BBC Knowledge June 2017

Brazil, they reported cities, roads and fields along

the banks of major rivers. After the population

was decimated by diseases that the explorers

brought with them, however, these cities were

quickly reclaimed by the jungle. The ruins of

Las Vegas are certain to persist far longer than

those of Mumbai. Only now do deforestation and

remote sensing techniques offer us a glimpse

of what came before.

Plant and animal species that have formed close

bonds with humanity are the most likely to suffer if

we disappear. The crops that feed the world, reliant

as they are on regular applications of pesticides and

fertilisers, would swiftly be replaced by their wild

forebears. “They’re going to get outcompeted, fast,”

says Weisman. “Carrots will turn back into

Queen Anne’s lace, corn may go back into teosinte –

the original ear of corn that wasn’t much bigger than

a sprig of wheat.”

The sudden disappearance of pesticides will also

mean a population explosion for bugs. Insects are

mobile, reproduce quickly and live in almost any

environment, making them a highly successful class

of species, even when humans are actively trying

to suppress them. “They can mutate and adapt faster

than anything else on the planet except for maybe

You might not have noticed,

but we’re currently in the middle

of a mass extinction. According

to research by conservationists

at Duke University, North Carolina,

species are currently vanishing

from Earth 1,000 times faster

than before humans began

altering the environment.

But it isn’t the first time Earth

has seen a crisis like this...

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(252 MILLION YEARS AGO)

(201.3 MILLION YEARS AGO)TRIASSIC-JURASSIC

CRETACEOUS-

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(66 MILLION YEARS AGO)

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.
46 June 2017
SCIENCE
| ANTHROPOLOGY