The World Without Us

This intriguing book attempts to elaborate on the various ways Earth would be impacted if humankind were to suddenly vanish. The results of this thought experiment are a mixed bag, with some of the environmental damage and visible impact caused by humans fading relatively quickly, while other results of humanity's reign (particularly consequences associated with nuclear waste) having repercussions lasting for geological epochs. The end result is a planet that is not necessarily better or worse off for the lack of human habitation, but one very different from its current state.

Given the vast scope of the topic, the book feels necessarily a bit unfocused. Most chapters introduce a general question ("What happens to X without humans around?"), then the story's "lens" progressively zooms in on narrower details within that topic, going from macro scale to micro. Scientists, conservationists, architects, energy industry professionals, and so forth are introduced along the way, providing insight into their fields of expertise. I especially appreciated that alternate views were often provided, adding nuance when one expert's perspective veered too far towards rosy optimism or unvarnished pessimism.

By positing a scenario in which humans are completely absent the author encourages us to reflect upon humanity's current stewardship of the world. We're reminded that monumental structures and other proud feats of engineering may not be as permanent as they seem, while other more subtle byproducts of humanity's influence can have long-reaching, unintended, and permanent consequences.

Though this book would be filed under non-fiction, don't be fooled: this book is also poetry. Well-written, evocative sentences complement the broad scope of its tantalizing premise: what would the world look like if human beings disappeared from the face of the earth?

Here's a quick example of the soaring prosody you'll encounter in this book: "They return through a long, flat Civilian Control Zone valley carpeted with rice stubble. The soil is scored into herringbone furrows separated by glinting mirrors of early snowmelt that will re-freeze by nightfall. . . The sky is hatched with patterns echoing the ploughed geometrics below as lines of cranes soar in, joined by great airborne wedges of thousands of geese."

There is a sadness and anguish behind many of the topics of this book, but the author restrains himself from turning this into a mere environmentalist treatise by keeping his vision focused on the bigger picture (i.e. an unanthropormorphic universe). There is much to learn about human civilization in addition to natural processes here, as well as clues to how we can curb our destruction of our biosphere (hint: population control).

All in all, the clarity and phrasing of its writing take this book a step above.

The notion of looking at what would happe to the world if human beings were to disappear from the face of the earth is brilliant. It allows Weisman to take an objective look at the current state of human impact on the world, without slipping into the preachy, doom and gloom style that is often used by authors of such books.

The breadth of the topics Weisman covers is impressive. I felt that I learned something new in every chapter, whether it was about the existence of centuries-old cities hidden beneath Turkey, the birdlife of the DMZ in Korea or the wholesale destruction of mountaintops in West Virginia.

Weisman is also an extraordinary writer. There are a number of verbal gems here, such as the following sentence, which perfectly describes at least one of my cats: "The villain is the purring mascot that lolled regally in Egyptian temples and does the same on our furniture, accepting our affection only when it pleases, exuding inscrutable calm whether awake or asleep (as it spends more than half its life), beguiling us to see to its care and feeding."

What truly saves this book from being the usual depressive environmental tome predicting our imminent destruction is the people. Weisman must have interviewed well over 100 people. He does not simply explain their reseach, their ideas and their opinion clearly. He brings them to life. It is their passion, brilliance and commitment that makes the book truly worth reading.