I wonder...

[davywavy]

...if the entire human race were to drop dead tomorrow of Bird Flu, how long it would be before there were no visible signs that we'd ever existed?

Comments

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Don't forget it's likely there will always be a small percentage who will be immune.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Well, experts predict that a pandemic might see off 100-150 million people worldwide, so we're not all going to die. I'm just posing a thought experiment.

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

Alarmists predict that a good dose of bird flu could see of 3 billion of us!

Given issues of biodegradability, we're talking in the tens of thousands of year.

And, hell, do fossils count as visible evidence?

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

They do? 3 billion deaths would be just about the best thing that could happen to the planet. So long as one of them isn't mine.

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

Black plague saw off half the population of Europe, and while they didn't have antibiotics and quarantine (and MRSA...) they also didn't live in such close quarters.

If bird flu reaches these shores, I've told the guy I share an office with that I shall be garotting him simply to ensure that I am not the 50% of our office population who dies.

[colin-boyle.livejournal.com]

I think I'll just work at home instead. Exterminating half of our open plan office would just be too much effort.

[applez.livejournal.com]

I thought the plague only killed off a quarter of you lot. ;-)

[mrmmarc.livejournal.com]

Oh, well, lets assume all the ones who are immune are British and do jobs like 'credit controllers' and work in Financial services.
24 hours after everyone else has died they will discover the supermarkets are closed and from then on in its a countdown to extinction.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

*laughs*

[mrmmarc.livejournal.com]

I mean, what are the chances that if some epic pandemic hit the human race, that the survivors woulds turn out to be some red neck Armenian hill farmers or some fanatical Christians?
Would we WANT the human race to survive?

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

That's true.