HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

The World Without Us

by Alan Weisman

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
5,9121881,668 (3.82)263
Journalist Weisman offers an original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet. Drawing on the expertise of engineers, atmospheric scientists, art conservators, zoologists, oil refiners, marine biologists, astrophysicists, religious leaders, and paleontologists, he illustrates what the planet might be like today if humans disappeared. He explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; which everyday items may become immortalized as fossils; how copper pipes and wiring would be crushed into mere seams of reddish rock; why some of our earliest buildings might be the last architecture left; and how plastic, bronze sculpture, radio waves, and some man-made molecules may be our most lasting gifts to the universe. As he shows which human devastations are indelible, and which examples of our highest art and culture would endure longest, Weisman's narrative ultimately drives toward a radical but persuasive solution that needn't depend on our demise.--From publisher description.… (more)
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 263 mentions

English (179)  German (2)  Italian (2)  Spanish (1)  French (1)  Dutch (1)  Danish (1)  All languages (187)
Showing 1-5 of 179 (next | show all)
On one hand, this could be taken as a very depressing exercise: just how long will it take for nature to more or less return to pre-human condition were we to all disappear tomorrow.

The answer turns this into a fairly hopeful book: not very long. For most things, anyway. Plastics will be here long after any signs of us are entirely wiped from the planet. But, out cities will be gone in a geological blink of the eye: a few hundred years. ( )
  GordCampbell | Dec 20, 2023 |
A very novel idea, but the essay jumps around more than I cared for. In the end, it is about fixing our planet. Surprise; the problem is too many humans. Oct 2009
  BBrookes | Dec 5, 2023 |
Fascinating descriptions of some existing or abandoned locations, together with extrapolations of how things might look if we humans really mess up our planet to the extent we can no longer live on it. ( )
  mykl-s | Aug 11, 2023 |
This book was not what I thought it was going to be, and I was mightily disappointed.

What did I think it would be? Well, I thought it would look at what would become of the planet Earth if tomorrow the human species simply vanished; basically, what it says on the tin. What the book spends an extraordinary amount of time actually discussing is what existed before humans evolved and what horrible things we have done since then. I fail to see what the Mau Mau Uprising or what killed off the woolly mammoths have to do with this book, and yet there they are, gobbling up space and too much of my time.

I made it a handful of pages past 100, and in that space there were about two chapters in the book that actually talked about what would happen to human-made and natural spaces once humans were gone. That's it, just two! They were fantastic chapters, very informative and easy to read, but the off-topic junk is taking up too much space and I find myself actually angry at the prospect of reading this book. ( )
  blueskygreentrees | Jul 30, 2023 |
I remember being interested when first published, so I could not resist a paperback reissue.

A fresh reminder that geologically, we are all just a lingering breath. The surface of the earth has been made and remade nearly endless times. Lightly touches on another point I usually make in these discussion, which is that speciation will certainly happen again once we are gone - so our focus on endangered species sort of misses the point. Of course we should be better stewards, but we will quickly be forgotten as multiple new species burst forth from our demise. ( )
  kcshankd | Jul 18, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 179 (next | show all)
That said, the science and factual stuff is, almost invariably, mind-boggling. I did not know, for instance, that ships the length of three football pitches entering the locks of the Panama Canal have only two feet of clearance on each side; that there may well be at least one billion annual bird deaths from flying into glass in the United States alone; or that graphic designers have been called in to imagine what warnings against coming too close to nuclear waste containers will be comprehensible 10,000 or more years from now.
 

» Add other authors (30 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Weisman, Alanprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Lempinen, UllaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ohinmaa, TiinaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
In memory of Sonia Marguerite with lasting love from a world without you
First words
One June morning in 2004, Ana Maria Santi sat against a post beneath a large palm-thatched canopy, frowning as she watched a gathering of her people in Mazaraka, their hamlet on the Rio Conambu, an Ecuadoran tributary of the upper Amazon.
Quotations
Quoting Les Knight " The last humans could enjoy their final sunsets peacefully, knowing they have returned the planet as close as possible to the Garden of Eden"

" He now fears that the planet is suffering a high fever, and that we are the virus."
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC
Journalist Weisman offers an original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet. Drawing on the expertise of engineers, atmospheric scientists, art conservators, zoologists, oil refiners, marine biologists, astrophysicists, religious leaders, and paleontologists, he illustrates what the planet might be like today if humans disappeared. He explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; which everyday items may become immortalized as fossils; how copper pipes and wiring would be crushed into mere seams of reddish rock; why some of our earliest buildings might be the last architecture left; and how plastic, bronze sculpture, radio waves, and some man-made molecules may be our most lasting gifts to the universe. As he shows which human devastations are indelible, and which examples of our highest art and culture would endure longest, Weisman's narrative ultimately drives toward a radical but persuasive solution that needn't depend on our demise.--From publisher description.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.82)
0.5 3
1 13
1.5 5
2 70
2.5 14
3 287
3.5 86
4 510
4.5 59
5 287

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,229,875 books! | Top bar: Always visible