The World Without Us

Alan Weisman
3.81
42,952 ratings 4,059 reviews
A penetrating, page-turning tour of a post-human Earth In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us. 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 Dalai 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.
Genres: NonfictionScienceEnvironmentNatureHistoryAudiobookEcologyPost ApocalypticBook ClubSustainability
324 Pages

Community Reviews:

5 star
11686 (27%)
4 star
16585 (39%)
3 star
10696 (25%)
2 star
2886 (7%)
1 star
1099 (3%)

Readers also enjoyed

Other books by Alan Weisman

Lists with this book

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Best Non-Fiction (no biographies)
6227 books • 8037 voters
A Short History of Nearly Everything
A Brief History of Time
Cosmos
Best Science Books - Non-Fiction Only
1830 books • 3587 voters
To Kill a Mockingbird
Pride and Prejudice
The Diary of a Young Girl
Books That Everyone Should Read At Least Once
30946 books • 116592 voters
Silent Spring
A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There
The Lorax
Best Environmental Books
1061 books • 1188 voters