The World Without Us is a non-fiction book about what would happen to a natural and artificial environment if people suddenly disappear, written by American journalist Alan Weisman and published by Sant Martins Thomas Dunn Bucks. " The book is an expanded version of his article in Discovery, February 2005, Earth Without People. Written mainly as a thought experiment, it describes how cities and buildings will collapse, how long things created by man will last, and how the remaining forms of life will evolve. Weisman concludes that residential areas will be covered with forests for 500 years, and that radioactive waste, bronze statues, plastic, and Mount Rushmore will be the longest evidence of human presence on Earth.
| "The world without us" | |
|---|---|
| The world without us | |
| Genre | documentary prose |
| Author | Alan Weisman |
| Original language | English |
| Date of writing | 2007 year |
| Date of first publication | 2007 year |
| Publishing house | St. Martin's Thomas Dunne Books |
Weisman, as the author of four books and numerous articles in journals, traveled around the world in order to interview scientists and government officials. He used quotes from these interviews to support the prediction. The book has been translated and published in France, Germany, Japan, Portugal, Spain and Italy. She succeeded in the United States, reaching 6th place on the New York Times bestseller list and first place on the San Francisco Chronicle in September 2007 .
Content
Background
Before the book “A World Without Us,” Alan Weisman wrote four books, including Gaviotas: The Village That Rediscovered the World, in 1998 about the eco-settlement in Colombia, and Echo in My Blood, in 1999, about the story of his family’s emigration from Ukraine to the USA.
He worked as an international journalist for American magazines and newspapers and, at the time of writing, was an associate professor of journalism and Latin American studies at Arizona State University. The position required him to teach only one course during the spring semester, and he was able to move freely and conduct research for the rest of the year.
Contents
The book consists of 19 chapters, each chapter is devoted to a new topic, such as, for example, the possible fate of plastics, oil infrastructure, nuclear facilities and art objects. The book is written from the standpoint of scientific journalism with explanations and facts justifying its predictions. It does not have a unifying narrative, a review chapter, or a set of abstracts.
Weisman's thought experiment explores two topics: how nature will react to the disappearance of people and what kind of legacy humanity will leave. To predict how life can go on without people, Weismann looks at data from areas where the natural environment exists with little human intervention, such as Belovezhskaya Pushcha , Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll . He interviewed biologist E.O. Wilson and met with members of the Korean Federation for the environmental movement in the Korean demilitarized zone, where people have rarely been since 1953 . He is trying to understand how life can evolve, while noting Douglas Erwin’s warning that “we cannot predict how the world will look 5 million years later by looking at the living.” Several chapters are devoted to the megafauna, which, according to Weisman’s prediction, will spread widely if humanity disappears. He studied soil samples of the last 200 years and extrapolated the concentration of heavy metals into the future without industrial production, studied the possibility of changing the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the consequences of the absence of humanity on the climate .
Weisman used data from the Maya civilization that had disappeared to illustrate how quickly nature hides traces of the existence of a developed society. To demonstrate how vegetation can damage buildings and infrastructure, Weisman interviewed hydrologists and employees of the Panama Canal, where continuous containment of the jungle vegetation and anti-silt measures are required. To illustrate the future of the abandoned cities, Weisman examined the examples of Chernobyl (left in 1986 ) and Varosha , Cyprus (left in 1974 ). The author comes to the conclusion that their structures are destroyed under the influence of weather conditions, and other forms of life create new habitats in them. In Turkey, Weisman compared current construction practices in fast-growing Istanbul and past construction techniques in the underground cities of Cappadocia. Due to the high demand for housing in Istanbul, a significant part of them was built quickly, from random low-quality materials and they can be destroyed by large earthquakes or other natural disasters. Cappadocian underground cities were built thousands of years ago from volcanic tuff , and are likely to survive for centuries.
Weismann used modern New York as a model to consider how a modern city unsupported by man could collapse. In his opinion, the sewage system will become clogged, underground streams of water will fill the subway tunnels, soils under the roads will undergo erosion, and underground voids will form. Using interviews with members of the Wildlife Conservation Society and representatives of the New York Botanical Garden, Weisman predicts that local vegetation will return, spreading from parks and surrounding green belts. Rats and cockroaches that are not provided with food and heat will die out.
Weismann explains how an ordinary US home will collapse: first, water will penetrate through the roof, begin to corrode wood and nails, which will lead to the slope of the walls and the collapse of the entire building. After five hundred years, all that remains is the aluminum parts of the dishwasher, stainless steel cookware and plastic handles. Radioactive materials, ceramics, bronze statues, Mount Rushmore, and gold plates on the Voyager apparatus and radio waves in outer space can last much longer.
According to the author, the complete disappearance of humanity without serious damage to buildings and the environment is extremely unlikely.
See also
- Life after people is a documentary about the same.
- Death of humanity
Links
- The World Without Us - Official Site
- Declinism Declined - Book Review