[mangoesfortigers]

This apocalypse has solved the huge problem of deforestation by leaving no workers to operate the machinery which cuts down trees. In a pre ZA world the rates of deforestation were steadily increasing and slowly destroying the world which we inhabit. Due to many people being infected by the disease this has killed off the bulk of the workforce in primary industries. The few workers who lived had they decided to continue to work, possibly to kill time, this would only destroy a slight percentage of trees due to the fact that the gas tanks of the trucks would eventually need refilling. But as we all know there aren’t any functioning gas stations due to the halting of shipments of natural gas because why would suppliers transport when there is no demand as the population is now walkers. The resulting conservation of greenery will increase H20 in the air and the harmful toxins damaging the stratosphere will have ceased to exist.

[theglassintheguvseye]

I'm thinking mother nature wouldn't mind a mass extinction of sorts, mangoes. If only it could be a selective one that left only kind people I wouldn't mind it so much. My mom and I were talking the other day (she's in her 80's) and she was talking about how the world has gone to hell in a hand basket and people are worse now than ever. I pointed out the fact that the percentage of evil has always been about the same. There's just more people in the world so the evil has increased in quantity but not quality. She agreed.

[shrike]

There would be a lot more animals as well. Though we've seen walkers eat animals too I doubt they'd have much success catching them.

As time passes on the show they'll have to show the effects of nature slowly taking over

[gracie lou]

This convo reminds me of the book Earth Abides. In the book certain animals and bugs flourished for a while - tons of rats living off rotten food, etc. As nature took back over the earth, it made me feel that humans were the intruders.

[shrike]

I remember a TV series on what Earth would be like if humanity became extinct. Huge shifts in the balance of nature. Can't remember what it was called or what channel it was on thoygh

[theglassintheguvseye]

I'll have to check that book out Gracie. Sounds interesting. Since you're a mod, I'll ask you. Can a person on here buy more +1's kinda like vowels on Wheel of Fortune? Kidding, really but I'm missing being nice to people today and it's only half over.

[DeadCave]

With only roughly maybe 7.5 million people left on the planet worldwide (given 99% of the population are zombies) then nature would surely recover very quickly. Yes more animals than usual in the first couple of years but eventually they'll be back down to per-industrial age numbers and then back up to before mankind was the dominate species on the planet. Buffalo herds will swell within 5-10 years and in 20 years it's possible that they'll be back up to the millions as they were before the days of Buffalo Bill and so on.
The oceans will see a VAST recovery all around. With no fisheries and whaling and industrial pollution so it'll clean up and repopulate fairly quickly. Some species may not be able to be saved but others will make up the difference.
Man kind will have to deal with not only native fauna but also those that have managed to escape zoos and circuses and other places where African and Euro-Asian animals have been brought here (ditto with American native animals in other continents. Will they survive? Will nature refuse as they are not a natural part of that area's environment? Who knows.
Nature abhors a vacuum and will set things to right whatever man has altered... provided time enough is given to do so.

It would be hoped that the people that have survived the ZA will understand better and teach their children to allow a more closer co-existence with nature than we have before.

This is an upcoming theme for the sequel to novel btw.

[mADAM Scorpious]

Ideally nature would recover due to the za, but consider for a moment all of the big industry plants that run 24/7 and need to be maintained or shut down, like my area is around the great lakes and we make gas and plastics, if people just stopped showing up for work the lake would be fucked. What about all of our nuclear plants?

[Mrs. DD]

I remember a TV series on what Earth would be like if humanity became extinct. Huge shifts in the balance of nature. Can't remember what it was called or what channel it was on thoygh

aftermath: population zero on national geographic

[Canadian-Walker]

One thing that I think some of you are overlooking is the vast amount of radiation that the worlds nuclear reactors will produce.

Lets say there are 500 nuclear reactors world wide. Now lets assume that half of those are shut down for repairs/general maintenance that's still 250 nuclear reactors active. Now lets assume again that half of those are shut down successfully in the first few weeks of the outbreak. Well now we still have over 150 nuclear reactors that have a good chance of going Chernobyl. That is a very large amount of nuclear radiation being released into the world. Yes humans have stopped cutting trees and mining and stuff like that but how long before the deepsea oil wells rust and corrode to the point where millions of gallons of crude are being dumped into the oceans. Think the BP oil spill without the clean up.

[theglassintheguvseye]

That's a good point from both posters who mentioned NR's. Australia has zero and I've always wanted to live there...still, the crude issue would pretty much make seafood something we wouldn't want to be eating. Here in TX, all of the injection wells would likely ruin the fresh water supply before too long. Not to mention the refineries down south.

[mADAM Scorpious]

One thing that I think some of you are overlooking is the vast amount of radiation that the worlds nuclear reactors will produce.

Lets say there are 500 nuclear reactors world wide. Now lets assume that half of those are shut down for repairs/general maintenance that's still 250 nuclear reactors active. Now lets assume again that half of those are shut down successfully in the first few weeks of the outbreak. Well now we still have over 150 nuclear reactors that have a good chance of going Chernobyl. That is a very large amount of nuclear radiation being released into the world. Yes humans have stopped cutting trees and mining and stuff like that but how long before the deepsea oil wells rust and corrode to the point where millions of gallons of crude are being dumped into the oceans. Think the BP oil spill without the clean up.

Thanks for that, signed chem valley resident..