Aftermath is a 2010 Canadian-American documentary television series created by History Canada and produced by Cream Productions. It aired on National Geographic in the United States.
Aftermath consists of thought experiments looking at what would happen to Earth if extremely distant events and changes occurred in the present. The series is a follow-up to the TV special Aftermath: Population Zero.
In 2010, the series was nominated for a 2010 Gemini Award for best documentary.
Episodes
The World After Humans/Population Zero
The series' pilot special, this episode hypothesizes what would happen if all humans suddenly disappeared from Earth.
World Without Oil
This episode hypothesizes a total oil depletion scenario, where almost all oil on Earth simply vanishes in one night.
In the first few minutes, approximately of underground oil vanishes. Alarms in oil rigs sound as pipe pressure plummets, leading employees and chemists around the globe to discover the bizarre situation as it unfolds. One day after oil, asphalt, diesel, gasoline, and tar supplies become limited. This causes $2 trillion USD of stock to become worthless, and oil workers are dismissed as the industry fails. Consumers rush to gas stations to fuel their cars for the last time, while oil tankers are called back to their countries of origin to save national reserves of oil. All international transportation is grounded, including logistics, meaning resources such as steel, food, medical supplies, and trash are not being moved.
Five days after oil, power stations start running out of diesel, sparking widespread outages. Martial law is declared to stop rioting and looting. Unemployment rises to 30%. Livestock die due to lack of food. Coal, which is still accessible, briefly becomes the main source of fuel, but they quickly face shortages. Thirty days after oil, diesel-powered passenger trains are running on rations, and the roads are empty of cars. Governments start biofuel planting programs, while nations that already produced large amounts of biofuel prior to the vanishing of the reserves are able to mitigate the negative effects of losing oil.
Five months after oil, the Big Three automobile manufacturers are nationalized by the U.S. government. Famine and drug-resistant infections threaten death, while many begin to migrate as food shipments come every second day. Emergency vehicles are still given fuel rations. Stockpiled gasoline begins to degrade in quality due to it being stored in poor conditions, and civilians begin to experiment with chemicals to produce their own biofuel. While some governments embrace the use of biofuel and begin mass production, others start to wonder if they should plant crops for food or fuel, eventually abandoning biofuel planting altogether.
One year after oil, emergency vehicles are operated either by lithium battery or biofuel. The price of lithium then shoots up, becoming a valuable commodity and creating jobs in industries revolving around the element. Populations of wild animals bounce back. In the countryside, more people practice subsistence farming, growing their own food, keeping livestock and hunting.
Ten years after oil, artificial satellites burn up in the atmosphere as maintaining them is of a reduced priority. Old and obsolete electronics are scavenged for precious metals as people recycle on a massive scale. Algae is used as a biofuel. Trucks deliver vital supplies to hospitals, indirectly improving life expectancy.
Forty years after oil, the skies are much clearer and cleaner as pollutants are washed out. Most vehicles now run on biofuel. Lithium battery cars are expensive, resulting in a re-emergence of public transportation and railways, and new towns grow along railway points. Some cities are eventually abandoned, but many others thrive. A world trade based on biofuel and lithium grows. Eventually, lithium supplies begin to run out, but balancing this with biofuel production means humanity is able to prosper once again.
Population Overload
This episode hypothesizes an overpopulation scenario where the human population of Earth doubles from 7 billion to 14 billion in one night.