[books i've been reading]

The World Without Us

by Alan Weisman

Journalist Alan Weisman asks one of the biggest questions: "What would happen to our world if we disappeared?" Weisman seeks to answer how our technology, architecture, and imprint will fare. (in a word: they won't). He also looks at how our absence would be beneficial for the planet, noting how the rise of Homo sapien has resulted in vast mutilation of the planet. The only animals that would miss us would be our domesticated pets, and these would die out or become feral relatively quickly. We're a scourge on the planet, and Mother Nature would welcome our demise. 

Weisman's book is broken down into essays on various subjects, and it doesn't read like a textbook: as a journalist, he travels the world, visiting ghostly places and asking experts the hard questions.

The book opens with a tour of the primeval forests of Europe, a stark contrast against the empires of wood and stone obscuring much of the world. In our absence, what will happen to our homes? to our cities? to our parks? These questions prompt the first several chapters, where Weisman shows how the concoction of natural forces (wind and salt erosion, water erosion, etc.) decomposes our man-made structures, creating homes for wild flora and fauna. Weisman looks at the story of human evolution and the effect human beings have had on their environment, from massacring the last of the Pleistocene mammals (Africa has five animals over several tons; North America had up to 15) to the effects of our industrial age on atmosphere and climate (read: global warming). He then looks at Varosha, Cyprus as a case study on how our artificial creations will survive (or not survive) in our absence; natural forces and nature will take over our monuments so that one of the only testaments to our past presence will be the underground cities carved in the rocks of Cappadocia. Regarding the fate of plastics, Wiesman examines the North Pacific Gyre, a patch of ocean the size of Texas between Hawaii and California that is nothing but a solid surface of floating plastic; one specialist remarked that plastic would probably be biodegraded within 100,000 years after our absence. Plastics, then, would be some of the last materials to be consumed by microbes. Weisman turns his attention to the oil refineries and pipelines of Texas, showcasing how one day they will explode, melting asphalt and power lines, before being overwhelmed by nature. He examines the impact fertilizers and insecticides will have on the environment, and though that impact will be severe, nature wins out. Nature has already overwhelmed most of the seven wonders of the ancient world; the modern wonders of the Chunnel linking France and England, the Hoover Dam, and the Panama Canal won't fare much better. Mount Rushmore, Weisman argues, may still be recognizable in thousands upon thousands of years. Modern nuclear weapons won't explode in our absence but corrode; worldwide, over 400 nuclear power plants will either burn or melt, resembling Pripyat and Chernobyl, but in time nature will return and flourish. Following a discussion on what future evolution may look like in our absence, Weisman discusses how some birds will flourish and others (like gulls) will suffer in our absence. One of the last traces of our existence will be radio waves traveling endlessly through space until they're absorbed in the background noise of the Big Bang. The book ends by asking, "Where do we go from here?" Weisman looks at different strategies for maintaining the earth and minimizing our presence, not least the restrictions of childbirth.

If women were legally obliged to only have one child, within half a century our world population (currently around 6.5 billion) will decrease one billion; by 2075, our numbers would be down to just over 4 billion; and by 2100, we would drop down to 1.6 billion, the population of the world in the 1800s. If things are left unchecked, the world population by mid-century (ca 2050) will be around 9 billion.