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The World Without Us
May. 3rd, 2008 04:12 pmFrom the cover flap:
As I mentioned earlier this week, I picked this book up after watching a National Geographic special on what would happen to the earth if humans were to simply disappear. It was far, far better than I expected, and more fascinating than the NG documentary (which is saying something, because I was riveted by the documentary).
Weisman dispenses with the apocalyptic descriptions of decaying NYC early. This chapter is fascinating, because it touches on geology, structural engineering, fluid dynamics, and basic ecology, connecting them to the metropolis and making them real. As an urban dweller, it is easy to forget or to not notice the monumental effort that goes into keeping the city running -- road repairs, sewer maintenance, harbor dredging, etc. -- without contemplating what would happen if it just stopped.
He goes on to write about the evolution of homo sapiens and their spread outward from Africa, and their effect (affect?) on the megafauna that once inhabited the Americas. He talks about how the natural world as we see it today is a function of human intervention, even in places that we think of as pristine and untouched, like remote parts of the Amazon. The collapse of the Mayan city-state of Dos Pilas; Chernobyl; an abandoned Cypriot beach resort; the Korean DMZ; the last bit of primeval European forest (found in Poland and Belarus); the farms of upper New England; petrochemical industry and the rise of plastic in the post-WWII years; the ravages of AIDs on non-Maasai people on the Serengeti; the funeral industry; telecommunications industry and broadcast; all of these unrelated places and/or events have a role in the changing biology and geology of the world, leaving the footprints of humanity, changing whatever may have occured naturally.
These speak to the heart of the Weisman's thesis, I think. That our mere existence causes change; that even without humanity, the earth would have changed, and that whatever our environment is right now is just one more moment in history. And that life (not necessarily human) will go on in some form or another, the way it has through other terrestrial disasters or shifts.
Weisman drew together a variety of disparate topics and tied them together in an artful and engaging way. This book would be a good one for an intro to ecology class, I think, for high school or even freshmen in college. It manages to touch on some very controversial things without being inflammatory, IMO.
A. Keeper.
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 citiies crumble, asphalt jungles would give way to real ones. It describes the disntinct ways that organiic 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 Dailai 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 I mentioned earlier this week, I picked this book up after watching a National Geographic special on what would happen to the earth if humans were to simply disappear. It was far, far better than I expected, and more fascinating than the NG documentary (which is saying something, because I was riveted by the documentary).
Weisman dispenses with the apocalyptic descriptions of decaying NYC early. This chapter is fascinating, because it touches on geology, structural engineering, fluid dynamics, and basic ecology, connecting them to the metropolis and making them real. As an urban dweller, it is easy to forget or to not notice the monumental effort that goes into keeping the city running -- road repairs, sewer maintenance, harbor dredging, etc. -- without contemplating what would happen if it just stopped.
He goes on to write about the evolution of homo sapiens and their spread outward from Africa, and their effect (affect?) on the megafauna that once inhabited the Americas. He talks about how the natural world as we see it today is a function of human intervention, even in places that we think of as pristine and untouched, like remote parts of the Amazon. The collapse of the Mayan city-state of Dos Pilas; Chernobyl; an abandoned Cypriot beach resort; the Korean DMZ; the last bit of primeval European forest (found in Poland and Belarus); the farms of upper New England; petrochemical industry and the rise of plastic in the post-WWII years; the ravages of AIDs on non-Maasai people on the Serengeti; the funeral industry; telecommunications industry and broadcast; all of these unrelated places and/or events have a role in the changing biology and geology of the world, leaving the footprints of humanity, changing whatever may have occured naturally.
"Change is the hallmark of nature. Nothing remains the same." (p. 128) Dr. Anthony Andrady, a researcher specializing in plastics and the environment. He's talking about biodegredation of plastic specifically.
"The only real prediction you can make is that life will go on. And that it will be interesting." (p. 232) Doug Erwin, paleobiology curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.
These speak to the heart of the Weisman's thesis, I think. That our mere existence causes change; that even without humanity, the earth would have changed, and that whatever our environment is right now is just one more moment in history. And that life (not necessarily human) will go on in some form or another, the way it has through other terrestrial disasters or shifts.
Weisman drew together a variety of disparate topics and tied them together in an artful and engaging way. This book would be a good one for an intro to ecology class, I think, for high school or even freshmen in college. It manages to touch on some very controversial things without being inflammatory, IMO.
A. Keeper.
