The World Without Us
Aug 2012 · Random House
4.4star
24 reviewsreport
Ebook
448
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About this ebook
Revised Edition with New Afterword from the Author
Time #1 Nonfiction Book of the Year
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award
Over 3 million copies sold in 35 Languages
"On the day after humans disappear, nature takes over and immediately begins cleaning house - or houses, that is. Cleans them right off the face of the earth. They all go."
What if mankind disappeared right now, forever... what would happen to the Earth in a week, a year, a millennium? Could the planet's climate ever recover from human activity? How would nature destroy our huge cities and our myriad plastics? And what would our final legacy be?
Speaking to experts in fields as diverse as oil production and ecology, and visiting the places that have escaped recent human activity to discover how they have adapted to life without us, Alan Weisman paints an intriguing picture of the future of Earth. Exploring key concerns of our time, this absorbing thought experiment reveals a powerful - and surprising - picture of our planet's future.
Time #1 Nonfiction Book of the Year
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award
Over 3 million copies sold in 35 Languages
"On the day after humans disappear, nature takes over and immediately begins cleaning house - or houses, that is. Cleans them right off the face of the earth. They all go."
What if mankind disappeared right now, forever... what would happen to the Earth in a week, a year, a millennium? Could the planet's climate ever recover from human activity? How would nature destroy our huge cities and our myriad plastics? And what would our final legacy be?
Speaking to experts in fields as diverse as oil production and ecology, and visiting the places that have escaped recent human activity to discover how they have adapted to life without us, Alan Weisman paints an intriguing picture of the future of Earth. Exploring key concerns of our time, this absorbing thought experiment reveals a powerful - and surprising - picture of our planet's future.
Ratings and reviews
4.4
24 reviews
James Holloway
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May 1, 2014
Offering subtle hints at what we may as a species want to do to delay the premature departure of humanity from the Earth (stop making animals extinct, and deal with the issues related to fossil fuels and plastics for starters) this book doesn't shy away from staring into the abyss of former human civilisations, pointing out that the planet will reclaim and recycle almost anything left to posterity. Depending on your outlook that message will either be terrifying or warmly reassuring.
Bradley Walker
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February 10, 2016
A very interesting book! A lot of it wasn't really focused on the specifics of how things would proceed (step by step) in a world where humans vanished (which is the implication of descriptions of the book) but it does cover the topic more generally of what the earth might look like if we had never been here, or how things might eventually look after we vanished. I really enjoyed it.
2 people found this review helpful
A Google user
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May 3, 2016
Starts off quite well, but gradually turns into a rather tedious collection of essays that don't really live up to what I was expecting.
About the author
Alan Weisman is an award-winning journalist and the author of several books, including the global bestseller The World Without Us, which has been translated into 34 international languages and was nominated for numerous awards. His writing has appeared in Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Vanity Fair, The Los Angeles Times Magazine and many other places. Alan has worked on all seven continent and reported from 58 countries, and lives in western Massachusetts.
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