- 1 week ago
Life After People (2009) Season 3 Episode 2- Shop 'Til You Drop
Please Follow Me! Thank's for watching...
Please Follow Me! Thank's for watching...
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00What would happen if every human being on Earth disappeared?
00:13No matter how we might vanish, this is the story of what could happen to the world you leave behind.
00:23Now, on Life After People.
00:26Commerce is the backbone of human civilization.
00:31But when we vanish, it goes to the dogs.
00:35Every kind of predator you can think of shows up.
00:39Grocery stores become part of a new food chain.
00:42When it comes to claiming territory, it's a life or death battle every time.
00:47The biggest mall in the world is pounded by the elements.
00:53One wing of it is a raging inferno.
00:56While the other wing is completely untouched.
00:59In the busiest port on the planet, faces annihilation.
01:06You have acid melting through structures.
01:08Live rounds going off.
01:10Shipping containers exploding.
01:12Steel and cargo like a freight train on water.
01:16Unstoppable.
01:17From the global supply chain, to our food and clothing, life after people will drastically alter the planet.
01:29Welcome to Earth.
01:30Population zero.
01:32From coast to coast, shopping centers are abandoned.
01:47No sales clerks.
01:48No window shoppers.
01:50Just aisle upon aisle of goods that'll never be bought.
01:54There are more than 300,000 grocery stores in the United States containing enough chips, cheese, and chocolate to cover an area the size of Rhode Island.
02:07This deserted grocery store was once filled with hungry families.
02:14Now, it's about to be bursting with a much different clientele.
02:18Keeping scavengers like rodents and insects out of a grocery store is a full-time job.
02:24And you do not get any days off.
02:26You've got to be taking out the trash.
02:28You've got to be setting up traps.
02:30You've got to put out pesticides.
02:32In a world without people, it would probably be less than an hour before that invasion began.
02:39Mice are these crazy little food-finding machines.
02:42They can detect food smells as far away as 50 feet, even if it's contained inside sealed plasma.
02:48Mice can actually compress their bodies so their bones collapse, especially their ribs.
02:58If their nose fits, so will the rest of them, even in holes as small as a dime.
03:06Mice are like walking biohazards.
03:08They pee constantly, even when they're running.
03:11They poop like 75 times a day.
03:15And in that poop is all kind of disease and nasty.
03:19In the time of people, grocery chains spent millions to keep an endless stream of filthy creatures at bay.
03:27Now, there's no one to set the traps or cover the holes.
03:31And the vermin aren't just eating.
03:34They're multiplying.
03:36A single female mouse can produce up to 50 offspring a year.
03:41And her offspring can start reproducing just nine weeks later.
03:46One family of mice can balloon up to 100,000 individuals in just a year.
03:52Back in 2021, Eastern Australia had what's known as a mouse plague, where basically they had a bumper crop.
04:00There was tons of food.
04:01And the mouse populations absolutely exploded.
04:04They were everywhere.
04:06And they ate everything.
04:06Farmers describe carpets of mice.
04:12They devoured everything, from props to toilet paper.
04:15In the span of just 72 hours, this store, once a monument to human plenty, is completely overrun.
04:29Rodents have claimed the isles, feasting on the crones of a vanished civilization.
04:35The refrigerators and freezers are safe and untouched.
04:38But for how long?
04:46After people, there are no pools to fix downed lines.
04:50No technicians at the power plant.
04:53The grid fails.
04:55And the bright aisles are plunged into ghostly darkness.
04:58Not just for the night, but forever.
05:01Once that refrigeration fails, the meat, the milk, they're all going to spoil.
05:07And they'll give off a rotting, very, very strong scent that's going to be detectable from miles away by various scavengers.
05:14Where mankind once held sway, mice now rule.
05:17But in a world without people, they won't stay on top of the food chain for long.
05:22In Bloomington, Minnesota, lies the Mall of America.
05:29Once teeming with voices and footsteps, the hallways, stores, and kiosks are now still as a crypt.
05:37The largest shopping mall on the planet has become a mausoleum for the age of excess.
05:43The Mall of America is a retail colossus.
05:46It's bigger than Vatican City.
05:47If there was ever one place where you could shop until you drop, this is it.
05:53You've got over 500 stores.
05:56A roller coaster.
05:57High fashion.
05:58Fine dining.
06:00Fast food.
06:01An aquarium.
06:02Designer jewelry.
06:04Not to mention 30,000 plants growing inside the mall.
06:10After people, the mall seems unchanged.
06:14But a threat has been lurking in the shadows the whole time, quiet and patient, waiting for the right moment to unleash hell.
06:24The Mall of America is so big that it has not one but two food courts, in addition to 50 standalone restaurants.
06:33What happens if one gas burner is left on?
06:37You've got pots and pans sitting on top of those stoves.
06:43Some of them are going to have cooking grease in them.
06:44And the thing about cooking grease is, unlike gasoline, it doesn't need a spark to ignite.
06:49It just has to get hot enough.
06:51So, as those flames go, eventually they're going to heat it up to 450 to 700 degrees Fahrenheit.
06:57And that thing is going to go boom.
06:59Boom.
06:59Boom.
06:59Boom.
07:00Boom.
07:00Boom.
07:01Boom.
07:01Boom.
07:02Boom.
07:03Boom.
07:04Boom.
07:05Boom.
07:06Boom.
07:07Boom.
07:14To come up, where's Hoy.
07:16hepsan are skatingeland.
07:18All right,ball's got away, Sam.
07:20Oh my God.
07:22Yep, so we're going to catch up.
07:24Bye.
07:25Bye.
07:26Bye.
07:27Bye.
07:27No!
07:28Bye.
07:29Bye.
07:29Bye.
07:30Bye.
07:31Bye.
07:34Bye.
07:35Bye.
07:36Bye.
07:37The system now wakes to wait one final battle against the blaze.
07:42The brilliant thing about this system is that it doesn't rely on electricity.
07:45It works on gravity-powered water pressure from the building's main supply.
07:49So if the power goes out and there is a fire, you still have a way to extinguish the fire
07:55because the gravity pressure is always there and ready to go.
08:03Here's the problem.
08:04When a fire sprinkler is activated, it will run until it gets shut off manually.
08:10But in a world where everyone's disappeared, no one is there to shut it off manually.
08:15It takes more than a week for the tanks to run dry,
08:19a week of constantly drenching and soaking everything underneath that sprinkler head.
08:27Just a few hundred yards away, in the heart of the maw, there are no flames, no water.
08:32It's kind of like a building on fire across town.
08:36It's not happening in your neighborhood.
08:38You probably wouldn't even notice it.
08:40But even after people, the maw isn't completely abandoned.
08:44The security guards still keep watch.
08:48The Mall of America has this team of highly trained dogs,
08:51and they have a few different jobs, one of which is to guard the mall itself.
08:54But the other one is to sniff out things like drugs and explosives and firearms.
09:00Dogs have an exceptional sense of smell.
09:03They can smell fear in the different chemicals given off by the sweat and saliva of anxious people.
09:11Now, guard dogs can tell you who is nervous, who is angry, or who is afraid.
09:19Their human handlers may be gone, but even in the loneliness and silence,
09:24the dog's instinct to survive remains.
09:27There would be a lot of food sources in the mall.
09:30I mean, all those standalone restaurants.
09:32And there's another food court, and another one.
09:35And dogs are omnivores.
09:36I mean, for a while, there would be plenty for them to eat.
09:39But the members of the K-9 unit are on their own.
09:43But even here, in the echoes and memories of a dead civilization,
09:48some warmth still lingers.
09:54Even without electricity, the mall is still going to trap the heat inside.
09:58And it's designed that way, so that it releases the heat when needed.
10:01This is a clever bit of engineering.
10:04The Mall of America has passive heating.
10:06It doesn't really have a furnace system,
10:08which might surprise you, given where it's located.
10:10And that's because it uses skylights to allow solar heating.
10:14Sunlight streams in through more than 1,300 skylights.
10:17It hits concrete.
10:19It hits walls.
10:20Basically, it hits everything.
10:21And warms them up during the day.
10:23But then at night, when it gets cold outside,
10:25all that heat that's been trapped indoors gets released into the air.
10:29So, what ends up happening is the mall stays a nice, constant temperature,
10:34despite the fluctuations outside.
10:37The K-9 unit is safe for now.
10:40But a silent danger is lurking in the polished hallways of the mall.
10:45There's an electric vehicle on display,
10:47with a powerful and dangerous lithium-ion battery under the hood.
10:52After people, it isn't just a car.
10:55It's an explosive waiting for ignition.
10:59Three days after people,
11:06and the beating heart of the global supply chain has flatlined.
11:11China is the crucial player behind almost all the shopping we do.
11:16China alone produces over 30% of the world's global manufacturing output.
11:21Millions of tons of fuel, chemicals, and consumer goods
11:24once passed through the port of Shanghai,
11:26the biggest and busiest port on Earth.
11:29Now it's abandoned, a ghost town at the mouth of the Yangtze River.
11:33Normally, over 13,000 people keep the port running.
11:38It's 125 docks spanning over 12 miles.
11:43And they're just towering ship-to-shore cranes.
11:46Some are over 400 feet tall, loading over 200 cargo ships daily.
11:50Every year, the port of Shanghai handles 50 million containers.
11:56Nearly 750 million tons of cargo.
11:59And fully half of that is retail.
12:00Clothing, food, electronics, you name it.
12:05The port of Shanghai ships out enough retail goods
12:08to stock the entire mall of America a thousand times.
12:11Now, there is no one to man the controls.
12:15No one to watch over the docks.
12:17No one to guide ships to shore.
12:20It isn't just deserted.
12:21It's a disaster playing out minute by minute.
12:26Best case, a ship will run aground.
12:29Worst case, it will slam right into the docks.
12:32Laden with cargo,
12:33a ship weighing over 100,000 tons blindly caroms into the dock.
12:38With a force of almost 35,000 cars crashing into it at once.
12:50In the harbor, you've got dozens of ships that are out of control,
12:54smashing into the docks and knocking down cranes.
12:57The shriek of twisting metal isn't a death knell.
13:11It's a warning.
13:12An even greater danger is sealed
13:14in thousands of shipping containers stacked high on turbulent decks,
13:18waiting to open like Pandora's box.
13:21It's not just sneakers and smartphones
13:24that are making their way through our ports.
13:26It's objects from medical research,
13:28live viruses, corrosive chemicals, crude oil,
13:31even military supplies like ammunition or nuclear fuel rods.
13:36You'd have the normal chemical and electrical fire,
13:38but you'd also have acid melting through structures,
13:41live rounds going off,
13:43shipping containers full of fireworks exploding.
13:46The port wouldn't just be destroyed.
13:50It would go out with quite a peg.
13:54The carnage doesn't end at the docks.
13:57It spills out into the water,
13:59where ghost ships list and burn.
14:01Cargo plunges into the harbor by the ton,
14:04never to arrive at its original destination.
14:07Far from the broken, burning port.
14:17One giant escaped.
14:20She sails the open ocean alone with no one at the helm.
14:24One of the largest container ships ever built,
14:27the Oslo.
14:29It's known as an ultra-large container vessel,
14:32with emphasis on ultra-large.
14:35It's as long as four city blocks,
14:38as wide as an eight-lane highway,
14:41and it has an engine the size of a three-story house.
14:46It's 100 feet shorter than the Sears Tower,
14:49the most famous skyscraper in Chicago,
14:51if it were laid on its side.
14:52It's hard to imagine,
14:54but it can hold almost 24,000 shipping containers.
14:59Think of it carrying nothing but sneakers.
15:02It would be enough for every single person
15:05in California, Texas, and New York.
15:09The Oslo is bound for Los Angeles,
15:13an unmanned specter on a three-week voyage from Shanghai.
15:17Her fuel tanks are still full,
15:19her engines still humming,
15:21but not every vessel is lucky enough
15:23to share the Oslo's fate.
15:25Loss of power on a large ship can be extremely dangerous.
15:35Even when a container ship has full crew and full power,
15:38it still takes 29 minutes for it to go from full speed
15:42to a complete stop.
15:43And it covers four miles while it's trying to slow down.
15:46A derelict tanker, lifeless but deadly,
15:55is drifting straight into the Oslo's path.
15:58She carries no crew,
16:00only cargo sealed in her belly.
16:03Three million gallons of jet fuel.
16:05Far from the Pacific Ocean,
16:13deep in America's heartland,
16:15a different kind of disaster is unfolding.
16:18Inside the Mall of America,
16:20the sprinklers have been inundating the mall
16:22for nearly a week.
16:24There's no one to turn them off,
16:26and the charred food court is drowning.
16:35Many large commercial buildings,
16:38especially food courts,
16:39have built in drains,
16:40you know, to handle spills and regular cleaning.
16:43But they'd struggle to keep up
16:44with an active sprinkler system
16:46running nonstop for more than a week.
16:49The system has finally run out of water,
16:52and the sprinklers have stopped flowing.
16:54But it's too late.
16:56Deep inside the structure's skeleton,
16:59decay is taking root
17:00and spreading like a virus.
17:03The extreme heat from the fire
17:05has weakened the steel support beams.
17:07Then comes the water.
17:09Tons of it,
17:10seeping into every crack,
17:12soaking the walls,
17:13and pooling on weakened floors.
17:17Fire turns solid materials brittle
17:19and vulnerable to collapse.
17:28Weeks pass,
17:29and the floodwaters start to subside.
17:31But now,
17:33the temperature is falling.
17:35The explosion and the fire
17:37would have knocked out
17:38some of the eight acres of skylights in the mall.
17:40And where it's located,
17:42well, winters can be especially brutal.
17:44You know,
17:44if an Arctic cold front rolls in,
17:46well, temperatures can drop by
17:48as much as 40 degrees in a single day.
17:51The coldest temperature
17:53ever recorded in Minnesota
17:54is more than 60 degrees below zero.
17:58All that pooling water
18:01would quickly freeze,
18:03stopping up the drains.
18:07Bloomington gets an average
18:08of 50 inches of snow per year.
18:12In a couple of weeks,
18:13worst-case scenario,
18:14up to 2,000 tons of snow
18:16and ice could accumulate.
18:17That's about the weight
18:18of four Boeing 747s.
18:20And all that weight
18:23is piled on top of floors
18:24and supports
18:25that have already suffered
18:26a great deal of water damage.
18:29An unearthly groan
18:31breaks the eerie silence
18:32inside the mall.
18:34And the floor,
18:35swollen with water
18:36and splintered by ice,
18:38finally succumbs.
18:40That collapse would be devastating
18:53and the floor beneath
18:54would be smashed
18:56by ice and concrete
18:58weighing thousands of tons.
19:00One wing of the mall
19:11is a tangled mass
19:12of metal, glass, and stone.
19:15But on the other side,
19:16sun still pours
19:18through the skylights
19:19and the deserted shops
19:20and stalls remain intact.
19:23Where humanity once shopped,
19:25the canine unit now prowls,
19:28scavenging to survive.
19:30Canine units typically
19:33keep about a month's worth
19:35of kibble on hand,
19:36but even after the fresh food
19:37starts to rot,
19:39the dogs are going to be okay
19:40because dogs are not picky eaters.
19:44Things like chips, crackers,
19:46packaged ramen noodles,
19:48cured and dried meats
19:49like pepperoni,
19:51hot dogs, jerky,
19:52the dogs will be having a feast.
19:54That is if they're
19:55the only ones eating it.
19:57The 14,000-acre
19:59for Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge
20:01is less than two miles away.
20:04Once a sanctuary,
20:06now it's a launching ground
20:08for invasion.
20:09Two weeks after people,
20:21mice have infested
20:22every corner of the grocery store,
20:24feasting, nesting,
20:26and gnawing through
20:27everything on shelf after shelf.
20:30Now the smell of decay
20:31is rising.
20:33Rotting meat,
20:34rancid milk,
20:35a scent thick as smoke
20:37purling through broken doors
20:39and shattered glass.
20:41It's like an invitation
20:42to hungry creatures,
20:44and something bigger
20:45is coming.
20:48Rats have a sense of smell
20:50that's even more sensitive
20:51than mice.
20:53Rats can smell through walls
20:55and underground.
20:56Rats have been trained
20:57to smell for unexploded landmines
20:59in war zones.
21:00They can smell tuberculosis
21:02on patients.
21:04Rats swarm into the store,
21:07ravenous and ruthless,
21:08drawn by the promise of food,
21:11and they're not leaving
21:12until they get it.
21:13Rats and mice
21:14really do compete
21:15for resources,
21:16but frankly,
21:16it's not much of a competition.
21:18Mice weigh about one ounce,
21:19whereas rats,
21:2016 times that,
21:21a full pound.
21:22It's like a toddler
21:23trying to fight
21:24a high school linebacker.
21:25It's not a fair fight.
21:27Rats are way bigger than mice.
21:29There are occasions
21:30where mice and rats
21:31can coexist peacefully,
21:32but it's only when food
21:34is in plentiful supply.
21:36The rodents feast
21:37side by side,
21:39an unspoken
21:40and uncomfortable truce.
21:42But each day,
21:43the flesh spoils
21:44a little more.
21:45The scent thickens,
21:46the color turns,
21:48the meat is rotting
21:49into poison.
21:51Mice will eat spoiled meat,
21:53but only up to a point.
21:55Rats have stronger stomach acids,
21:57so they can eat
21:58more spoiled meat.
21:59But even rats
22:00have a breaking point.
22:01And when it comes
22:02to things like botulism,
22:03that is just as bad
22:05for rats
22:05as it is for us.
22:07When they get food-borne
22:08illnesses,
22:09pretty much the same symptoms.
22:11Vomiting, diarrhea, nausea.
22:13You can try to imagine
22:14what it's like
22:14when thousands of rodents
22:15get diarrhea all at once,
22:17but we'll let that pass.
22:20Even after the mice
22:21and the rats
22:22are done with it,
22:23that meat will not go to waste.
22:24It will start to rot
22:26and the flies
22:28will descend on it
22:28and they will begin
22:29laying their eggs
22:30in every moist crevice.
22:33And then within days,
22:35that rotting meat
22:36will be effectively
22:37reanimated
22:39with wriggling maggots.
22:42Rats and mice
22:43both eat insects
22:45and their lard.
22:46To us,
22:47maggots are
22:48disgusting nightmare fuel.
22:50But to them,
22:51it's just a good source
22:51of protein.
22:52As the maggots
22:53eat the meat
22:54and the rodents
22:54eat the maggots,
22:55the food source
22:56is going to dwindle away
22:57altogether.
22:58And at that point,
22:59we're looking at
22:59a very intense competition
23:01between rats and mice.
23:03Two weeks after people,
23:05the scraps are fewer and fewer.
23:07The rats,
23:08bigger, faster,
23:09hungrier,
23:10do what survival demands.
23:12No hesitation.
23:13Just one species
23:14clawing its way
23:15to dominance.
23:17Rats are extremely aggressive
23:19and territorial.
23:20And if they're desperate
23:21enough for food,
23:22they'll kill and eat mice,
23:23which seems a little bit
23:24too close to cannibalism.
23:26Sometimes a rat
23:27just wants to show
23:28his dominance
23:29and teach the mice
23:30a lesson about
23:32this is my territory.
23:33It's like they
23:34kill the mice for sport.
23:36The rats have conquered
23:38their rivals
23:38and settled in to nest.
23:41In here,
23:41they're hidden and warm.
23:43But outside,
23:44Mother Nature is alive
23:46with silent menace.
23:48And the rats
23:48will soon be exposed
23:50to a new nightmare.
23:56Far out in the Pacific,
23:58with only autopilot
24:00to guide her,
24:01the Oslo
24:01has outrun storms
24:03and skirted ruin.
24:05The ocean may be vast,
24:07but fate is fickle.
24:09And now,
24:10a tanker carrying
24:11a million gallons
24:12of jet fuel
24:13is drifting right
24:14into the Oslo's path.
24:17The tanker's dead
24:18in the water,
24:19but the Oslo
24:19still has power.
24:20And a collision
24:21between them
24:22could be catastrophic.
24:23Because even if it
24:24just starts a small fire,
24:26that's like dropping
24:27a match
24:28onto three million gallons
24:30of jet fuel.
24:35On the empty bridge
24:37of the Oslo,
24:38a shrill collision alarm
24:39pierces the quiet,
24:41but there's no one
24:42to hear it.
24:43No hands on the helm,
24:45no one watching
24:45the horizon.
24:47And the ghost ship
24:48sails toward
24:49its own demise.
24:53It's very likely
24:55that the tanker's hull
24:56will be breached
24:57if there is a spark.
24:58And if that spark
24:59hit the fuel
25:00inside the tanker,
25:01watch out.
25:02It's going to be
25:03a massive explosion.
25:04Any other ship
25:10within a three-mile radius
25:11would be almost
25:12completely destroyed.
25:13Windows would be
25:14blown out,
25:14the decks would buckle,
25:16and smaller ships
25:16would capsize instantly.
25:18The blast is sudden
25:21and catastrophic.
25:23The Oslo is tossed
25:24like an unwanted toy
25:25in the hands
25:26of an angry sea.
25:28Her cargo rations
25:29snap one after another
25:31until 24,000 shipping containers
25:35tumble into the ocean
25:36like steel dominoes.
25:41When containers fall off a ship,
25:43some of them may stay intact
25:45when they hit the water.
25:46But they're not made
25:48to be airtight.
25:49They're made to be
25:49water-resistant.
25:50So they may float
25:52for a little while,
25:53but then it's going to sink.
25:56Many of them are basically
25:58just going to like pop open
26:00when they hit the water,
26:01spilling all of their contents
26:02into the water.
26:04It wouldn't be the first time.
26:05There are many weird stories
26:06of strange objects
26:07washing ashore
26:08due to ship containers
26:10falling overboard.
26:11For decades,
26:13there's this one beach in France
26:15where Garfield phones
26:18have been washing up
26:19every year.
26:20And it turns out
26:20it's because in the 80s,
26:22there was a shipping container
26:23full of them
26:24that sank nearby.
26:25Random Lego pieces
26:26still wash up
26:27on European beaches
26:28all the time
26:29because a shipping container
26:30full of those
26:31sank way back in the 90s.
26:34The Oslo makes
26:35its final delivery
26:36not to the Port of Los Angeles
26:38as scheduled,
26:40but to the murky depths
26:41of the vast Pacific.
26:43Then she disappears
26:44into the fall reaches
26:45of the ocean
26:46left to her fate.
26:51One year after people,
26:54the once bright
26:54and sterile grocery stores
26:56that fed humanity
26:57are now dark,
26:59rotting,
26:59choked with dust
27:01and decay.
27:02Shelves that were once
27:03home to fresh foods
27:04and packaged goods
27:05are now home to rats,
27:08mice,
27:08and their nests.
27:10High above the vermin,
27:11barn owls
27:12perch in the rafters,
27:14watchful and hungry.
27:16Where once there was
27:17cleanliness and order,
27:18there's about to be
27:19something else.
27:21Carnage.
27:21Two years after people,
27:31grocery stores are overrun
27:32with prey
27:33and the predators
27:34that feast on them.
27:35Here,
27:36the air is thick
27:37with rot,
27:38the floor writhes
27:39with desperate rodents,
27:40and the rafters
27:41teem with deadly hunters.
27:44This environment
27:45is tailor-made
27:46for barn owls.
27:47They get their name
27:48barn owls
27:50because they like
27:51to live in human-built
27:52structures like barns,
27:53and farmers actually
27:55encourage them
27:56to be there
27:56because they're like
27:57natural pest control.
28:00Barn owls have
28:01some of the most
28:02sensitive ears
28:03on the planet,
28:04helping them triangulate
28:06and pinpoint sounds
28:08as soft
28:09as the heartbeat
28:10of a mouse.
28:11The average barn owl
28:12can consume
28:13about three animals
28:14a night,
28:14so with all of these
28:15rats around,
28:16it would be a feast,
28:16and the owls
28:17would end up
28:17consuming up to
28:18a thousand rats a year.
28:20The food being devoured
28:22inside this grocery store
28:23bears little resemblance
28:24to what once
28:25filled shopping carts.
28:27But the building itself,
28:29though cracked
28:30and sagging,
28:31still stands.
28:33But for how long?
28:38In the mall of America,
28:41where eager crowds
28:42once gathered
28:42to buy the latest trends,
28:44all that's left
28:45is silence and darkness.
28:48Now,
28:49wolves from the nearby
28:50wildlife refuge
28:51prowl through the shadows,
28:53lured by the scent of food,
28:56and the canine unit watches,
28:58ready to protect
28:59what's theirs.
29:02Dogs can be very territorial
29:03when it comes to
29:04protecting their resources.
29:06The canine unit
29:06would have made the mall
29:07its home
29:08and become protective
29:08of that territory.
29:10Now remember,
29:11these dogs haven't been
29:12raised in the wild,
29:12so they wouldn't be
29:13particularly good hunters.
29:15They would be very interested
29:16in protecting their territory
29:18and their food supply.
29:20Unfortunately for the dogs,
29:21the wolves are not just
29:23bigger and stronger.
29:25They've been living like this
29:26for their entire lives.
29:28While the dogs are trained
29:29to do things
29:30that humans want them to do,
29:31these wolves have been
29:32surviving in the wild
29:34and up against competition.
29:36So, chances are,
29:38they're gonna win.
29:39The wolves hunt as a pack,
29:41moving as one
29:42to corner one of the canines.
29:44Slowly,
29:45step by step,
29:46they isolate their prey.
29:49Like a bolt of lightning,
29:51a wolf attacks,
29:53and the dogs have no choice
29:56but to flee.
30:04Now,
30:05the wolves rule,
30:06but the building itself
30:07is already turning against them.
30:10After five years
30:10without people,
30:11the mall is going through
30:13several of the freeze-thaw cycles
30:14of the Minnesota winter.
30:16When it gets cold,
30:17water freezes,
30:18it expands,
30:18and when it thaws,
30:20it contracts again.
30:21So,
30:21that causes cracks
30:22to appear
30:23in the structure
30:25all over the place,
30:25and it will
30:27eventually deteriorate.
30:28Some threats
30:29lie in plain sight,
30:31but others hide,
30:32biding their time.
30:33There's an electric vehicle
30:35kiosk in the mall.
30:36The sleek car on display
30:38may look innocent enough,
30:40but there's a danger
30:41lurking under the hood.
30:43A 100-kilowatt
30:44lithium-ion battery.
30:46Lithium-ion batteries
30:47are volatile.
30:49That's why you can't
30:49check them in your luggage
30:50on an airplane.
30:51If damaged,
30:52they can explode
30:54or catch fire.
30:55There was one incident
30:56in a Manhattan apartment building
30:58caused by a lithium-ion battery
31:00in a bicycle
31:01where 38 people were injured.
31:03An electric vehicle
31:04has a battery
31:05more than 100 times
31:06that strength.
31:08It's been five years
31:09since any human hands
31:11have swept the dust
31:12or patched the walls.
31:13With a shudder of neglect,
31:15a slab of ceiling
31:16breaks free,
31:17smashing into the display car below,
31:20and something begins to stir.
31:22If the battery's damaged,
31:25the lithium and the cobalt
31:26mix together,
31:27creating a short circuit.
31:28This can overheat things,
31:30causing a fire
31:31or even an explosion.
31:32This triggers a chain reaction
31:34known as a thermal runway,
31:36meaning it just gets hotter
31:38and hotter
31:38and burns ever more vigorously.
31:40So this leads to a firestorm
31:42that doesn't stop
31:43until there's no more fuel left.
31:45That means
31:46everything has been burned.
31:48There can be thousands of cells
31:49in an electric car battery,
31:50so a fire could foreseeably burn
31:52for days and days on end
31:53with nothing to stop it.
31:55What began as a spark
31:56takes on a life of its own,
31:58moving through the mall
31:59with purpose,
32:00devouring anything
32:01you can find for fuel.
32:04Without human intervention,
32:05a fire like this
32:06could definitely gut
32:07an entire section of the mall.
32:10And it's definitely going to scare away
32:11all the animals living.
32:15The mall of America,
32:18once hailed as a cathedral of commerce,
32:21now stands hollowed by flame,
32:23its corridors blackened.
32:25Though some parts of the mall
32:27still stand,
32:28they're about to undergo a remodel
32:30no human being could ever have planned.
32:33Years ago,
32:45fire left the biggest mall in the world
32:47warped and charred.
32:48Even the beasts
32:49who prowled the once-pristine hallways
32:52are gone now,
32:53leaving only silence and ruin.
32:56But in the dust and ashes,
32:58something new is stirring.
33:01Fires actually often
33:02make conditions better
33:03for plants to grow.
33:05When things like wood,
33:06plants, and seeds
33:07are burned into mineral-rich ash,
33:09those nutrients are recycled
33:11back into the soil,
33:12creating ideal growing conditions
33:14for new life to grow.
33:17The question becomes,
33:18where is this fertile soil?
33:20What I expect
33:21is the natural gardens
33:22that are in many of these malls,
33:23the water features,
33:25the little tree and planted areas,
33:27those actually become the point
33:28from which small jungles
33:30start to flourish.
33:32Seeds, pollen, and mushroom spores
33:34can be bought by the wind
33:35or the birds.
33:36Local birds might bring
33:37local plant species,
33:38but migratory birds
33:39can bring seeds
33:40from hundreds or even thousands
33:41of miles away.
33:43From every crack in the concrete,
33:46roots rise like fingers
33:48clawing for a second chance.
33:50They're silent and relentless,
33:53and they're spreading.
33:54They'll expand the cracks and crevices.
33:57That lets in more soil,
33:58more seeds, and more water,
34:01and then the whole cycle
34:02just continues.
34:05While the natural world
34:07withers, rots, and blooms again,
34:1030 years after people,
34:12grocery stores all over the world
34:14are sagging under their own weight,
34:17bending, cracking,
34:18and coming apart at the seeds.
34:22Retail companies focus on profit,
34:24not permanence.
34:25These stores are built
34:26with cheap materials,
34:27and frankly,
34:28they're easier to replace
34:29than to repair.
34:30So these stores are designed
34:31to last for about 50 years,
34:32and without maintenance,
34:34they'd fall apart
34:34a lot sooner than that.
34:36Once a beacon of abundance,
34:38this grocery store
34:40is now a hollow shell.
34:41All it will take
34:42is one bolt of lightning,
34:44one burst of wind,
34:45and a humble thunderstorm
34:47will bring it all crashing down.
34:49A big box store
34:51is highly vulnerable.
34:53It has a large, flat roof
34:55and a nice, sharp edge.
34:56So as wind comes over
34:57that sharp edge,
34:58it separates the flow,
35:00creating a vortex
35:01or a whirlpool
35:02that's spinning in the air.
35:03You can't see it,
35:04but it's there.
35:05As it's spinning,
35:07it is creating suction
35:08that is pulling up
35:10on the edge of the roof.
35:11When that suction gets high enough,
35:19it will literally start
35:19to peel the roof back
35:20just like the lid
35:21on a tin of sardines.
35:22Eventually,
35:23it'll take the whole thing off.
35:37Amid the shattered glass
35:39and collapsing beams,
35:40a few relics
35:41are scattered in the rubble,
35:43untouched by time or rot,
35:46and one of them
35:46is still safe to eat.
35:49Honey is nature's
35:50ultimate preservative.
35:52It basically lasts forever
35:53because it's acidic
35:54and it contains
35:56almost no water.
35:58Bacteria and mold
35:59need that water to grow,
36:01so if you can keep
36:02your honey sealed
36:02without letting water
36:03get in there,
36:05it'll basically never spoil.
36:07Unspoiled jars of honey
36:08have been found
36:09in 19th century shipwrecks.
36:12And archaeologists have found
36:13sealed jars of honey
36:14in ancient Egyptian tombs
36:15that are perfectly edible
36:17even thousands of years later.
36:21Decades slip by,
36:23and the store
36:23that once helped feed humanity
36:25is swallowed up by Mother Nature
36:28instead.
36:29100 years after people,
36:42the Oslo has long since sunk
36:44to the darkest depths,
36:46but some of its cargo
36:47is still afloat.
36:50Let's say a single shipping container
36:52is carrying nothing but flip-flops.
36:54It could hold about 130,000 pairs,
36:57but a lot of flip-flops
36:58are made of EVA foam,
37:00which is a closed-cell foam,
37:01which means that water
37:03can't get inside of it.
37:04This means that it can both
37:06float very well
37:07and doesn't biodegrade.
37:10Ocean currents could carry
37:11some of those floating flip-flops
37:13all the way around
37:15the Pacific Ocean
37:16and deliver them
37:17at the port of Shanghai,
37:18like it's some elaborate
37:20return-to-sender package
37:21from the Pacific Ocean.
37:22By the time this lost cargo arrives,
37:27the port where it started
37:28its journey
37:29is little more than a memory,
37:30the ghost of human commerce.
37:34A century later,
37:35whatever's left of the port of Shanghai
37:37has been completely overgrown.
37:38Over the decades,
37:39plant life has creeped into the area
37:41or else been washed up
37:42by the Yangtze River.
37:44Whatever the case,
37:45it now looks like there's a forest
37:46covering what used to be that port.
37:48As Mother Nature reclaims the land,
37:52an ancient resident returns,
37:55the South China tiger.
38:01These cats were once considered
38:04functionally extinct in the wild.
38:06In fact, none have been spotted
38:09outside of zoos since the 1980s.
38:12The Chinese government
38:14created controlled breeding programs
38:16to boost the tiger's population
38:18at the Shanghai Zoo.
38:22Now, a century after their ancestors
38:25escaped these facilities,
38:27the South China tiger
38:28is king of the jungle once more.
38:34In a life after people,
38:35the populations
38:36of these extraordinary cats
38:38would rebound and flourish.
38:41On the other side of the globe,
38:50all that's left of what was once
38:51the Mall of America
38:52is a plant-choked,
38:54overgrown ruin.
38:58The descendants of the K-9 unit
39:00that once patrolled its halls
39:01have returned.
39:03But like the mall,
39:04they're also transformed.
39:07There will still be dogs
39:09in a life after people,
39:10but they won't look like
39:12most of the family pets
39:13we're accustomed to.
39:15In the absence of controlled breeding,
39:19all of the specialty varieties
39:21will disappear.
39:23In other words,
39:24mutts will rule.
39:26Natural selection would mean
39:27that the surviving dogs
39:29adapt to become
39:30more effective hunters,
39:31like working together as a pack
39:33to take down prey.
39:34Dogs shed their domesticated past,
39:38reshaping into the image
39:39of their wild cousins,
39:41wolves, coyotes, and dingoes.
39:43Their coats grow thicker,
39:45their bodies harden,
39:46lean, powerful,
39:48built for a life in the wild.
39:51These once disciplined guard dogs,
39:53bred to obey our commands,
39:55now revert to their
39:56more animalistic nature.
39:58They become hunters,
40:00survivalists.
40:01And so, like the maw itself,
40:03these dogs have
40:04returned to nature.
40:06Mother nature
40:07has erased almost every sign
40:09that this was once
40:10a bustling maw.
40:11But there's one thing
40:13that can never be erased.
40:16Unlike silver or copper,
40:18gold never corrodes.
40:20It doesn't react to water,
40:22and it's basically impervious
40:23to almost every kind of acid.
40:25That's why ancient coins,
40:28crowns, jewelry
40:29from thousands of years ago
40:31still shine today.
40:33It's like time just forgets
40:35about gold.
40:37These remnants,
40:38fated treasures buried in dust,
40:40are all that endure.
40:42The final fragile cruise
40:44to humanity's long dance
40:46with commerce.
40:48I think it's really easy
40:49to underestimate
40:50how much we consume,
40:51how much we shop.
40:52It's a huge part of our lives.
40:54Shopping and commerce
40:56have long been
40:57the lifeblood of civilization,
40:58driving economies
40:59and shaping the way we live.
41:01They bring us necessities
41:02and luxuries
41:02and also fuel innovation.
41:05But without people,
41:06none of it happens.
41:08There are no shoppers
41:08to buy anything,
41:10and the global gears of commerce
41:11grind to a halt.
41:13So all of the intricate web
41:15of business
41:16that we have created,
41:17it dissolves into nothingness.
Recommended
41:41
|
Up next
47:22
47:21
47:31
58:11
2:09:39
46:38
45:53
1:04:28
1:09:29
Be the first to comment