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00:00Imagine our planet without its people.
00:07Imagine that every single human being has simply disappeared.
00:13This isn't the story of how that might happen.
00:16It's the story of what happens to the world we leave behind.
00:22In this episode of Life After People, America's capital is under attack.
00:30More than 2,000 miles away, Hollywood faces its own threats.
00:39While elsewhere, national treasures are at stake.
00:44What will survive?
00:47Who or what might take our place?
00:50And could another capital of mankind emerge at sea?
00:55We'll visit the future of our once crowded cities
00:58and a haunting sight already devoid of man.
01:04Welcome to Earth.
01:07Population zero.
01:09It's day one after people.
01:19It's day one after people.
01:28In the rotunda of the National Archives building,
01:34the United States Constitution is on permanent display.
01:38But one day after people,
01:40there will be no one to escort it on its nightly journey to the security vault.
01:43The parchment document is preserved in a shatter-proof sealed encasement filled with argot,
01:53an inert gas that replaces oxygen and moisture-containing air that could wreak havoc over time.
01:59But how long can it protect one of America's most precious documents?
02:04Nearby, the Washington Monument, built from 82,000 tons of stone,
02:15is free from the daily throngs of tourists.
02:20The U.S. Capitol building is ghostly quiet.
02:24And the statue of Abraham Lincoln gazes on a pool that reflects the absence of human life.
02:36In the time of humans,
02:38it took a team of 350 to maintain the National Mall.
02:46It was already in need of hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs and restoration.
02:50How long will the crumbling infrastructure last?
03:00Washington, D.C. is threatened by a stealthy enemy.
03:06Moisture is what we battle all the time
03:08when we're working on buildings or monuments of this type.
03:11It's what's going to act as an accelerant in terms of deterioration.
03:18Once the key to human existence,
03:20water now threatens everything man has built.
03:36One week after people.
03:40In the entertainment capital of the world,
03:43the Los Angeles highways are blissfully free of traffic.
03:46The 73-storey U.S. Bank Tower,
03:52the tallest building west of the Mississippi,
03:54was designed to be occupied for more than 100 years.
03:58It was also built to survive the big one,
04:01an earthquake measuring at least 7.5 on the Richter scale.
04:05But how long will it stand without human maintenance?
04:09We shall see.
04:10Two weeks after people.
04:25In both the Washington, D.C. and L.A. zoos,
04:29the animals are dying.
04:31Elephants are desperate without humans
04:36to supply their vegetarian meal intake of 150 pounds per day.
04:43Using their superior intelligence and powerful trunks
04:46that can lift up to 600 pounds,
04:49they break out.
04:50Elephants are actually remarkably well-equipped
04:56for operating in a world without people.
04:58They are able to defend against just about any predator
05:00that's likely to come their way.
05:08Before humans appeared in North America nearly 13,000 years ago,
05:12mammoths, the distant relatives of modern elephants,
05:15dominated the grasslands.
05:16This is a group of animals
05:24that did very well indeed in the Americas
05:26before we got here,
05:28and there's every reason to expect
05:29they would do just fine again without us.
05:34They begin new lives in the urban jungles,
05:37but will they be able to reclaim their old territory?
05:40Meanwhile, two weeks after people,
05:483,000 tons of rubbish lies uncollected in Hollywood.
05:55Some sewer systems deliver the rubbish directly to the ocean,
05:59where it will add to the floating heap of detritus
06:02in the middle of the Pacific.
06:03The Great Pacific Garbage Patch,
06:09halfway between San Francisco and Hawaii,
06:11contains three and a half million tons
06:14of nearly indestructible plastic waste,
06:17a floating dump twice the size of Texas.
06:24After people,
06:26how long will it take
06:27before the Pacific Ocean is free of our refuse?
06:29Three weeks after people,
06:42the lush and manicured image of Los Angeles
06:45is getting a facelift of a different kind.
06:48We see Los Angeles as a paradise,
06:51but it's a paradise we've created.
06:59In the time of humans,
07:01LA residents used 137 gallons of water
07:05per person, per day,
07:07more than half that amount
07:08being used to water lawns and plants.
07:1387% of that water came from far away.
07:19For more than a century,
07:21much of it came from the Owens Valley
07:22in southeast California,
07:24hundreds of miles to the north,
07:26through two aqueduct cascades.
07:29This particular cascade
07:33is carrying about 125 million gallons of water a day,
07:37the major part of the water supply
07:39for the city of Los Angeles.
07:44The water travels through a series
07:46of power-generating plants.
07:48When they stop working,
07:50the water backs up
07:51and begins creating new reservoirs,
07:54denying the city its main water source.
07:56If we think about life after people
08:03in Los Angeles,
08:04all of a sudden,
08:05there's nobody here to take care of it.
08:07No one to control the outflow of the reservoir.
08:10No one to control
08:11where the water goes in the city.
08:13One month into a life after people,
08:25and L.A. is returning to its natural state.
08:30Los Angeles really is a desert.
08:32Now the thirsty green lawns,
08:39trees and manicured gardens
08:40are withering,
08:42setting the stage
08:43for a massive catastrophe
08:44soon to come.
08:50More than 2,000 miles away,
08:52the problem is quite the opposite.
08:54There's too much water
08:55in Washington, D.C.,
08:57and the city
08:58is beginning to drown.
09:08Life after people
09:09here in Washington, D.C.,
09:10along the Potomac River
09:12will be a very different place.
09:14Water levels will be higher,
09:16floods will be greater,
09:18because more of that water
09:19is now flowing through the river
09:21rather than being taken away
09:22for showers and for bathing
09:24and for drinking water
09:25in Washington, D.C.
09:30The failure of electric pumps
09:32beneath the city
09:33unleashes a deluge
09:34from the water aquifers,
09:36flooding the streets.
09:41One problem with Washington, D.C.
09:44is that it was built
09:47with permanent-looking architecture
09:49on a swamp.
09:51When the first settlers
09:55travelled up the Chesapeake Bay
09:56and came ashore,
09:57Washington, D.C.
09:58was marshland.
10:00Beaver dams shaped
10:01the Potomac River,
10:02creating huge wetlands.
10:05In the time of humans,
10:06park service rangers
10:07trapped and relocated
10:08the beavers
10:09that gnawed
10:10on the city's
10:10famous cherry trees.
10:16Now, the beavers
10:18are planning a return to power.
10:21Two months after people.
10:36Across the Potomac
10:37in Arlington National Cemetery,
10:39the eternal flame
10:40that marks the grave
10:41of President John F. Kennedy
10:42is also under threat.
10:44The flame has been extinguished
10:51only once,
10:52in 1963,
10:53when some tourists
10:54poured holy water on it.
10:58A constantly flowing
11:00natural gas line
11:01with an electrically-powered
11:02relighting system
11:03keeps the flame burning.
11:04But when the D.C.
11:08power grid fails,
11:12the electric relighter
11:15also fails.
11:19The first heavy rainstorm
11:21snuffs the flame forever.
11:23It's now six months
11:39after people.
11:42Back in Los Angeles,
11:44while some animal populations
11:45are desperate for water,
11:47others are learning to adapt,
11:49including one blood-sucking scourge
11:51suddenly deprived
11:52of its human protein,
11:54the mosquito.
12:02We're sitting here in Los Angeles,
12:04a place with a lot of swimming pools.
12:07If people disappeared,
12:08these swimming pools
12:09would go into disrepair.
12:10There would be stagnant water.
12:12This would be a great place
12:13for mosquitoes to breed.
12:14In the time of humans,
12:18when the wave of mortgage foreclosures
12:20hit Southern California in 2008,
12:23West Nile virus cases
12:24more than doubled.
12:26To blame were the thousands
12:27of suddenly abandoned swimming pools
12:29where the mosquitoes
12:30rapidly reproduced.
12:33A single stagnant pool
12:35can support hundreds
12:36of thousands of the pests.
12:38Within a year of life
12:45after people,
12:46the natural world
12:47is rapidly taking over
12:48the city streets.
12:50Soon, it will set off
12:51a chain of devastating events,
12:54turning great cities
12:55into capitals of destruction.
12:58It is now one year
13:10after people,
13:12and America's monuments
13:13are under attack.
13:17Towering some 550 feet,
13:20the Washington Monument
13:21is the tallest freestanding
13:22masonry structure
13:23in the world.
13:25The load-bearing walls
13:26are 15 feet thick
13:28at the base
13:28and 18 inches thick
13:30at the top.
13:32Completed more than
13:33125 years ago,
13:34it was designed
13:35to last for centuries.
13:37But even in the time
13:38of humans,
13:39the stone was already
13:40beginning to deteriorate.
13:49We can see up close
13:51some of the deterioration
13:53that just happens
13:53on a regular basis.
13:55We can see the deterioration
13:56of the mortar joints
13:57and the patching
13:58that's been done over time.
14:00This is a really good example here.
14:02We can see that
14:03even though this was
14:03recently renovated,
14:04we've already lost
14:05this material.
14:06So even in that short time span,
14:08the deterioration cycle
14:09is just ongoing.
14:11It's only 100 years
14:12of deterioration,
14:13but it shows the kind
14:14of loss of surface
14:14that we get
14:15and the kind of loss
14:16that we would imagine
14:17would occur
14:17as we move forward.
14:18one year after people.
14:27Despite the neglect,
14:28the U.S. Capitol building
14:29appears unchanged.
14:32Even the dome
14:32made from Civil War-era cast iron
14:35is holding off the elements.
14:36The first year,
14:39you wouldn't expect
14:40to see much change.
14:42However,
14:43that cast iron dome
14:44is painted
14:45and over time,
14:47the paint protective system
14:49will start breaking down.
14:50So you would expect
14:52to see some rusting
14:53starting to become visible
14:55as the iron is exposed
14:57from the paint.
15:01The solid marble
15:02of the Lincoln Memorial
15:03is hinting at a future
15:05without human care.
15:07With no routine cleanings,
15:09the blocked drainage pipes
15:10are starting to cause cracks
15:11and water damage
15:12to the roof.
15:14The vertical span
15:15protecting Abraham Lincoln
15:16also contains
15:17steel beam reinforcement.
15:23The tragic flaw
15:24is the roofing system.
15:26You'll have water penetration
15:27in and where you have water
15:29and you have steel,
15:30you have corrosion.
15:33The nation's monuments
15:35remain under attack.
15:37But which one
15:38will stand the longest?
15:49It's three years
15:50into a life after people
15:51and the center of Los Angeles
15:53is an overgrown metropolis.
15:59LA's famous freeway system
16:00has gone green.
16:04The concrete itself
16:06would be relatively invisible
16:07within a very, very short
16:09period of time.
16:10The roadways themselves
16:11are great seed corridors.
16:13So the winds,
16:14the natural winds that we get,
16:16would drive a lot of seeds
16:18and other materials
16:18down those open corridors.
16:23Grasses and other small plants
16:25quickly take over.
16:26Soon trees begin growing,
16:30their roots tearing apart
16:32the concrete.
16:41A decade after people
16:43and Los Angeles
16:45is becoming a desert
16:46once more.
16:47probably within a few years
16:53you begin to see
16:53the non-native plants
16:55dying out
16:55and the native plants
16:57coming back
16:57and gradually taking over.
17:03Without the aqueduct
17:04bringing in billions
17:05of gallons of water,
17:06the huge Canary Island
17:08palm trees lining
17:09the streets of Beverly Hills
17:10are now decaying trunks.
17:12This non-native tree
17:15was imported in the 1930s
17:16to add to the city's
17:18exotic appeal.
17:19But it requires an average
17:21of 30 gallons of water a day
17:23and after 10 parched years
17:25it slowly dies
17:27from the top down.
17:36Los Angeles
17:37is almost unrecognisable.
17:39But it's nothing
17:41compared to what's coming.
17:46Wildfires can burn
17:47for weeks
17:48and even longer
17:49if the conditions are right.
17:51In 2007,
17:52the Zaker fire
17:53in Santa Barbara County
17:54raged for two months,
17:56the longest burning wildfire
17:57in recent California history.
18:01Now,
18:02when a lightning strike
18:05sets off a fire
18:06in the hills,
18:07there won't be
18:08any firefighters
18:09coming to the rescue.
18:13The mountain fires
18:15that we see
18:15virtually every year
18:17here in Los Angeles
18:18would penetrate
18:19into the urban setting
18:20and you have the potential
18:22for a major fire event.
18:27In the city center,
18:28the U.S. bank tower
18:29burns from the inside out.
18:32The structural steel frame
18:33can withstand
18:34the searing heat,
18:35enduring temperatures
18:36of over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
18:40But the interior spaces
18:41burn quickly,
18:42turning L.A.'s tallest building
18:44into a charred skeleton.
18:52The stainless steel panels
18:54of the Walt Disney Concert Hall
18:56are virtually fireproof,
18:58but the flames consume
18:59the plant life
19:00that grows between them.
19:01In Hollywood,
19:07the rotting wood
19:08of Grumman's Chinese theater
19:09is engulfed
19:10in mere seconds.
19:12But the foot
19:13and handprints
19:14of Tinseltown legends
19:15embedded in cement
19:16easily survive the inferno.
19:22The famous Hollywood sign
19:24is engulfed
19:25as its acrylic latex paint
19:26feeds the fire.
19:27But the 50-foot-tall letters
19:30will survive the scorching,
19:31because although
19:32they look like wood,
19:34they're actually made
19:35from steel.
19:35It's 50 years
19:47into a life
19:48after people.
19:51Now 200 years overdue,
19:54the big one
19:55hits Los Angeles.
19:56The U.S. bank tower
20:05is a charred,
20:06teetering steel skeleton.
20:08The upper 21 floors
20:10have earthquake-damping struts
20:11installed between floors,
20:13but after wildfire damage
20:15and years without maintenance,
20:17they can't fend off
20:18the inevitable.
20:23If you think about
20:25a bullwhip,
20:26a slight flick of the wrist
20:28will create a big motion
20:31out at the far end
20:32of the bullwhip
20:32and it'll snap.
20:34Well, it's the same thing
20:34with the building.
20:36Part of the top of the building
20:37could just topple away,
20:39because it's moving.
20:40It's the tip of the bullwhip.
20:47Not far away,
20:48the 32-story L.A. City Hall
20:50is the tallest structure
20:51in the world
20:52fitted with a base-isolated
20:54anti-earthquake mechanism.
20:58What the base isolators do
21:00is they allow the building
21:01to remain relatively stationary
21:03while the ground shifts beneath it.
21:07But the base isolators
21:09rely on rubber bearings
21:10to absorb the shock
21:12and minimize vibration.
21:14After fire damage
21:15and 50 years without maintenance,
21:17the rubber has deteriorated.
21:19City Hall is doomed.
21:26Despite the extra technology,
21:29nothing lives forever,
21:32especially in the Los Angeles basin.
21:34And that includes
21:36another icon of the silver screen.
21:40The landmark Hollywood sign
21:42is coming down.
21:47The quake shears off
21:48the corroded bolts
21:49that once held the letters
21:50securely to girders
21:52sunk in the bedrock.
21:57Faster than most American cities,
22:00Los Angeles is shedding
22:01its human skin.
22:04But Washington, D.C.
22:06faces a very different fate.
22:08100 years after people,
22:24man's legacy is fading
22:26in some places
22:27and growing in others.
22:33A water bottle
22:34from the California coast
22:36will float for many years
22:37before it's sucked
22:38into the Great Pacific
22:39garbage patch.
22:41Still expanding,
22:43as more plastic refuse
22:44from North America,
22:46China and Japan arrives,
22:48the century-old plastic materials
22:50will remain intact
22:51far into the future.
23:00Because of the durability
23:01of some of the plastics
23:03that we have produced,
23:05we will actually see evidence
23:07of those outlasting
23:09the evidence
23:10of the substantial buildings
23:13that we've built
23:14in steel and concrete
23:16and timber.
23:22After a century
23:23on permanent display
23:24at the National Archives
23:25in Washington, D.C.,
23:26the Constitution document
23:28is facing an invisible danger.
23:30The encasement seals
23:35are failing,
23:36allowing in air molecules
23:37and the oxygen content
23:39increases to half a percent.
23:41But no known microorganisms
23:43can attack the parchment
23:44without at least
23:45two percent oxygen.
23:47So the documents
23:48will be safe
23:49for a few more years
23:51at least.
23:51You still would have
23:57a good,
23:58relatively airtight
23:59and moisture-proof container
24:01for the document.
24:03The words of America's
24:05founding fathers
24:06will live on
24:07as long as the roof
24:09holds out.
24:10over the last century,
24:18the beavers
24:18have been busy.
24:20New tree growth
24:21on the National Mall
24:22allows them to build dams
24:23and cut new water channels
24:25from the flooding
24:26Potomac River.
24:31Across the wetlands,
24:32the dome of the U.S. Capitol
24:33is rusting.
24:34With the paint long gone,
24:37moisture is forcing
24:38open the joints
24:39in the cast-iron sheets,
24:40attracting pigeons
24:41and other birds
24:42into the openings.
24:44Because the dome
24:45is built atop
24:45an iron truss system,
24:47much like the girders
24:48of a bridge,
24:49it's an ideal nesting place.
24:56The birds will build
24:57their nests there.
24:58When it rains,
24:59the rain will collect there.
25:01That nesting material
25:02will hold it like a sponge
25:03against the iron.
25:04The iron will continue
25:05to corrode.
25:09Corrosion is also setting in
25:11on another famous structure
25:12in Los Angeles.
25:16The Walt Disney Concert Hall
25:18was built with stainless steel,
25:20one of the most
25:20anti-corrosive metals.
25:22Its protective oxide layer
25:24prevents corrosion
25:25from forming.
25:27After a hundred years,
25:28the oxide is fading
25:29and the silver panels
25:30are slowly changing
25:32to the color of dry.
25:33dried blood.
25:36The Walt Disney Concert Hall
25:38is now a spectacular sculpture
25:40of rust.
25:47Corrosion is also pulling apart
25:49what's left of the freeway
25:50overpasses,
25:51and rain is transforming
25:52some parts into a world
25:54of water.
25:55A number of locations
26:03here in Los Angeles,
26:04our roadways are actually
26:05below great.
26:06So when the water falls,
26:07we have to be able
26:08to collect it.
26:09We have drainage inlets
26:10like this in the roadway.
26:11The water collects
26:12in the drainage inlet,
26:13and it goes to pumps
26:14that pump the water out.
26:15Now the inlets are clogged
26:22with debris,
26:22and the pumps
26:23stopped working long ago.
26:26Dozens of small lake ecosystems
26:28dot the freeways.
26:30It'll be a gathering place
26:32for the animals,
26:33because animals will come down
26:34out of the adjacent mountains,
26:36and the freeway corridors
26:37are a relatively straight,
26:39easy shot for them
26:40to use to migrate
26:40from place to place.
26:42So it'll be actually
26:43a nice little reservoir.
26:46With the prey
26:47come the predators.
26:49The jumbled overpasses
26:50are now points of ambush.
26:58It's 150 years after people,
27:01and the descendants
27:02of North America's zoo elephants
27:04are enjoying their life.
27:06You could expect
27:10to see substantial herds
27:11within the first
27:12100 to 150 years
27:14after the original pioneers
27:17break loose
27:17from the sanctuaries
27:18or from the zoos.
27:21A lot of the pasture land
27:24that will be left behind
27:26when we disappear
27:27would be ideal foraging country
27:29for elephants,
27:30and I think the elephants
27:31would have no trouble at all
27:33in making a living.
27:36250 years after people.
27:48In Washington, D.C.,
27:50the Lincoln Memorial
27:50is in dire straits.
27:53A few of the highly corroded
27:54steel roof girders snap,
27:56and the Lincoln statue
28:02is no more.
28:06Atop the weakened
28:08cast-iron dome
28:09of the U.S. Capitol building,
28:10the 15,000-pound bronze
28:12statue of freedom
28:13is now the architect
28:15of destruction.
28:16The statue's trying to pull
28:19on one side of the dome
28:21and push on the other
28:22side of the dome.
28:23That then means
28:24that the entire statue
28:25will punch down
28:26through the dome,
28:27and it will all slump over
28:29like a wedding cake.
28:34Centuries without maintenance
28:35have caused the rotunda
28:37of the National Archives building
28:38to collapse,
28:40exposing the U.S. Constitution
28:41to the elements.
28:45Still protected
28:46inside its encasement,
28:47wind and rain
28:48are not the greatest threat.
28:53It's sunlight.
28:55The damaging ultraviolet rays
28:56cause ink to fade,
28:58and within a few years,
29:00the words are slowly
29:01erased from history.
29:02500 years after people.
29:18The Washington Monument
29:19is losing its battle
29:20with nature,
29:22its stone blocks
29:23chipping away with time.
29:25At the tip
29:26is a small aluminum pyramid.
29:30When it was built
29:31in the 19th century,
29:32aluminum was
29:33a very precious metal.
29:34It was actually
29:35valued more than
29:36gold or silver.
29:38It was put up there
29:38essentially as a lightning rod.
29:43In the 1930s,
29:44eight copper rods
29:45were extended
29:46around the pyramid
29:46to help arrest
29:47the lightning.
29:51The aluminum pyramid
29:53outlasts
29:54the corroded copper rods,
29:55but has lost its ability
29:57to channel lightning bolts.
29:58lightning strikes
30:03the Washington Monument
30:04an average of once a year,
30:05a long-term threat
30:07to the pyramid.
30:07500 years after people,
30:19the masonry structures
30:20of Washington, D.C.
30:21are disintegrating.
30:279,000 miles away,
30:29this has already happened
30:30at a mysterious site,
30:32once the great capital of men.
30:33six centuries
30:47into a life
30:48after people.
30:50In great cities
30:51like Washington, D.C.,
30:52brick and stone
30:53are the only remaining
30:54markers of human architecture.
30:56How do we know this?
31:02On the other side
31:03of the world
31:04is another great capital city
31:05abandoned long, long ago.
31:13Deep in the interior
31:14of Cambodia,
31:15five ancient towers
31:17rise like thistles
31:18from the surrounding jungle.
31:19This is Angkor Wat,
31:27the largest religious monument
31:28in the world.
31:30Surrounding it
31:31are dozens of smaller
31:32temple complexes.
31:36In 1860,
31:37Henri Maut,
31:38a French explorer
31:39hacking through the jungle,
31:40discovered these great towers.
31:43His journals
31:44introduced the world
31:45to Angkor Wat.
31:49For more than 500 years,
31:51Angkor was the centre
31:52of the Khmer Empire,
31:54a civilisation ruled
31:55by all-powerful kings.
31:59Their culture
32:00of building colossal
32:02stone monuments
32:02rivals that
32:03of the ancient Egyptians.
32:11They are massive.
32:13As you can see,
32:14enormous size,
32:16and they probably weigh
32:17anything between
32:17two and a half
32:18to three tons.
32:19These exceptionally
32:20fine joints.
32:21There's no mortar
32:22between them.
32:23They're just laid
32:24one on top of the other,
32:26and they're fixed
32:26by gravity.
32:32Evidence indicates
32:33that Angkor Wat
32:34was abandoned
32:34nearly 600 years ago
32:36in 1431,
32:38after enemy Siamese
32:40soldiers ransacked
32:41the temple.
32:48everything began
32:49and everything began
32:49to go downhill
32:50because there was
32:51no maintenance
32:52of these vast temples
32:53that required thousands
32:55of people
32:56to maintain them.
32:58Nature took over
32:59almost immediately,
33:01and within 100 years
33:03it was engulfed
33:05by forest.
33:09Of all the temple complexes
33:11in the area,
33:12Angkor Wat
33:12is the best preserved.
33:14Most agree
33:15that a nearby community
33:16of Buddhist monks
33:17worked to save it
33:18from the jungle's grip.
33:25But the other
33:26abandoned temples
33:27in the area
33:28saw no human intervention
33:29for 600 years,
33:32and the jungle
33:33showed no mercy.
33:34Beng Melia
33:45is a smaller version
33:46of Angkor Wat.
33:48In 2002,
33:49a team of archaeologists
33:51finally began
33:51to peel back the jungle.
33:54Nature had the temple
33:55in a death grip.
34:00On a daily basis,
34:02the temple stone
34:02is being ripped apart
34:04by tree roots.
34:07At Beng Melia,
34:09it's the prolific
34:09strangler fig,
34:11a type of ficus tree.
34:14So here is probably
34:15one of the best examples
34:17of the damage
34:18these trees can do.
34:19This is a ficus,
34:21and it always grows
34:23from the roof downwards.
34:25The birds like
34:26the seeds of this tree,
34:27and they eat the seeds,
34:29and the seeds will germinate
34:31in the bird's stomach,
34:32and then it'll excrete them out
34:33onto the top of the roof,
34:36and the seeds will then
34:37start developing,
34:39growing,
34:39the roots will come down
34:40into the ground,
34:42soak up an enormous quantity
34:43of water,
34:44and then slowly,
34:45slowly expand the roots.
34:47In this case,
34:48it's actually broken
34:49through the stone,
34:50and you can hear
34:51it's hollow,
34:51so the roots come right
34:53the way through,
34:53and it causes untold damage.
34:58The assault is relentless.
35:01In many cases,
35:01when the ficus tree grows old,
35:03a new ficus grows up
35:05and devours it.
35:09Here you have
35:09a very good example
35:11of a ficus
35:12that is entwined
35:14around one of the old trees,
35:16the original tree here,
35:17and it's wringing
35:18the life out of it.
35:20And the tree is now
35:21actually causing
35:22a lot of trouble
35:23to the structure
35:24because it's got
35:26quite a sail effect,
35:27and once the winds go,
35:28it starts swinging around,
35:30and this causes
35:31an enormous amount
35:31of destruction.
35:32At the nearby temple
35:36of Tar Praum,
35:38silk cotton trees
35:39use their oversized roots
35:40to jack apart
35:41the stone blocks.
35:45This tree
35:46is holding up
35:47this entire shrine.
35:50The roots are growing
35:52from beneath the shrine.
35:53Look here, for instance,
35:55where this lentil
35:56has separated
35:56from a window jamb.
35:58It's only hanging
35:59on an inch
36:00of bearing surface.
36:01I'd say in two,
36:03three years,
36:04at least this half
36:05of the building
36:06will be on the ground.
36:08This little plant
36:09is the culprit.
36:10The roots of the plant
36:11travel into the stone
36:13and the joints
36:13seeking moisture
36:14and nutrients.
36:17As the roots expand
36:19over many years,
36:20they pry apart the stone
36:21until a single
36:22load-bearing element
36:23dislodges,
36:24bringing down
36:25the entire structure.
36:31hundreds of years
36:34of unhindered growth
36:35has done immense damage.
36:37But one tiny insect
36:39needed only a few years
36:40to impose
36:41its destructive power.
36:45I'm standing on top
36:47of a giant termite mound
36:49in the portal
36:49to a shrine.
36:51This thing must be
36:53seven feet tall.
36:54It's an extinct
36:55population of termites.
36:58Certainly after
36:58abandonment of the site
37:00in the 15th century,
37:01they went to town
37:02working,
37:03eating the wooden
37:04ceilings and furnishings
37:05and fittings
37:06throughout the place.
37:09Wildlife of all kinds
37:11inhabited these sacred
37:12monuments for centuries.
37:18When men moved out,
37:20the animals they most feared
37:22moved in.
37:24Even today,
37:26the deadly King Cobra
37:27favours the temples
37:28closest to the
37:29encircling moats.
37:33And in 2003,
37:35a hunter near Bengmalia
37:37survived an attack
37:38by two Bengal tigers.
37:42The cats were reportedly
37:43living in the destroyed
37:45temple complex.
37:50The fate of these
37:53deteriorating temples
37:54will be the same
37:55visited upon the
37:56world's capital cities.
38:02Six hundred years
38:03into a life after people,
38:05without anyone to repair
38:07and protect great monuments,
38:09nature will slowly
38:10and inevitably
38:11take sole possession.
38:20600 years after people.
38:27The era of great collapses
38:29in our capital cities
38:31is almost over.
38:33The previous centuries
38:34have witnessed the
38:35destruction of houses
38:36of brick,
38:38wood,
38:39and rigid towers of steel.
38:43The last recognisable
38:48edifice still standing
38:49in Los Angeles
38:50is the heavily corroded
38:51U.S. Bank Tower.
38:56The steel skyscraper
38:58survived the wildfire
38:59that charred the rest
39:00of Hollywood
39:01and much of the L.A. Basin.
39:06The big one
39:07snapped off
39:08its top 21 floors.
39:09The lower 52 floors
39:14defied the odds
39:15for hundreds of years.
39:17This building
39:18is an odd one
39:19in that it has
39:20a central core
39:21that's fairly stiff concrete
39:22and it has
39:24a steel framing
39:25around the edges.
39:27The concrete core
39:28would have collapsed
39:29sooner
39:29if the building
39:30was in a climate
39:31that had more
39:32freeze-thaw cycles,
39:34but this doesn't
39:34really happen in L.A.
39:36earthquakes
39:38are what's
39:39going to get you.
39:42A moderate quake
39:43finally brings down
39:45the weakened structure.
39:46little has changed
39:57in the Great Pacific
39:58garbage patch.
40:00Over centuries,
40:01the sunlight
40:02causes the plastic
40:03to photodegrade
40:04into smaller
40:04and smaller compounds.
40:11Now,
40:12it's a poisonous stew
40:13containing immeasurable toxins
40:15like PCBs.
40:19Ocean creatures
40:20and birds
40:20continue to ingest
40:22the plastic soup
40:22and the garbage patch
40:24lives on
40:25long after people.
40:31After a thousand years,
40:32Washington, D.C.
40:33has become
40:34like the lost city
40:35of Atlantis.
40:39Centuries of sea level rise
40:40are drowning
40:41the evidence
40:42of a once
40:42great capital.
40:45the ruins
40:46of the U.S. capital.
40:48We'd expect
40:49a good portion
40:49of the mall
40:50to be underwater
40:50and many of those
40:53monuments
40:53to be capsized,
40:55something like
40:56modern Alexandria
40:57today in Egypt
40:58where a number
40:59of the monuments
40:59are underwater
41:00and capsized over.
41:05Peering hauntingly
41:07through the waves
41:07are the ruins
41:09of the U.S. capital.
41:10The various rooms
41:12in our capital
41:14would become
41:14exposed to the sky.
41:16It would start
41:17looking like
41:17what we see
41:18in Rome
41:19with the forum.
41:25The Washington Monument
41:26is no longer
41:27a proud structure.
41:29Erosion
41:30and the encroaching seas
41:31are causing
41:32the foundation to sink.
41:34Submerging
41:34is the only chance
41:36it has
41:36to survive
41:37intact.
41:42The buildings
41:43are going
41:43to sink
41:44beneath the waves.
41:45They're going
41:45to get covered
41:46with mud,
41:47sand and silt
41:48and those
41:49will encase
41:50the remains
41:51of the buildings
41:52and effectively
41:53fossilize them.
41:57Atop the sinking
41:58stone edifice,
42:00the aluminium pyramid
42:01is discolored
42:01by lightning strikes
42:03but still recognizable.
42:07In life
42:08after people,
42:09after tens
42:10of thousands
42:10of years,
42:11that aluminium pyramid
42:12could be the last
42:13clearly man-made object
42:15left in our capital.
42:19Unlike naturally
42:20occurring metals,
42:22aluminium contains
42:23an oxide coating
42:24that protects
42:25and preserves it.
42:27On one side
42:28of the pyramid
42:28is the inscription
42:29Laus Deo.
42:31Praise be to God.
42:34A nation's final words
42:36for the future.
42:37Laus Deo
42:39Laus Deo
42:40Laus Deo
42:41Laus Deo
42:41Laus Deo
42:42Laus Deo
42:43Laus Deo
42:44Laus Deo
42:45Laus Deo
42:46Laus Deo
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