What if an asteroid hit the Earth and humanity suddenly ceased to exist? How would the Earth survive or thrive without us?

 
Human activity is like footprints in the sand. Everything we do leaves a mark – whether it's making a cup of tea, flicking on a light switch, or using a computer. All these seemingly mundane tasks require energy, which often adds heating gases to our atmosphere and increases our waste. As the human population grows, the Earth is struggling to carry our weight.

In this week’s Earth Beat, Marnie spoke to Alan Weisman, author of “The World Without Us”, about how natural and built environments would look if we disappeared.

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People probably won’t be disappearing anytime soon, but perhaps there is way we can make ourselves invisible. Take it from Colin Beavan, who calls himself the “No Impact Man”. He spent an entire year trying not just to lessen his environmental footprint, but erase it all together.

Listen to the interview

Listen to this week’s programme in full

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