The World Without Us
by Alan Weisman
Book Summary Information
Author: Alan WeismanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-08-05
ISBN: 0312427905
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: Picador
Book Reviews of The World Without Us
Book Review: What an interesting idea and book
Summary: 5 Stars
I first heard of this book when it was reviewed in the Guardian and is definitly an interesting and thought provoking exercise.
Weisman does not explain how every single Human man, woman and child has gone but they all have, leaving the world and its cities empty except for flora, fauna, wildlife, etc. and then explains how the world would cope, adapt etc to our absence.
Perhaps not surprisingly the World seems better off when it loses 6 billion people, lol! And Wildlife soon feels a difference, for example the Lions and Leopards have no serious predators and lots of unguarded cattle, sheep and goats to hunt so its boom time for them and a similar story for the African elephants as no one is hunting them for their ivory anymore and no more culls.
it seems also that little will be left of us after a few generations, metal objects like cars will rust away, grass and trees will take over farmlands, gardens, parks and even roads. Most of todays housing without maintenance will be badly damaged after a few winters blowing in windows, taking off roofs, plus of course flood damage. What would survive is many of the ancient objects like the Pyramids which have been around several thousands years already, large cathedrals and surprisingly the Channel Tunnel, little else though!
maybe something would evolve to fill the gap our absence creates and use some of the left behind tools or equipment. The writer agrgues that maybe baboons would start to evolve in this way.
Its an interesting book.
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