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What
would the world be like if the human race just up and vanished?
"Unlikely,
perhaps, but for the sake of argument, not impossible," writes
journalist Alan Weisman. Perhaps a human-specific virus wipes
us out or aliens kidnap us or God raptures us away. Poof—we're
gone. Tomorrow. That's the hypothetical premise behind Weisman's
book The World Without Us.
But while
the premise sounds fanciful, Weisman offers nothing but cold,
hard facts and a gnawing gut feeling that something is already
dreadfully, dreadfully wrong. The scope is so vast, the issues
so complex, and the stakes so high, that Weisman dishes up
one mind-boggling scenario after another.
He starts
out with a fascinating look at how houses deteriorate, how
cities crumble, how bridges fall. "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," Weisman says. The insidious culprit behind most
of it is plain old water, which finds a way "mysteriously,
inexorably" into everything, given enough time. Water has
the power to corrode and erode and wash things clean away.
Throughout the first quarter of the book, the world wears
away in such fashion. Weisman talks to scientists, engineers,
ecologists, and an assortment of other experts, building his
case on well-known, well-documented fact and experience. It's
everything you'd want in a Discovery Channel special.
In those
first few chapters, the planet without us sounds peaceful
and bucolic, but Weisman is really just lulling readers into
a false Eden. The remaining three-quarters of the book shows
the terrible impact humanity has already had on the planet
and how, if our species were to blink away, the footprint
we've already left will remain millions of years into the
future.
In virtually
every instance, that's not a good thing.
For example,
every particle of plastic ever manufactured still exists somewhere
in the environment. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a
mass of plastic debris the size of Texas clutters the ocean
surface—one of six such masses in the world's oceans.
Millions of tons lay buried underground. No one knows how
long it will take for any of that plastic to biodegrade.
What
makes Weisman's book so compelling, though, is the solid journalistic
foundation it's built on. Weisman travels the world to do
some excellent reporting. For that reason, it's impossible
to dismiss The World Without Us as "a book for tree-huggers."
It's real journalism that objectively explores serious environmental
issues. Weisman never preaches.
Not that
he would need to. The scientific data speaks loudly for itself,
leading readers from incredulity to dread to despair. Make
no mistake, as vital as this book is—as thoughtful and
thought-provoking as it is— The World Without Us
is not for the weak of heart. Most readers will hardly be
able to believe the precarious condition our planet is really
in.
"[W]e
don't get out of this life alive—and neither will the
Earth," Weisman says.
In a
stirring coda, "Our Earth, Our Souls," Weisman links the post-human
world to the post-world human, touching on the religious implications
of the world without us. He smartly avoids any long theological
discussions by taking a broader approach that examines the
ethical implications of what our presence on the planet will
mean once we're gone.
"Worldwide,
every four days human population rises by 1 million," he says.
"Since we can't really grasp such numbers, they'll wax out
of control until they crash, as happened to every other species
that got too big for this box."
"About
the only thing that could change that…is to prove that intelligence
really makes us special after all," Weisman continues. "The
intelligent solution would require the courage and the wisdom
to put our knowledge to the test."
In other
words, if everyone knew what scientists all around the world
already know and what Weisman has written about, and if everyone
applied that knowledge, we could save the earth. Such a solution,
he says, would be "poignant and distressing…but not fatal."
On the
other hand, by 2050, the earth's population will balloon to
9 billion people—and there just aren't enough resources
on the planet to support that kind of population. The planet
only seems big, and resources only seem endless, but the human
race is careening toward a hard, abrupt lesson about the finite
nature of nature.
The
World Without Us will be a startling place, Weisman suggests.
What's even more startling is how—and how soon—it
may end up that way.
(May,
2008)
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