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The World Without Us | 
 enlarge | Author: Alan Weisman
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $8.00
You Save: $7.00 (47%)
New (59) from $8.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  240 reviews
Sales Rank: 1446
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0312427905
Dewey Decimal Number: 304.2
EAN: 9780312427900
ASIN: 0312427905
Publication Date: August 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Time #1 Nonfiction Book of 2007
Entertainment Weekly #1 Nonfiction Book of 2007
Finalist for the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award
Salon Book Awards 2007
Amazon Top 100 Editors’ Picks of 2007 (#4)
Barnes and Noble 10 Best of 2007: Politics and Current Affairs
Kansas City Star’s Top 100 Books of the Year 2007
Mother Jones’ Favorite Books of 2007
South Florida Sun-Sentinel Best Books of the Year 2007
Hudson’s Best Books of 2007
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Best Books of 2007
St. Paul Pioneer Press Best Books of 2007
If human beings disappeared instantaneously from the Earth, what would happen? How would the planet reclaim its surface? What creatures would emerge from the dark and swarm? How would our treasured structures--our tunnels, our bridges, our homes, our monuments--survive the unmitigated impact of a planet without our intervention? In his revelatory, bestselling account, Alan Weisman draws on every field of science to present an environmental assessment like no other, the most affecting portrait yet of humankind's place on this planet.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 235 more reviews...
 excellent October 13, 2008
After reading this I would love it if someone banned the plastics used in shampoos. The author ended up taking us to some interesting places to seek out where humans have had to let go of portions of the earth and seeing what happened. I'm very happy I read this and I think you will like it too.
 BEWARE OF AMAZON SHIPPING! October 13, 2008
Haven't read the book yet, but the way Amazon sent it was awful!
I submitted an order for this book and an order for canned goods. They arrived together in one box. The book had just been tossed in with the cans and you can imagine what shape the book was in. I had assumed the book would have been boxed or wrapped separately, even if they put it into the larger box of canned items. Makes you wonder what kind of idiots work in their shipping department and what kind of supervision is in place at Amazon. In the future I will never order a book WITH any other item.
Fascinating Look at Our Effect on the Planet October 13, 2008
When I first picked up this book, I was concerned that it would simply be a lesson on how plants and animals would overtake our cities and houses once humans had disappeared from our planet. That is a major part of the book, but I never found it to be overdone. The parts of the book that I loved were the history and places that are explored in this book. From the DMZ zone in Korea to the nuclear fallout of Chernobyl to the beginnings of human history in Africa. There is a lot more to this book than should be judged from the cover.
I also loved the look into the everyday things that we use and how they affect the world around us. It really made me think about how small changes in what I use could make a difference.
This book is great for anyone interested in the effect that humans have had and are having on this world.
An interesting essay October 3, 2008
Alan Weisman's book is an extension of a previous essay article, and unfortunately, that is how it often reads. The chapters (and sections within chapters) jump from subject to subject and through different time lines without real feeling for order or reason. The statements he makes are backed up by well researched evidence and via discussion with some very interesting characters but sometimes, one gets lost in trying to figure out what the point is of each section, rather than go with the flow.
However, he does make some very interesting and important points in regards to human impact and the fact that there are large numbers of species and populations that will not even notice that we are gone. He does also point out the fact that some of our inventions are likely to still be hanging around for mellenia and beyond.
Overall it is an interesting read, though I feel that if it was written by someone with more of a science background rather than journalistic, than it would have made for excellent reading.
Interesting Conjecture on the State of the World Without Humans October 1, 2008
Weisman offers us an interesting glimpse of how the world would be if humanity ceased to exist tomorrow. He explores several interesting places around the world and asks experts in various Fields such as Plastics, Horticulture, Forestry, Pertroleum, and others how long it would take for various manmade structures to deteriorate and what the effects of this would be?
Over all he makes it sound as though 20th and 21st Century humans are a Bane to the Earth and it would be better for us to become extinct. He does however show how many people are making progress in making others aware of environmental condidtions and trying to reverse their impact.
His best chapter describes what would happen to New York City if people disappeared and there was no one left to repair the infrastructure. He describes how the roads, buildings, sewers, subways, and other manmade objects would slowly disappear into the reemerging forest like Ur of the Chaldees disappeared into the Desert when the course of the Euphrates changed.
Another chapter I found interesting was the one on the Petroleum producing centers of the Houston and Galveston areas in Texas. The 'nuclear winter' that might hapen if humans disappeared and the fascilities fell into disrepair and exploded. This was especially poignant this week as the Colonial Pipeline mentioned was shut down By hurricane Gustav and we all the way east in Charlotte NC has no Gasoline!!
I would say it is a great book to make you more environmentally conscious. It is also a great What if to make you ponder a Future without us.
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