50 Times Nature Won The Battle Against Civilization (New Pics)

A cool example of how nature takes back what rightfully belongs to it is Tikal, one of the most famous remnants of the Maya civilization. When author and journalist Alan Weisman hiked through the surrounding region, he discovered something fascinating on his way: "You're walking through this really dense rainforest, and you're walking over hills," Weisman told Live Science. "And the archaeologists are explaining to you that what you're really walking over are pyramids and cities that haven't been excavated."

We know about sites like Tikal because humans have gone to great efforts to dig up and restore their remains. Meanwhile, countless other ruins remain hidden, sealed beneath forest and dirt. "It's just amazingly thrilling how fast nature can bury us," Weisman said. 

This scene from Guatemala's rainforest allows us a glimpse of what our planet could look like if humans were no more. Lately, have been getting snippets of this idea, as the global COVID-19 pandemic has kept people inside, encouraging animals to return to our quieter urban environments. Weisman, who wrote The World Without Us, spent several years interviewing experts and systematically developing scenarios that would unfold in our planet if we disappeared.

In his research, Weisman started by taking a look at cities, where some of the most dramatic and immediate changes would occur, thanks to a sudden lack of human maintenance. Without people to run pumps that divert rainfall and rising groundwater, the subways of huge sprawling cities like London and New York would flood within hours of our disappearance. "[Engineers] have told me that it would take about 36 hours for the subways to flood completely," he said. 

Without human oversight, glitches in oil refineries and nuclear plants would go unchecked, likely resulting in massive fires, nuclear explosions, and devastating nuclear fallout. "There's going to be a gush of radiation if suddenly we disappear. And that's a real wildcard, it's almost impossible to predict what that's going to do," Weisman explained.

In the wake of our demise, we would also leave behind mountains of waste — much of it plastic, which would likely persist for thousands of years, with huge effects on wildlife.