Synopsis from book cover:
How would the world change if human beings vanished from the earth right now, for good? What would the planet be like in a day, a week, a month… a millennium? Just how long will our greatest achievements and our biggest mistakes last after we are gone?
To discover the answers, Alan Weisman looks to areas of the world that are currently unoccupied and speaks to experts in fields ranging from nuclear physics to archaeology. He reveals how the natural world would react to our disappearance and wrestles with some of the key concerns of our existence to offer an intriguing glimpse of the real legacy of our time on the planet.
Review:
Alan Weisman spoke to various specialists to find out how the world natural world might react to our Man’s disappearance from the planet. He spoke to specialists such as palaeontologists, structural engineers, biologists, art conservators, diamond miners, marine biologists, astrophysicists, and even Buddhist monks. They were all interesting in their own right. The book explores which things would last, which things would disappear and the amazing ability of the earth to heal itself. The book also describes a pre-human world and what the world might have looked like if man had not been present.
Different areas of science are covered in the book so it was a very interesting read for me and I found myself learning things I didn’t know. I found the book lived up to what it set out to do. The chapters ‘Polymers Are Forever’ and the ‘Petro Patch’ were especially interesting to me, the latter making me think even more about the gulf oil spill early last year. It is likely I will re-read the book in the future.
Give some examples.
I couldn’t possibly spoil the plot!
Aw!
By the way, Cherie, your system said:
“Your comment was a bit too short. Please go back and try again.”
There’s a series on TV here very similar to this idea. It features famous places and shows the decay that will happen in 50 years, 100 years etc etc. if humans no longer existed. Very very fascinating.
That does sound like a fascinating program to watch
I must get this book,it sounds fascinating.
No doubt we are a toxic blight on the planet.
Yes… But nature can capture her planet back
I was gonna say it looks like a good movie but after reading Janice’s comment, it sounds like someone has already thought of that! Most interesting, indeed.
It is a very interesting book and I have seen an American documentary on a similar subject. The book was far better
The tv series Life after People looked at this, using many examples of abandonment (Pripyat, Centralia, swathes of Detroit etc). I enjoyed it. In the end possibly the last major structural examples of our existence would be building like the Pyramids of Giza.
This sound like it has gone further
The book does go into further detail and covers different areas. It also covers how nature has recovered from previous destruction.