The World Without Us

Summary (from the publisher): In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; which everyday items may become immortalized as fossils; how copper pipes and wiring would be crushed into mere seams of reddish rock; why some of our earliest buildings might be the last architecture left; and how plastic, bronze sculpture, radio waves, and some man-made molecules may be our most lasting gifts to the universe.

The World Without Us reveals how, just days after humans disappear, floods in New York's subways would start eroding the city's foundations, and how, as the world's cities crumble, asphalt jungles would give way to real ones. It describes the distinct ways that organic and chemically treated farms would revert to wild, how billions more birds would flourish, and how cockroaches in unheated cities would perish without us. Drawing on the expertise of engineers, atmospheric scientists, art conservators, zoologists, oil refiners, marine biologists, astrophysicists, religious leaders from rabbis to the Dali Lama, and paleontologists -- who describe a prehuman world inhabited by megafauna like giant sloths that stood taller than mammoths -- Weisman illustrates what the planet might be like today, if not for us.

From places already devoid of humans (a last fragment of primeval European forest; the Korean DMZ; Chernobyl), Weisman reveals Earth's tremendous capacity for self-healing. As he shows which human devastations are indelible, and which examples of our highest art and culture would endure longest, Weisman's narrative ultimately drives toward a radical but persuasive solution that needn't depend on our demise. It is narrative nonfiction at its finest, and in posing an irresistible concept with both gravity and a highly readable touch, it looks deeply at our effects on the planet in a way that no other book has.

Review: In this eerie imagining of "what if," Weisman travels around the globe to research what would happen if all humans were to disappear from the earth. Weisman accomplishes this with a history lesson - what the earth was like before we were here, and part environmental discussion - how humans have transformed the land and water they will leave behind. Weisman really covers a lot of ground in this: nuclear sites like Chernobyl, dams, artwork, large cities like New York, the ocean, forests, different species of animals from those who are exterminated by us and those who rely on us, and much more. 

I enjoyed this book but I found it sort of depressing to continually to be imagining a world where humans exhaust their resources and die out/are exterminated, etc. I guess the tragic and terrifying ordeal of the actual human extinction potential is what really bothered me to think about. But this was such an interesting premise for research, especially since we have microscopic research sites with areas like Chernobyl that have been abandoned by humans - how quickly sidewalks cracks, roofs cave in, and plants and animals take over. 

I didn't realize going in how much of a history lesson this book would be - an overview of the beginning of agriculture, the destruction of the ozone layer, radio waves in space, how fragile New York City truly is because of its geographical underpinnings, etc. On the other hand, this was a real wake up call. If humans keep reproducing the way we are, and consuming earth's resources the way we do, Weisman's predictions may very well come true.  

Stars: 4