Weisman, Alan. The World Without Us. New Yor: St. Martin’s Press, 2007. 324 pp. Jennifer Scarbrough
aegis 2008 96
In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman describes a world without humans. Weisman descriptively creates an imaginative world which few can even begin to contemplate. He asks the reader to envision the Earth without us. How long would it take for the world to return to a pure pre-human state? What would happen to the animals currently on the verge of extinction? What would happen to all the plastic—how long does it even take to decompose? Would big cities like New York City ever fall? Weisman begins his work mentioning the few remaining places on earth that have been void of humanity and therefore pose as an example of what the world would be like without humans. The half-million acre forest of Puszca, Poland is Europe’s last remaining old-growth wilderness. Trees tower over 150 feet tall and there is over 50 cubic yards of decomposing trunks covering the ground in every acre. Weisman described the wilderness, “To enter it is to realize that most of us were bred to a pale copy of what nature intended” (12). Next Weisman discusses what would happen to our housing. Even the most durable and built to last would fall. He states, “If you’re a homeowner, you already knew it was only a matter of time for yours, but you’ve resisted admitting it, even as erosion callously attacked, starting with your savings. Back when they told you what your house would cost, nobody mentioned what you’d also be paying so that nature wouldn’t repossess it long before the bank” (15). The first stage of the attack would be by either mold, termites or worst of all—water. Within 500 years there wouldn’t much left of your house. New York City is one of the largest and most massive cities in the world. Besides Central Park, New York city is practically a city of concrete, asphalt and steel. Once it had a picturesque landscape full of hills and streams. Obviously there are no running brooks through the city today. Weisman states, “In a city that buried its rivers, rain still falls. It has to go somewhere.” This would ultimately be the city’s demise as the subways and streets would be flooding within 24 hours without humans there to control water pressure and regulate generators and pumps. With water filling the ‘belly’ of New York City, it wouldn’t take long for pavement to crumble and buildings to collapse from the ground up. The most intriguing chapter by far was that on plastic. Little is known about plastic’s decomposing properties. Much of the plastic produced doesn’t even make it to landfills and instead finds its way to the ocean to eventually sink to the unknown depths below. The most common form of plastic pollution is nurdles—the raw materials of plastic production which are used to melt down into practically anything. These nurdles are found on beaches across
