a world
exhibition, is 300 meters tall and weighs 7,300 tons.
Only 230 years after we have vanished, the weather will
have taken its toll on the Eiffel Towers 60 tons paint
cover, which used to protect it from the elements. After
the rain flakes away the paint, rust will eat away at the
Tower's iron. As a result, the entire structure will erode
and become more brittle with every rainstorm. At this
time, the Tower's supporting beams will have become
too weak to withstand even moderate winds, causing
France's beloved Tower to come crashing down three centuries after being built. But time doesn't
stop there: 1000 years after every human disappeared from Earth, the iron of the Eiffel tower will
have slowly eroded and become part of the Seine.

The Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty, built in 1886 and made out of massive copper plates,
will be far better off now that humans are gone. Pollution used to coat her
nose and cheeks with black dirt and acid rain used to eat away at her skin,
stripping her of one pound of copper each year. But without our pollution,
clearer skies will lead to a cleaner statue. Liberty's skin might benefit from
the absence of humans, but her other body parts will not. After 230 years,
the statue's arm will have finally collapsed, and like the Eiffel Tower, its iron
bar skeleton will have rusted through. The statue's arm and torch will be the
first to fall, with the shoulder bars having become too weak to hold up the
arm and its torch. And after a millennium of our absence, her iron skeleton
will finally give way, and her body will collapse. However, America's symbol
of freedom will not have vanished just yet. Her pedestal, made of solid
concrete and granite, will still tower above the trees around it for thousands
of years. Only after glaciers will travel south and eventually reach
Manhattan, grinding down the last of the Statue of Liberty, will the Mother
of Freedom cease to exist.

The Great Pyramid of Giza

The Great Pyramid of Giza, built approximately
5000 years ago, is 138 metres tall and weighs 6
million tonnes. Compared to the speed of
Mouth Rushmore’s erosion, the prediction is
that to completely eroding the pyramid will
take 138 million years. In this long timespan,
many other things will happen though, and it is
almost guaranteed the pyramid will be taken
out by a major geological event before it has
completely eroded.

65
Bronze sculptures
Our bronze sculptures will remain recognizable for over 10 million years due to their chemical
composition.

Chlorofluorocarbons
Even though CFCs are no longer in use in most parts of the world, they’re still readily available for
usage in some less-developed parts. Combining this with CFCs being used because they’re inert,
reacting with almost nothing, making them hard to destroy, leads to plenty of storage containers
filled with CFCs around the world. Without humanity to make sure these stay intact, these
containers will burst and the CFCs will be released into the sky. Depending on how spread over time
the releases are, species with low UV resistance might mutate incredibly fast, go extinct or be mostly
fine.

Nuclear reactors and storage

Globally, Earth counts 441 nuclear power plants, some of which have multiple reactor cores.
Without the thousands of people needed daily to make sure these run correctly, they would
overheat one by one. Around half of the reactors would burn, while the other half would melt. The
melted cores would meld surrounding steel and concrete, cooling it down. Radiating the area around
it for millennia to come. The burning cores would release radioactive particles in the air, spreading
them throughout a large area.

Every nuclear plant that has ever been active, has produced radioactive waste. A common fuel is
Uranium-235, a radioactive isotope of Uranium. When used in a plant this becomes Uranium-238,
less radioactive but decaying into other radioactive isotopes. Uranium-238 has a half-life of 4.5
billion years, meaning it takes 4.5 billion years for half of it to decay. Used full rods from nuclear
reactors around the world are stored in large underground storages, although sometimes Uranium-
238 is stored at the enrichment facilities because it is required in the process. Without humanity to
make sure these containers are intact and cooling properly, they would start to heat up from all the
decaying happening inside. This would lead to them eventually bursting out in a radioactive fire,
spreading their radioactivity the same way burning reactor cores would.

66
What would change about the current location of the climate zones?

The climate zones have been slowly moving over the past centuries. A well-known example of this is
the shrinking of arctic ice, shown in figure 64. Just like this ice, all the climate zones on earth have
either been moving or expanding towards their closest pole because of global warming. If humans
disappeared and nature would slowly return to its original balance, this change of zones would most
likely be slowly reversed with global warming.

Figure 64 Shrinking ice on the North Pole

67
What would the new geological map look like over time?

Without humanity to make sure the water is kept at bay, dikes and dams would break or flood after
sediment continues to build up in the waters they hold back. This would lead to large areas of land
around the world becoming seas or lakes. Figure 65 shows what the Netherlands would look like
without their dikes. Other areas with a high density of dams would also be flooded after those dams
break.

Figure 65 Map of the Netherlands with dikes (left) and without dikes (right)

Another change to the map, a change over millions of years, is the moving of continents. This
process has been going on since the creation of Earth and will continue for hundreds of millions of
years to come. However, this process has been left unaffected by humanity. Figure 66 shows a
prediction of what the map may look like in 100 million years. Figure 67 shows the continental drift
over the last 225 million years.

68
Figure 66 Predicted map of the world in 100 million years

Figure 67 Continental drift of plates over time

69
What would happen to the flora and fauna?

Oceanic
Flora
At first, aquatic plants will live on, growing as they do with humans for a few thousand years, but
after a certain point, the amount of CO₂ being taken out of the air will be more than the amount
released into it. From that point forward, the ocean won’t be capable of absorbing as much CO₂
anymore, causing plants to grow slower and the water to become more oxygenated. What would
happen with some plants, for example, corals that were bleached because of high water
temperatures, is unsure and most likely dependant on how long it takes for the water to cool down
again.

Fauna
The optimal fish population in waters is dependent on many factors: one of these is the number of
aquatic plants in their area. Without humans, fisheries stop fishing, allowing fish to regrow to their
optimal population sizes. This would lead to increasing amounts of fish that were almost extinct.

Terrestrial
Flora
When we are gone, the imported plants that fill our cities get to run wild across their adopted
homes. A thick green carpet of water hyacinth will coat the waterways of shanghai, poisonous giant
hogweeds will overgrow the banks of London’s Thames River, and Chinese Ailanthus trees will burst
through New York City streets. As the soil acidity plummets due to sunken skyscrapers adding
crumbled concrete to the new forest floor, new plant life is, potentially, allowed to thrive.

Fauna
This post-human biodiversity, too, extends into the animal kingdom. With the help of our leftover
bridges, animals will venture into new habitats following the unchecked spread of native and non-
native plants. Generally, our infrastructure will save some animals and doom others. Cockroaches
will continue to thrive in their native tropical habitats. But without our heating systems, their urban
cousins will likely freeze and become extinct in no more than two winters. Each year, billions of
birds, whose migrations were disrupted by high-tension wires and blinking communication tower
lights, will be saved. Rubber tires that once were buried and will last for almost a thousand years,
will resurface in landfills, fill with rainwater, and form a breeding ground for mosquitos, making
them multiply endlessly in one of their favourite manmade nurseries. Other insects would also
swiftly recover from humanity’s effects, as pesticides and chemicals will no longer be used. This
recovery marks the beginning of a new start.

70
Our pets
Our sudden disappearance leaves our pets alone, locked in our houses and without food, resigning
them to miss their once secured meals. They must break out or die. In less than ten days, pets that
have failed to break out of their new called ‘prisons’ will die due to starvation and dehydration.

Within a week of losing their human masters, dogs, having gone from pets to predators, will form
packs and fight for dominance on city streets. An example of this is when, in 2005, hurricane Katrina
forced humans to evacuate New Orleans, leaving many dogs behind. The dogs began to hunt in
packs and threaten humans. However, not all dogs are evenly matched, with over 400 different dog
breeds. Take, for example, the poodle, having neither the strength nor size to compete with larger,
brawnier dog breeds. Akin to wolves, dogs don’t hesitate to kill their own so, every petite dog will
become a potential meal, and within a few weeks, most smaller dogs will have been killed. After six
months, pets will have, one, adapted to this new reality, or two, have died. Eventually, dogs and
wolves (genetically almost identical) will start mating together, assuring the future of the canine
species.

On the other hand, domestic cats would ultimately survive without us, having never lost their
hunting instincts and only needing eight mouses a day to survive.

71
What would happen to the climate and its recent change?

Over the last decades, the world has been warming up because of the extra greenhouse gases
humans and their activities emit. Nature used to have a balance between carbon in the air and
carbon stored underground. Without humanity to disturb this balance, slowly but surely the trees
would retrieve CO₂ from the air through the process of photosynthesis. Trees would grow without
being cut down, increasing the speed of this process. This would cause the balance to slowly be
restored. The lower amount of greenhouses gases in the atmosphere would lead to the planet
cooling down. Humans caused all the global warming. Research shows that without humanity the
planet would not have been warming up the way it has the past decades. Some scientists even go as
far as saying that the planet would have slightly cooled down. Figure 68 shows the present-day
(1980-2016, top) and the projected future (2071-2100, bottom) climate classification according to
the Köppen-Geiger system. This is the exact same effect that happened over the last decades, and
will continue to happen as long as humanity pollutes the air.

72
Figure 68 Climate maps of 1980-2016 (top) and 2071-2100 (bottom)

73
What would happen to our litter?

Humanity has many ways of littering all over the planet. Almost all of the litter ends up in rivers
because of wind or rain. Litter in rivers is taken downstream to oceans, which are now filled with
masses of plastic twice the size of France. Every day humanity is around these masses grow and
accumulate more plastic, but when we disappear it won’t be long until the growing stops. The
plastics are being broken down by the sun into smaller microplastics. Microplastics are about 5
millimetres and are consumed by small organisms such as zooplankton, who mistake the particles
for food. The different kinds of plastic in this soup take 400-1000 years to decompose into these
microplastics. As of now, it is unknown how long it takes these microplastics to degrade, if they even
do so.

Figure 69 The Trash Vortex, a huge patch of trash in the Great Pacific Ocean

74
A timeline of events

75
76
Conclusion

In the end, we can conclude that humanity to the Earth is the most like a virus to its host, damaging
the host until it is gotten rid of somehow. After the virus’s disappearance, the host recovers from the
damage done by said virus. In the case of humanity and the Earth, it is clear that humankind is
damaging the world in many ways: we change or wipe out entire species or even ecosystems, warm
up the planet, and push the Earth to and past its limits.

If we all disappeared at once, our effects would last for millions of years. From nuclear lava pits
where a plant once used to be to large bronze or granite statues that could withstand time when
others couldn’t. Endangered species would thrive because of the lack of restriction caused by
humans, allowing them to grow to their usual population size. The planet gets to cool down, taking
the CO₂ from the air and storing it back in the ground, forming oil, gas and coal deposits in the
process. The climate zones get to shift back to their original positions. Habitats would change with
the terrain, and many areas would flood, becoming oceans or lakes. Animals adapt themselves to
survive to their new surroundings or migrate to prevent their surroundings from changing too much.
Most animals would migrate towards the equator as the climate zones move in this direction too.
Our litter would degrade into smaller particles continuing to harm the ecological systems as long as
these systems exist.

Inevitably, there will be a day where the Earth moves on without us, whether we cause our own
demise or another factor plays a role in it. We need the Earth, but the Earth does not need us and
would ultimately thrive without us.

In the end, even our planet will not last forever. In 7.5 billion years, the sun will enter the red giant
phase and absorb the entirety of the Earth, including every nanoparticle of damage humanity, has
caused. Only when that happens will the last traces of humanity be wiped out forever.

77
Recommendations

A couple things need more professional research to be conclusively proven.

Firstly, the effects of microplastics on living organisms. As of now, it is not completely sure to what
extent micro- and nanoplastics are harming organisms and affect the ecosystem.
Secondly, humanity needs a replacement for CFCs and HCFCs. These gases are both destructive to
the ozone layer. When we discovered CFCs damaged the ozone layer, we switches to HCFCs because
they were less destructive. Ideally we would find a replacement gas that is not at all destructive.
Thirdly, more research about the recovery of coral reefs from bleaching is required to be able to
accurately predict whether they can make a comeback or if their final days have already begun.

78
Logbook

Hours
Anna 111
Yurian 101
Total 212

79
Reflection

The collaboration on this project went great. We communicated well about uncertainties and
questions we had. We discussed things we weren’t sure about and helped each other whenever
necessary. We learnt that good communication and dividing who is responsible for finishing what
parts of the project are key elements of making a project work. We barely had any major setbacks,
apart from the occasional technical setback. Such as MS Word no longer displaying all images or
losing connection with OneDrive, and not being capable of continuing our work until the connection
was fixed. Communication with the accompanist went well. We could ask any potential questions
during classes or by sending an email.

Next time, we would make sure to have a better distribution of workload across the several sub-
questions. What ended up happening this time is that most of the project is about sub-question 1,
and the answers to the other sub-questions derive from this, causing them to be much shorter.

80
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Appendix I: Maps of extraction of natural resources

Figure 70 Unextracted oil by country

Figure 71 Different types of mines around the world

95