The World Without Us

by Alan Weisman

book data

4,474 ratings, 3.81 average rating, 1,402 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		23%
4		43%
3		24%
2		6%
1		1%

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published

August 5th 2008 (first published 2007) by Picador US

binding

Perfect Paperback, 320 pages

literary awards

2007 NBCC Award finalist

isbn

0312427905 (isbn13: 9780312427900)

description

Time #1 Nonfiction Book of 2007
Entertainment Weekly #1 Nonfiction Book of 2007
Finalist for the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award
Salon Book Award...more

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08/08/07

Mike rated it:

(review of isbn 0312347294)

Read in August, 2007

I began this book, a careful extrapolation of what might happen to the world if humanity up and disappeared, about three weeks ago. I enjoyed it, for many reasons delineated in the positive reviews below and in raves in various press outlets. But a hundred pages in, I got caught up in other things.

I finished it while on the plane rushing Eastward, about three hours after I'd heard that my father had unexpectedly had a heart attack. So forgive this mordant self-indulgence, but I re...more I began this book, a careful extrapolation of what might happen to the world if humanity up and disappeared, about three weeks ago. I enjoyed it, for many reasons delineated in the positive reviews below and in raves in various press outlets. But a hundred pages in, I got caught up in other things.

I finished it while on the plane rushing Eastward, about three hours after I'd heard that my father had unexpectedly had a heart attack. So forgive this mordant self-indulgence, but I read the book's very concretely-detailed attention to the devastating footprint of our collective human lives on planet Earth while engaged in far more abstract noodlings about what it would mean to be on a world without this person, or that one.

I have this odd fascination with end-of-the-world plots, doomsday scenarios. At age 17 I read Jonathan Schell's _The Fate of the Earth_ and wrote a slew of essays (in high school and college) on the inevitability of human annihilation; I think I lost my faith in any supernatural dimension at the same time I came to a strange faith in human destructiveness. And, of course, I was also 17, 18, 19--at the peak of my self-destructive capacities, uncertain I had a place in the world, or uneasy in the place I'd been allotted through nature and nurture's respective lotteries. Pissed off or plain pissed for many of those years, I saw in the world (like any good adolescent) nothing but echoes of my own self-loathing and fears. Or maybe that's unfair--maybe end of the world scenarios are ways to step outside one's self.

This won't be wrapping up neatly, by the way. I warned you--it's self-indulgent. No neat conclusions about my self, and no carefully-boxed connections of self, book, world. I'm riffing.

I have continued my appreciations, fictional (Stephen King's _The Stand_ just one of many books sating my apocaphilia) and nonfictional (Richards stand out: Rhodes on prions [meat will kill us all!], Preston on Ebola [viruses will bleed us out!]). After I finished this Weisman book, I picked up Jeff Carlson's sci-fi(ish) thriller _Plague Year_, which wasn't great but hit a spot. (Finished it as the plane taxied in to the airport and I headed out to meet my brother and go to the hospital.)

What I remember about all these books is how they prompted social engagement I might not have otherwise attempted. Schell got me politically engaged in anti-war movements, far beyond the scope of anti-nuke talk. As often, I gave the books to my father--whose appreciation for the works varied (he's no apocaphile), but who appreciated in a more subtle way the effort to imagine how bad things are, how bad we've made things, as tools for helping us to imagine how things might be. I think in talking with my Dad about these books, I slowly learned how to escape my self and that sense of my own ending and instead found ways, through the darkest and most pessimistic of scenarios, to keep pushing on my sense of how to be a good human being in the world.

Weisman, he says to anyone who even thinks this rant has much to do with the book anymore, may be corrosive in his accounting for the destructive force of humanity, but this isn't a hopeless book. To imagine the world without us is to seek to find ways to make sense of our selves in the world.

I passed the book on to my dad, and he seems to be really enjoying it. (He found the Carlson pretty dull.) (less)

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4 comments

09/14/07

Mateo rated it:

(review of isbn 0312347294)

Read in September, 2007

Yeah, what you've heard about this book is true: It really is very good, very scary, very depressing--AND it's written entirely in Spurdlish, a language I just made up that consists only of the letter 't'.

If it only enabled fire ants to slowly liquify Dick Cheney, it would be perfect.

Okay, I'm kidding about the Spurdlish, but, yeah, great book. Weisman doesn't just speculate on what happens to your house or the NYC subways or the pyramids once we've all been raptured...more Yeah, what you've heard about this book is true: It really is very good, very scary, very depressing--AND it's written entirely in Spurdlish, a language I just made up that consists only of the letter 't'.

If it only enabled fire ants to slowly liquify Dick Cheney, it would be perfect.

Okay, I'm kidding about the Spurdlish, but, yeah, great book. Weisman doesn't just speculate on what happens to your house or the NYC subways or the pyramids once we've all been raptured off to Heaven. (Hint: That expensive kitchen remodel you did? Hopefully it's in a color that raptors enjoy.) The book is really about what we're doing to the planet, and how long our nefarious activities will outlast us. The news is both good and bad: nature tends to adapt to just about anything--think wildflowers blooming in Chernobyl--but there are still some future scenarios that are pretty hellish. Yes. More hellish than Boca Raton, Florida. Between the PCBs, the fluorocarbons, the dioxins, the plutonium, the global warming, and those uncounted zillions of plastic microparticles now gutting everything from krill to blue whales, the planet's in for a rough ride for a while, even if aliens appear in the skies tomorrow and suck us up through the galaxy's biggest straw.

Weisman writes quite well and the panoply of places he visits is worth the price of admission: reserves in Kenya, the Korean DMZ, the Panama Canal, the American Southwest, Turkish caves, Pacific atolls, etc., etc. I'm glad someone could write about them before they're swallowed up in Pepsi bottles and plastic bags.

It's tempting, when reading the book, to take the long view of things, that the Earth endures and that if we disappear from our own foolishness, it's no great loss. In fact, it's hard to escape the conclusion that we deserve extinction for all that we're doing. And yet that seems to me to be both simplistic and disingenuous. For all the evil we've done through our greed, our cruelty, and our shortsightedness, we have produced some real marvels, whether it's the Parthenon or a newborn child. We are a remarkable species, perhaps unreplaceable, and it will be a loss to the biosphere when we go. Of course, in the end all things must pass, as some Liverpool philosopher once put it, but the end is not yet here and there's still much to enjoy. (Do those who wish an end to humanity really believe what they say? Who amongst them is willing to commit suicide for the sake of a better planet?) Let's hope that we gain the wisdom to enjoy it all, and preserve it for a better future.

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11/10/08

Colin McKay Miller rated it:

Read in November, 2008

recommends it for: Fans of nonfiction science

In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman attempts to answer the question of what would happen to the earth if, for whatever reason, humans were to completely disappear tomorrow. While it’s a fascinating premise, one that Weisman undoubtedly put a lot of time and effort into, the execution falters. Inevitably, it’s hard to stretch what was initially a short essay into a full book, but that’s how The World Without Us got going. Structurally, the book is broken down into four parts with chapters...more In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman attempts to answer the question of what would happen to the earth if, for whatever reason, humans were to completely disappear tomorrow. While it’s a fascinating premise, one that Weisman undoubtedly put a lot of time and effort into, the execution falters. Inevitably, it’s hard to stretch what was initially a short essay into a full book, but that’s how The World Without Us got going. Structurally, the book is broken down into four parts with chapters discussing what would happen to the earth, both in the manmade and in what man has altered in nature, including cities, power plants, nukes, art, farmland, bacteria, animals and creatures of the ocean.

In reading this book it’s clear that Weisman realized that, a) that it’s strange to read a book without any people; and b) in order to predict the future, you must delve into the past. As a result of this, The World Without Us is more about history than the future. Weisman interviews a number of people from all walks of life/viewpoints and there’s a fat bibliography at the end. He strives for accuracy in his predictions, even though it’s based on what we currently know. It’s like when you see a science fiction movie: all the future computers are still based on the technology we have available now. Though Weisman succeeds in not being preachy, the theories he presents are still debatable. There are a few areas I’d argue with him and since time has gone by since publication, recent history is contending to debate with his theories, too. In certain parts though, as with the section on Galveston, TX (hit with a massive hurricane in 1900, then again in 2008, a year after the book was published), Weisman’s assertions remain true.

So what’s the problem then? The World Without Us has a great premise, is well researched and historically accurate (depending on who you ask today), but it’s not all that interesting. It seems like Alan Weisman realized it, too, as the hook chapters to each part are far more interesting than the remainder of each section (save the terse final part which is fairly solid throughout). You get drawn in by a few fascinating chapters, then you have to wade through the meandering text until the next hook spikes interest. I’d find my mind wandering, wishing it were more of dystopian fiction based on environmentalism. Maybe that means I should just stay away from nonfiction science books where inevitably, after enough time has gone by and enough new data has popped up, it’ll be laughed off the shelf. Two stars. Barely.

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10/23/07

Shannon rated it:

(review of isbn 0002008645)

bookshelves: 2007, apocalyptic-post-apocalyptic, environmentalism, favourite, history, non-fiction

Read in December, 2007

This is one of the most amazing books I've ever read. I simply can't get over how fantastic, informative, well-written, and mind-opening it is. Wow, where do I start?

The book revolves around the hypothetical question: What would happen if all humans disappeared tomorrow? Would anything we created survive? Would anything miss us?

The short answer is: very little, not really. It's a blow to our ego perhaps, but true nevertheless. The only creatures who are dependent on us fo...more

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08/16/08

Eccentric Muse rated it:

(review of isbn 1554682266)

Read in August, 2008

recommends it for: all earthlings

An astonishing book, and the first piece of non-fiction that I've read in quite some time that has had the emotional power of a novel. The first comment I'll make has to do with that: Weisman's voice is a powerful one. He knows how to marshall the facts but also how to keep the story moving, and most importantly, get the reader engaged at an emotional as well as intellectual level.

Weisman's research seemed incredibly solid, but the book never felt plodding or laden down with eye-...more

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12/18/07

Glenn rated it:

(review of isbn 0312347294)

bookshelves: journalism

Read in September, 2007

I came across this book on a jaunt around the web, and, I suspect like most people, thought “what an amazing idea!” The only question I had in hearing about it was whether the writing in the book would live up to its premise.

It does, effortlessly. There is real, unforced poetry in Alan's writing, lines like “Rills lined with yellow asters flow soundlessly across spongy, hummocked meadows, so rain-logged that streams appear to float,” and, in a wonderful description of a f...more I came across this book on a jaunt around the web, and, I suspect like most people, thought “what an amazing idea!” The only question I had in hearing about it was whether the writing in the book would live up to its premise.

It does, effortlessly. There is real, unforced poetry in Alan's writing, lines like “Rills lined with yellow asters flow soundlessly across spongy, hummocked meadows, so rain-logged that streams appear to float,” and, in a wonderful description of a famous mountain, he unfurls the lines “an hour southeast of Nairobi, Kilimanjaro appears, its shrinking snowcap dripping butterscotch under the rising sun.” These evocative, writerly lines contrast beautifully with the “just-the-facts, ma'am” approach of so much of the book--where Alan, having spoken with experts in various fields, lays out simply how events will transpire once we are gone, the full impact of what he lays out before us amplified by being presenting so cleanly, with such clarity..

And he does something remarkable in this book, considering the subject matter. He gives the reader a vivid sense of wonder at the doings of the natural world, a palpable sense of awe at how our little detour on the course of history will be covered and gone, no matter what we wreak upon the planet. Well, not entirely covered....

Because there's also the horror at what we have done. At the poisons we have placed into the environment, seemingly forgetting that we are participants in the very environment we sicken, and at the short-sightedness of so much that goes into what we call “progress.” There are many moments in the book where a reader may need to close the cover, to gather themselves, in order to continue. For me, one of those moments was where the University of Plymouth marine biologist explained what he found while browsing in a pharmacy; for you there will surely be others. The fact is, there is much included in “The World Without Us” that goes far toward explaining how discussion provoked by this book will surely feel like it is concerning an eventuality not quite as far away as might feel comfortable.

This book asks, over and over again, literally and philosophically, what will we leave behind? When it no longer matters what happens to us because of extinction, what will endure? Alan quotes Doug Irwin, who says “Humans are going extinct eventually…but life will continue…I figure it's interesting to be here now; I'm not going to get all upset about it.” And perhaps in Irwin's matter of fact acceptance of simply “being here now” lies some salvation. Perhaps we, as a species, could recognize our fleeting time on this earth, and cherish both that short time and the place, and each, in our own small way, make the place one worth living in, and our effect on it worth celebrating beyond our stay.(less)

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03/01/08

James rated it:

(review of isbn 0312347294)

Read in January, 2008

This is a good book.

Not a great book, but a good book.

As a humbling, interesting book about Our World and the incompatibility of our Current Society with Ecology, it belongs on your shelf next to Guns, Germs, and Steel, An Inconvenient Truth, and The Omnivore’s Dilemma. And there is plenty to keep your eyes wide open in horror at our existence’s lack of harmony with the environment. Like the frightening petrochemical monstrosity that is Houston, Texas. Yeehaw!!!

...more This is a good book.

Not a great book, but a good book.

As a humbling, interesting book about Our World and the incompatibility of our Current Society with Ecology, it belongs on your shelf next to Guns, Germs, and Steel, An Inconvenient Truth, and The Omnivore’s Dilemma. And there is plenty to keep your eyes wide open in horror at our existence’s lack of harmony with the environment. Like the frightening petrochemical monstrosity that is Houston, Texas. Yeehaw!!!

This is a subversive book in that its thesis is simple, but in that innocent idea to hypothesize what the world would be without human life, Weisman has an intriguing frame for which to explore and assess the magnitude of human’s impact on the planet – an extensive, pervasive presence. Unfortunately, Our Legacy is most likely doomed to be chemicals, metals, genetic tinkering, ecosystem manipulation, farms, cities, industry, nuclear waste, mining, pollution, etc, et al. Interestingly enough, it is the bronze and copper sculptures as well as the radio waves of information that we have beamed into space that will probably be the longest-lasting remnant of our flawed existence.

It is oddly comforting to know that in our absence nature will quickly reclaim our cities, farms, and homes. It is equally alarming to know how much of our byproducts will continue to plague the planet long after our departure.

Weisman is at his worst when he lingers too long describing what would happen to the Panama Canal in our absence (Surprise, it’d stop working, like a lot of things…). He is at his best describing the beautifully, tragically ironic reclamation of the Korean DMZ by endangered fauna.

This book is frustrating when you realize that the only decent thing to do for The Cause would be to go away. It’s not a cause without supporters. The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement and the Church of Euthanasia both have their points. Even our current mode of departure with the expensive mortuary industry leading the way with exotically unnecessary coffins is rife with negative impact on the planet. But don’t bother getting too riled up about environmental destruction because Weisman makes a compelling case for our Doom to be wrought instead by New Technologies.

The creepiest, eeriest, scariest, most resounding part of the book comes when our modern civilization and the pompousness of our overindulged lifestyles is compared to the fall of the Mayan Empire: “Society had evolved too many elites, all demanding exotic baubles…a culture wobbling under the weight of an excess of nobles, all needing quetzal feathers, jade, obsidian, fine chert, custom polychrome, fancy corbelled roofs, and animal furs. Nobility is expensive, nonproductive, and parasitic, siphoning away too much of society’s energy to satisfy its frivolous cravings. Too many heirs wanted thrones, or needed some ritual bloodletting to confirm their stature. So dynastic warfare heightened. As more temples need building, the higher caloric demand on workers requires more food production…Population rises to insure enough food-producers. War itself often increases population – as it did in the Aztec, Incan, and Chinese empires – because rulers require cannon fodder. Stakes rise, trade is disrupted, and population concentrates…There is dwindling investment in long-term crops that maintain diversity. Refugees living behind defensive walls farm only adjacent areas, inviting ecological disaster. Their confidence in leaders who once seemed all knowing, but are obsessed with selfish, short-term goals, declines with the quality of life. People lose faith. Ritual activity ceases. They abandon centers.”

Sound familiar?

Not one to be entirely negative and without Hope, god bless him, Weisman offers compelling data in support of population control and concludes his acknowledgments with, “Without us, Earth will abide and endure; without her, however, we could not even be.”(less)

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10/01/07

P. rated it:

(review of isbn 0312347294)

Read in November, 2007

I wanted to like this book, I really did. Not only was it given to me by my new uncle, but it ostensibly dealt with a subject that I have spent some time thinking about (usually during periods of outdoor solitude such as when walking to or from work) -- the decay of human structures and how they might be co-opted by nature if they were abandoned.

Unfortunately, rather than dealing primarily with scientific, archaeological or anthropological observations about the resilience of huma...more

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09/17/07

Sarah rated it:

(review of isbn 0312347294)

bookshelves: not-memorable

Read in November, 2007

I just demoted this book from four-star status to three-star status. I started reading it and then had to give it back to the library before I was done and then I had to get it back to read the last chapter. At the risk of being platitudinous, this book is no fine wine.

The literary world is definitely instep with our current go-green zeitgeist and, as past president of Earlham's Environmental Action Committee and as someone whose economic footprint is minimal, I am quite pleased. Tha...more

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09/05/07

Shoshanapnw rated it:

(review of isbn 0312347294)

bookshelves: 2008, anthropology, culture, history, natural-history, science, world

Weisman's enjoyable and hard-to classify thought experiment takes as its starting point the question, what would happen to the world if all humans were to disappear suddenly, simultaneously, and not cataclysmically? Weisman attempts to answer this from many perspectives in relation to architecture, nuclear waste, animal life, and global warming, to name a few. He musters support from a variety of fields and includes both data and interviews in his exploration. The intent of the fantasy, of cours...more

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05/09/08

Marcus rated it:

(review of isbn 0312347294)

Read in June, 2008

recommends it for: insomniacs

I enjoyed the premise, but the execution was a snoozer. I'm not sure if it was the author's soporific style, or that I was let down by his overly repetitive rundown on floral succession: "asparagus and trumpet vine take hold as dingleberries and snorfle-weed provide shade..." Over and over; it felt like the author was attempting to display the fact that he did thorough investigation with environmental biologists and was flexing his bio street cred, After the first 4 times, the rema...more

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03/28/08

Jesse rated it:

(review of isbn 0312347294)

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in April, 2008

recommends it for: everyone

I learned of this book from the "fact" rich radio show CoastToCoastAM with George Noorey. Although George's usual guests are crystal rubbing muppets from Xenon this guest actually wrote an interesting book. I have to wonder if the author even knew what radio show he was on.

The book describes the impermanence of humanity's impact on the globe. Long after we are gone their will still be mountains of plastic but even this will be absorbed or degraded into nothingness. Tim...more

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03/22/08

Kelly rated it:

(review of isbn 0312347294)

Read in April, 2008

An intriguing thought experiment of how the earth and life on it continues if humans only suddenly disappeared, and not in some cataclysmic way that wipes out other life on earth. Of course to contemplate the world without us requires an investigation of the world with us--plastics, refineries, nuclear power plants, CO2, subways and skyscrapers, invasive species, pets, etc.

I approached this book with a geologist's perspective of time scale, and our ability to find discrete and obscu...more An intriguing thought experiment of how the earth and life on it continues if humans only suddenly disappeared, and not in some cataclysmic way that wipes out other life on earth. Of course to contemplate the world without us requires an investigation of the world with us--plastics, refineries, nuclear power plants, CO2, subways and skyscrapers, invasive species, pets, etc.

I approached this book with a geologist's perspective of time scale, and our ability to find discrete and obscure clues of the physical and biological past and then describe the travels of continents or the family life of dinosaurs. Weisman describes both the transient and indelible impacts of our species' presence on this planet (and in the larger universe as broadcast TV signals of I Love Lucy race away from our planet). I am less optimistic than Weisman that signs of human existence will be so quickly erased.

The resiliency of life--in general, not specific--on this planet is well demonstrated in the fossil record and life will doubtless continue regardless of the certain self-destruction--and of all the other species we take with us--that will be the outcome of our current course. Weisman's closing sentiments are similar to--but not as eloquent as--Barry Lopez' in Arctic Dreams: that what set us apart from other species is not that we should do something to alter our course but rather that we can.

Weisman: "Worldwide, every four days human population rises by 1 million. Since we can't really grasp such numbers, they'll wax out of control until they crash, as has happened to every other species that got too big for this box. About the only thing that could change that, short of the species-wide sacrifice of voluntary human extinction, is to prove that intelligence really makes us special after all.

The intelligent solution would require the courage and the wisdom to put our knowledge to the test. It would be poignant and distressing in ways, but not fatal."

Lopez: "Because mankind can circumvent evolutionary law, it is incumbent upon him, say evolutionary biologists to develop another law to abide by if he wishes to survive, to not outstrip his food base. He must learn restraint. He must derive some other, wiser way of behaving toward the land. He must be more attentive to the biological imperatives of the system of sun-driven protoplasm upon which he, too, is still dependent. Not because he must, because he lacks inventiveness, but because herein is the accomplishment of the wisdom that for centuries he has aspired to. Having taken on his own destiny, he must now think with critical intelligence about where to defer."
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09/29/07

Matthew rated it:

(review of isbn 0312347294)

Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: Literally, everyone. Even, or perhaps especially, if they're too stupid to get it.

I had to stop several times in the middle of reading this, to digest the chapters and pick something lighter up temporarily. Its not depressing in the way a sad novel is, but its upsetting in the way it really drives home how much humans have fucked the world up. The sacry thing about the book is that when reading about how humans have dissappeared and nature reclaims her property, I'm not thinking 'how terrible', I'm thinking 'how wonderful'. I've pulled back from the brink of thinking of human...more

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09/22/07

Shira rated it:

(review of isbn 0312347294)

Read in September, 2007

Ok, even though this book is a bestseller and many people seem to think it is so great and so deep, I found it to be very repetitive and not necessarily that well-written. I read this for my environmental book group, and probably would not have picked up such a depressing book on my own.

The basic idea is kind of interesting -- how would nature respond if people suddenly disappeared from the earth? Would the damage we caused to the environment be corrected? It's kind of a novel c...more

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12/14/07

David rated it:

(review of isbn 0312347294)

bookshelves: mind-numbingly-boring, read-in-2008

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: nobody

It's located on the 'mind-numbingly-boring' shelf for a reason. Whatever point the author is trying to make certainly doesn't support 300 pages of impenetrable prose. After five false starts I managed to get to page 50 before finally giving up in disgust.

All the people who have made this a best-seller? I don't believe for a moment that they have actually read it. This is not a book to read, though it may be one to impress your friends with by pretending to have read it.

D...more

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12/05/08

Jack rated it:

(review of isbn 0312347294)

bookshelves: jackrecommends

Read in September, 2008

recommended to Jack by: an instructor
recommends it for: environmentals, consevationists, and anyone with a sense of humor and curiosity

Cats rule and dogs are toast.

After reading an article that Alan Weisman had written for Harpers, “describing how when humans fled Chernobyl, nature rushed in to fill our void,” Discover magazine editor Josie Glausiusz asked Weisman a simple question: “What would happen if humans disappeared everywhere?" Instantly intrigued, Weisman agreed to write an article for Discover that allows us to remove Earth’s dominant species from the planet, then sit back and watch what happe...more Cats rule and dogs are toast.

After reading an article that Alan Weisman had written for Harpers, “describing how when humans fled Chernobyl, nature rushed in to fill our void,” Discover magazine editor Josie Glausiusz asked Weisman a simple question: “What would happen if humans disappeared everywhere?" Instantly intrigued, Weisman agreed to write an article for Discover that allows us to remove Earth’s dominant species from the planet, then sit back and watch what happens next : “ Watch, and maybe learn." Weisman’s attempt to write such an article evolved into his book, The World Without Us.

Glausiusz presented Weisman with a perfect gimmick to deliver yet another apocalyptic, environmental conservation tome, this one with a clever twist. To Weisman’s great credit, he takes the challenge seriously and offers a thoughtful, well-researched account of what might be in store for planet Earth if all “humans were raptured off to heaven or to a different galaxy."

Weisman constructs his speculation building an enormous skyscraper full of facts and data. He queries a bevy of biologists, paleontologists and other ‘ologists,’ accompanying them in their research to remote and not so remote locations. The World Without Us could have been merely a dry, lifeless, factual treatise strictly for such ‘ologists,’ and occasionally World briefly settles into such a dry rut. Weisman also practices an irritatingly consistent and persistent predilection to describe these experts in a single sentence: “David Foster, at 50, he looks 10 years younger – fit and lean, the hair across his forehead still dark,” or “Volk is a lanky man with wavy dark hair and eyes that scrunch into crescents when he ponders." Considering their brevity, they are nice descriptions, but then so are those on wanted posters.

For the most part, though, Weisman drafts an intriguing blueprint of planet Earth: past, present and future, and shows how the prints have changed, are changing, and will change thanks to us. He drafts it with often playful humor. “On the day after humans disappear, nature takes over and immediately begins cleaning house – or houses that is. Cleans them right off the face off the Earth,” he suggests, and “planet-wide piles of low bids…will come crashing down."
Weisman employs the journalist’s creed explaining not just what will happen, but how and why and where and when. Of course, there will no longer be any ‘who,’ unless you count plants and animals. Weisman does, however, count them in infinite variety and, with his journalist’s creed, he explains how they might fare: cats will make it, dogs won’t, for instance. Unlike their all-too-domesticated household counterpart the dog, “a wily population of feral house cats…that trained us to feed and harbor them, disdaining our hapless appeals to come when we call,” and having retained their hunting instincts, will do well feeding on starlings, rats and other small prey. And we needn’t worry about mosquitoes, Weisman explains, there will be plenty of animal and avian blood to suck; plus we “can rest assured that one of their favorite man-made nurseries will be intact for, at minimum, another century…scrapped rubber tires." He doesn’t just suggest they will be around; he explains exactly how and why mosquito eggs will still be hatching in tires long after most skyscrapers crumble to the ground.

To lend historical support to his speculations, Weisman bounces back and forth in time. He explains how our planet has handled its problems in the past, immense problems like ice ages and giant asteroids smashing into Mexico. He reminds that countless species faced extinction long before we evolved. Weisman and his bevy of experts assert that once mankind evolved and settled in, we became our planet’s most immense problem – that we are our planet’s next great natural disaster.

The author chronicles the damage humans have wrought and the danger we pose for a future without us, including such ticking time bombs as Houston’s massive refineries and pipelines, persistent pesticides and other chemicals, stacks of nuclear reactors, weapons and waste laying around, and of course, our carbon-filled sky. He warns that Earth may take thousands of years to recover from man, if it ever fully recovers. And he details what evidence of man’s presence may still be around for some alien visitor to view 100,000 years from now, evidence such as Mount Rushmore and plastics.

The World Without Us unsurprisingly paints a scary and foreboding portrait of the future. Yet this colorful portrait does surprise with its hopeful outlook of how Earth has always abided and adapted. Weisman allows Smithsonian’s Doug Irwin to draw an illustration using the evolution of the turtle: If a scientist a million years ago had predicted the eventual evolution of such a bizarre species, “he’d have been laughed out of town. The only real prediction you can make is that life will go on. And that it will be interesting." The same can be said for Weisman’s book.
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01/14/08

Kerri rated it:

(review of isbn 0312347294)

Read in January, 2008

Weisman's fascinating thought experiment takes readers from earth's deepest past into the farthest future imaginable. I was particularly interested in his research on population growth and the ability of nature to bounce back after not only the elimination of humans, but a reduction in worldwide human population. You will be surprised by just how resilient nature can be. A great read for the environmentally minded and for anyone who can put ego aside and envision a world without us.

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01/12/09

Margaret rated it:

(review of isbn 0312347294)

Read in January, 2009

This book was a disappointment. I had high hopes because first a close friend lent it to me, having just read it, with the recommendation that he thought I'd love it. Then, independently, my dad gave me a copy for my birthday. Despite this, its fatal flaw is that its boring. The whole premise is that if humans disappeared overnight, the earth would eventually revert to some natural state. But he goes through every part of that in excruciating detail. The interesting parts are more about wh...more

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01/01/09

Patrick Gibson rated it:

(review of isbn 0312347294)

bookshelves: lasciate-ogne-speranza-voi-ch-intra, truth_sort-of

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in December, 2008

Some people reviewed this book like they were expecting a disaster movie—almost disappointed there weren’t horrific scenes to titillate the prurient side of us all. Not this book—although I felt a little voyeuristic on some of the moments of decay brilliantly described on this book.
I am a ruins junkie. I admit it. Even before I moved west where ruins of past cultures abound at every turn, I was fascinated by abandoned barns, houses, factories—you name it. If it had been left to dec...more Some people reviewed this book like they were expecting a disaster movie—almost disappointed there weren’t horrific scenes to titillate the prurient side of us all. Not this book—although I felt a little voyeuristic on some of the moments of decay brilliantly described on this book.
I am a ruins junkie. I admit it. Even before I moved west where ruins of past cultures abound at every turn, I was fascinated by abandoned barns, houses, factories—you name it. If it had been left to decay away, I was out of my car and taking pictures (to the annoyance of whatever friends I could hang on too). If I had known a couple decades ago that I could have majored in ‘rust’ my whole future could have changed. I chose music instead—go figure.
Somewhere, probably the blurbs, The World Without Us is described as a ‘thought experiment.’ That’s wonderful—because that’s exactly what it is. The premise of humans going away has been done on both the National Geographic and the History Channel (History Channel being the better of the two), but it is best to read about it. In wonderful detail, Alan Weisman takes on everything you have wondered about (well at least I have). His detailing on how skyscrapers will eventually collapse is fascinating. It’s not all wind and rain. Critters and plants take part—and who would have thought bird poop could be so devastating?
There are a few essay lectures on some of the past cultures that have withered, but not written in prophetic tones. That’s not what this is about. If humans were to go away instantly, what would happen to the planet?
I was surprised that plastic would go away quickly. We are constantly being told that it will last forever. It won’t. One of the most interesting chapters chronicles the minute detail that would bring about collapse of the Brooklyn Bridge if all maintenance were to cease. Again, it’s not wind and rain.
What is the one manmade object that will last the longest? I figured it would be the pyramids because they already have a track record. Nope. I am not giving anything away—it’s not like this is a murder mystery—Mount Rushmore (more so than other images carved in rock because this one is in Granite, others are in softer stone).
The first time I went to The Forum I couldn’t understand why the ruins were so far below the modern city. Where did all the derris that filled in come from? Fear not. It is all explained. On the next tour I take to Chaco Canyon I will be slightly more literate in explaining why some of the ruins look the way they do.
My hard drive is filled with pictures of abandoned houses with peeling wallpaper, soggy floors, shattered plaster, gaping ceiling holes and beams looking like pick up sticks. Can you tell this book was written for me? Well . . . you’ll like it too. Trust me—it’s not boring. Just the opposite: the author makes oxidation, decay, purification and disintegration interesting.
Some cats are born great, some achieve greatness, and some cats have greatness thrust upon them.
In a future without us? Cats rule. Dogs go bye-bye (sort of). Did I mention gravity? It’s a bitch as well.
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