I just came across this video of what will happen to a house over a 500 year period with no human involvement. It's a clear teaching on impermanance.
I think I mentioned this book before: The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. It's all about what would happen to the world if humans suddenly disappeared. Below are a few bits from this page of the website:
Two days after humans disappear, New York City's subways would "impassibly flood" without the pumps working.
In seven days, the emergency fuel supply to deisel generators that runs cooling water to nuclear reactor cores would run out.
In twenty years, common garden vegetables will have reverted to inedible wild plants.
In one hundred years, the half-million remaining elephants will have increased their population 20-fold due to the end of the ivory trade, but feral housecats, through competition, will have decreased populations of raccoons, foxes, etc....
In five hundred years, forests will have replaced suburbs, but aluminum and stainless steel machine parts and cookware will be found on the forest floor, their plastic handles broken but still solid.
For more, see the site listed above. I read the book just before it came out, since I was working at a bookstore at the time (bookstores receive free advanced copies of books so that booksellers will read them and recommend them). It was a fascinating read. It really made me think about the impact we have on the environment as well as how precarious our time on earth as a species might be.
Came across, read it, found it interesting and readable. Thought you might be interested in mine at www.sdhammika.blogspot.com
Bhante S Dhammika
Posted by: s dhammika | May 04, 2008 at 01:39 AM