The World Without Us

This is not an environmental disaster book. The assumption is that humans have disappeared and the author looks at how long traces of our civilization will last. Fascinating! It provides amazing insights into the things we build and how they fall apart. Excellent for anyone interested in how our human works interact with the "real" world without our further input.

Weisman presents an excellent treatise on how the planet might react to the sudden disappearance of humans. His research reveals some shocking specifics about how badly we have trashed the planet and how long our impact will be felt. This easy to read book may cause you to spend more time thinking than actually reading.

We're not all bad! At least we are keeping the kudzu in check. Will the last one out please turn off the reactors?

Fascinating book for anyone who has ever wondered what becomes of all our "stuff" -- big and small -- if and when we disappear. How long does it take for the average house to crumble to the ground? What happens to those giant petrochemical plants? The book is well-researched without bogging down in techno-speak.

In his 1970 collection of essays "The Invisible Pyramid", paleontologist and anthropologist Loren Eiseley opened his third chapter "The World Eaters" with this: "It came to me in the night, in the midst of a bad dream, that perhaps man, like a blight descending on a fruit, is by nature a parasite, a spore bearer, a world eater." Anticipating "The World Without Us", Eiseley ended the essay with an apocalyptic vision: "Beginning on some winter night the snow will fall steadily for a thousand years and hush in its falling the spore cities whose seed has flown. The delicate traceries of the frost will slowly dim the glass in the observatories and all will be as it had been before the virus wakened. The long trail of Haley's comet, once more returning, will pass like a ghostly match flame over the unwatched grave of the cities. This has always been their end, whether in the snow or in the sand."

As has been often stated, we must not fear the end of life on earth merely because humans are at risk - only our arrogance prevents us from separating our lot from the myriad other species with whom we share this planet. Nature will, with no contempt, malice or chagrin, watch us pass from the scene. Our evolutionary branch, as that of so many others, will be pruned, and it will fall to other species to see what they can make of this world we, for such a short time, called home.

Weisman does a great job of imagining what the world would look like without humans. He assumes that nature is still resilient enough to bounce back from the cumulative damage done by human beings so far, and he is probably right, assuming all the people do in fact disappear soon. But what if we have already passed, or soon will pass, the tipping point? With all the effort that is required to keep the subways under the water table free of water, to keep rusting bridges operational, to keep a roof over our heads that keeps out the rain, and so on, what if nature were no longer able to spring back? What if the same effort that we now have to expend to keep our little personal universes "above water" is necessary to preserve the eco-system itself, to preserve the very "natural" system that at present tries to gradually erode everything we create? It seems to me that the future in store for the world is likely to look like that before it finally collapses, as earthlings try, without success, to artificially regulate the atmosphere, the oceans, and so forth, in the same manner (but on a much larger scale) that we currently manage lakes, rivers, forests, national parks, and so on. If we want to have trillions of human beings on earth, we have no choice but to succeed at managing everything in the world. Otherwise, there really is no choice except to keep going in the direction that we are going until everything finally collapses.

Mr. Weisman's book raises many interesting points about what we know about global warming and paleontology and what the world might be like if humans became extinct. But it is not a riveting read, although he writes poetically a lot of the time. The whole work fits together, piece by piece, so you should read it from start to finish. It takes patience because the ideas and themes are dense. I found myself getting caught up in the details of a chapter and missing the big picture of that chapter until I went back to look it over quickly. Clearly, the author is a erudite and masterful writer, as well as a deep thinker, which just means that you shouldn't read this when you're very tired!

Alan Weisman takes the reader on a journey around the world, presenting an almost bird's eye view of the changes that would occur without the constant efforts of humans to hold those changes back. Some of the effort is unseen by most, and Weisman writes with an intensity that will captivate anyone who reads the book.

This is an all-around excellent book. It is hard to find better writing on this topic, however, Weisman pointedly forgets how humans' brains, and our increasing distance from nature and enslavement of the biosphere, is in the "way" of things- I mean, everything is natural...extinction, non-extinction- everything always changes. Describing what has been and what may be could have been less alarmist and more embracing.

The most serious critique this reviewer has of this book is that it is lacking in interesting and novel content and repeats what has been said many times (endlessly) before. In terms of novel and interesting points, the book gives an excellent discussion of what would happen to human infrastructure and habitat (i.e., cities, etc.) if humanity would dissapear overnight. It also provides quite a few rarely discussed issues such as how plastics are breaking down, in the environment, to tiny particles that fish end up consuming. If this break down continues (and there is no reason to believe it will not as plastics are not bio-degradeable and their quantities in the sea are increasing)they will eventually find themselves consumed even by even microscopic sea-based life forms.

Unfortunately, the novel issues introduced are more than outweighed (by a factor of many) by endless cliches and discussed material of which none is new. The discussions of how much damage humanity has done to the environment and how difficult this will be reverse, even if humans were to dissappear overnight, is nothing that is exactly new to anyone who has not been living in a cave for the past 20 years.

The book's solutions to environmental poisoning are also quite weak. The word farcical may be more appropriate here. As part of the author's presented solutions (literally) are human transportation to other planets, for example. Nevermind that not even one human habitable planet has been found and that the technology simply does not exist and will not exist anytime soon for this to be even a possibility. Of possible solutions that are realistically feasible anytime in the near future are simply not discussed. For example, the ability of technology (especially in material engineering) to make use of only a tiny fraction of resources to produce what is currently consumed (i.e., a pound of steel being used to produce an automobile instead of a half a ton). The stabilization and reversal of human population numbers worldwide, like in the developed nations today, is not even touched upon. Neither are facts such as that as economies develop consumers demanding more service sector goods, which are less material intensive, and less manufactured goods. There is also not even a mention of possible break throughs in a variety of technologies that can reverse environmental damage (i.e., artificially created microbes that can digest hazardous chemicals and trash and radioactive materials).

In short, for the above reasons, the book is very much lacking. On the positive side the CD version of the book has a relatively good voice over and hence is never monotone or boring. A good audiobook (barring the above cited problems) for long trips (as it length is about 10 hours).

The most serious critique this reviewer has of this book is that it is lacking in interesting and novel content and repeats what has been said many times (endlessly) before. In terms of novel and interesting points, the book gives an excellent discussion of what would happen to human infrastructure and habitat (i.e., cities, etc.) if humanity would dissapear overnight. It also provides quite a few rarely discussed issues such as how plastics are breaking down, in the environment, to tiny particles that fish end up consuming. If this break down continues (and there is no reason to believe it will not as plastics are not bio-degradeable and their quantities in the sea are increasing)they will eventually find themselves consumed even by even microscopic sea-based life forms.

Unfortunately, the novel issues introduced are more than outweighed (by a factor of many) by endless cliches and discussed material of which none is new. The discussions of how much damage humanity has done to the environment and how difficult this will be reverse, even if humans were to dissappear overnight, is nothing that is exactly new to anyone who has not been living in a cave for the past 20 years.

The book's solutions to environmental poisoning are also quite weak. The word farcical may be more appropriate here. As part of the author's presented solutions (literally) are human transportation to other planets, for example. Nevermind that not even one human habitable planet has been found and that the technology simply does not exist and will not exist anytime soon for this to be even a possibility. Of possible solutions that are realistically feasible anytime in the near future are simply not discussed. For example, the ability of technology (especially in material engineering) to make use of only a tiny fraction of resources to produce what is currently consumed (i.e., a pound of steel being used to produce an automobile instead of a half a ton). The stabilization and reversal of human population numbers worldwide, like in the developed nations today, is not even touched upon. Neither are facts such as that as economies develop consumers demanding more service sector goods, which are less material intensive, and less manufactured goods. There is also not even a mention of possible break throughs in a variety of technologies that can reverse environmental damage (i.e., artificially created microbes that can digest hazardous chemicals and trash and radioactive materials).

In short, for the above reasons, the book is very much lacking. On the positive side the CD version of the book has a relatively good voice over and hence is never monotone or boring. A good audiobook (barring the above cited problems) for long trips (as it length is about 10 hours).

The World Without Us (TWWU) started off with a bang. The author went into some quite interesting facts about human infrastructure and how it would decay and why it would decay without humans around. Well after he wrote this the book started to decay. You see TWWU is an excellent book if it were retitled "A Snapshot of the Planet Earth" The author spends way too much time talking about our environmental situation now and does not speculate, very much, of the environment of tomorrow. He mentions nothing about the atmosphere, for example, which, forgive my pun, is the hottest environmental topic there is. Strange don't you think? The author was too busy giving us an ecology lesson and making small jabs at corporate America, rather than telling us what the planet would be if we were not there. Again it's a fairly entertaining ecology book but as far it telling us what the world would be like without us, we are left to watch about this topic on the Discovery Channel to find out what the world would be, if we no longer exsisted.

The World Without Us
Book written by Alan Weisman
Essay written by Caleb Cushman 9th grade English.
Many people wonder, “how would the world react if humans were gone?” With this question comes the thought process of, “have we done enough for the world to even recognize humans as a species?” In the book, The World Without Us, Alan Weisman proposes to the readers how the world was, is, and will most likely become because of humans or the lack thereof.
Before humans came along, many species of animals existed. These fabled creatures were abundant and the kings of their time. The earth was seemingly perfect, flawless, a perfect gem in the middle of their universe. But our ancestor Humans would soon hunt species to extinction without realizing the inherent dangers of killing them off. With this activity would come the tyrannical, natural dictatorship of humans over all other animals, deciding what and why and which animals would exist.
The human species, (homo sapiens), have begun a long story to engrave in this planet. With this story comes the prelude of the time before us, the main event of how this world will end, and the exit where we humans leave this earth either to a glorious paradise or to a horrendously scarred remnant of a planet. Today many humans believe we are helping nature, but is what the truth? In his book, Author Alan Weisman states that nature repairs itself much better than any human who tries to help. But can humans play a roll destroying nature by building our automobiles and machines that constantly spew toxins into the atmosphere; or will we help nature rebuild into a haven worthy of being called a “Garden of Eden”? The great question humans have created with our existence today is whether we have a purpose on this planet.
Humans have created many objects to last, but will these objects outlast even nature itself? Mount Rushmore, a massive mountain with the four presidents of great integrity carved into its side, is only losing an approximate 1 inch every 10,000 years, giving Mount Rushmore 7.2 million years to boast about Americas success. The underground city of Derinkuyu in Turkey was built to last as a defensive fort and is almost impenetrable. Nevertheless, the fort still has the possibility of crumbling under earths mighty earthquakes and pressures. Man has created quite a world for itself but nature will always come back twice as strong, causing almost any building to fall under its fatal grasp. The greatest feats for man still fall short of natures full power.
The impact of man is quite great upon the earth. However, no force known to earth is more powerful than nature itself. Therefore, man has been allotted a small amount of time to show what potential we have to dedicate to this planet, but is it enough to change it? We return to the question asked earlier by humans, “ how would the world react if humans were gone?” perhaps has been answered. Humans may be remembered by the things we leave behind, but the earth will not change drastically because of our disappearance.

Excellent brain exercise. What is the natural, native world. Humans are terrible caretaker of the earth. It is fascinating to learn about man's micromanaging, usually with terrible results. This is a history , ecological and social lesson we all need to learn

This is a fascinating book and my husband was reading a copy he'd bought for a friend, but had to give it to the friend. So, I bought him a copy and he is really happy. He reads excerpts to me and I'm eager to read it myself.

In brief, I was disappointed the book was not written in an objective fashion. The author makes frequent use of emotionally-laden terms, and speculates freely without a clear line of reasoning or logic to support such speculation. In addition, the author has made a base assumption in the book that man disappears from the face of the earth more or less instantly as a vehicle to hold a discussion on how the world would change in the absence of man continuing to maintain or expand on his works, or otherwise impact the environment. As a vehicle to allow a discussion of the effect of physics on artificial works without maintenance, fine. But I feel much of the book crosses the line from science to fantasy. In addition, he spends a great deal of text dealing with events that occurred BEFORE man existed, or at least far in his past. For example, the possibly anthropocentric extinction of large mammals in the Pleistocene. What does that have to do with the topic of the book? Are these creatures going to come back to life in the absence of man? Well, no. Over millions of years such creatures would likely evolve--but they would regardless, because it's really unlikely man will exist for another million (or several million) years. Basically, the book just kind of rambles from one environmentalist pet issue to another. I love nature, I love being away from people in nature, and I hate what man's done to other flora and fauna. But I see little point in wallowing in "what ifs." Which is pretty much what Mr. Weisman does in this book.

I mean this in a completely positive way, but this is an awesome bathroom book. The reason being that the content is interesting, but not so fascinating that the book can't be put down. In addition, while the chapters are of average length, the author inserts many paragraph breaks within the chapter, leaving dozens of great places to stop reading within each chapter. This makes 5-10 minutes reading sessions very easy to do. Finally, as non-fiction, academic reading there's very little suspense or excitement, which makes... ahem... release... much more possible.

Well written, gripping, literate, this book rings true with science and engineering in so many ways. As an academic physicist, I'm accustomed to reading articles that leave me asking, "...and then?" This book takes this reader there and beyond. There is so much beauty in the world without us -- just a different kind of beauty than what we know. The earth will barely notice our passing. It can shrug us off at any time, if we prove ourselves unhealthy guests.

This is a must read, period, a book to keep off the shelf to read more than once. It's tied with Kuhn, just behind Laurie Garrett, in my Top 10.

This book was a selection for our non-fiction book club at our local library. I agree with the quote on the front of the book by Bill KcKibben; that this book is "a tremendous feat of imaginative reporting". It was both extremely informative and depressing all at once. Still not sure if it qualifies as non-fiction or not, but much of the information, data, and statistics were very much real. For those interested in the future of the earth, it's worth a read.

I really enjoyed this book. His style is both infomative and inclusive. He creates a sense of companionship with the reader that makes you want to continue to read. I recommend this book, whether for a class or for some personal reading.

very interesting book that does a good job of using historical and current phenomenon to illustrate how things would turn out. personally, i love the idea of a world without people and found this to be a very appealing book.

Excellent book about how the earth would sustain itself if all human life ceased. I sent it to my son for Christmas, he is a state certified arborist in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and I know he will read it with much interest.

Thought provoking and a great exercise in creative writing, extrapolating from known facts. Why are we drawn to Armageddon-style scenarios? I'm not sure, and neither is the author, who doesn't specify why humans have suddenly disappeared. Not really the point - more that humans will have a long duration impact on the planet. I think this was written before the Anthropocene was proposed, but the scenarios contained within are a populist way of explaining why the Anthropocene is needed as a new geological era.

A well researched and written look at the global footprint humans are making on the world. A vivid account of human pressures on the environment and what the implications are for the future. Weisman is not just a prophet of doom but paints a stark picture of the future.

I give this book three stars for the amazing information that the author has accumulated all in one book. He begins by describing the earth as a mega- organism where in the soil, the atmosphere, the rivers, flora and fauna comprise the circulatory system. He describes this system as having a virus. And the virus is us. So one of the main themes relates to how we are going about destroying our earth. However, he has a number of themes and passes from one to the other. This poses a problem in that the narration seems disjointed. Most of the time, if you read each chapter as a single, it makes more sense.
This book was presented to our book club. Everyone read it. Some enjoyed it, some felt annoyed because they thought it was too wordy and disjointed. I agree, the book needs editing, but it is quite interesting and there is much to think about..

I never fully understood the massive power that nature has until I read this book. It told of the destructive capabilities that Mother Earth would wreck upon us if we let her. I have never been so satisfied reading a book of this caliber before, I recommend it to all!

It has a lot of information that is interesting, yet boring at the same time. Probably will not finish reading it. Or will skim quickly through it to get to the end.
Quality of the book was good.

I thought the premise of this one was quite interesting from a short recommendation I'd read. I was interested in the "thought experiment" of what would happen if all human life suddenly vanished from the Earth (for whatever reason).

I initially thought it might be more poetic and like speculative science fiction, like Ray Bradbury's short story There Will Come Soft Rains. But it turns out to be more like a Greenpeace plug, going on and on about how horrible humans are and what we are doing to destroy the planet. I was also mildly bemused at a small section ranting about how those mean old domesticated housecats would turn feral and decimate the pretty songbird population.

I'm only a little over halfway through, but will finish it quickly as I'm starting to skim over large sections now, something I rarely do with any book.