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The World Without Us
 

The World Without Us

by Alan Weisman

A penetrating, page-turning tour of a post-human Earth

In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity’s impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us.
In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence;... (read more)

Top tags: environment,  science,  nonfiction,  non-fiction,  nature (all tags)

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Other Reviews

Amazon Reviews (5)
 

Most Helpful Reviews

Liked It

2 of 2 members found this review helpful.
jmadigan
  • Rated 4 stars

“I guess you could call this book by Alan Weisman a kind of "speculative nonfiction." It revolves around a peculiar thought experiment: imagine that every human everywhere on the plant just winked out of existence. Maybe a supervirus wipes us out in a few days. Maybe powerful space aliens decided to relocate every last one of us to an intergalactic nature preserve for our own good. Or maybe Jesus comes back and shouts "OKAY, EVERYBODY OUT OF THE POOL! WE'RE GOING HOME!" Why and how we would...”

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Didn’t Like It

SuJi K
  • Rated 2 stars

“This book explains to us what will happen to Earth if we wasn't living in it. It includes some scientific evidence. When I was reading this book, it seemed like a documentary rather than a book.”

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Community:
  • Rated 4.010899 stars
Amazon:
  • Rated 4 stars
  

Newest Comments

  • Laura N

    laura n said:

    “Really interesting topic, but I'm not sure I'm going to make it all the way through.”

    posted Tuesday, June 10 2008 ( | view 1 reply )
  • Pam T~

    pam t~ said:

    “Rhea C. asked what I thought of "The World Without Us." It's hard for me to sum it up as it's not really in my area of interest. BUT I would say that it's a book best gotten from the library as I don't think most people are going to find it riveting reading.

    Hopefully that helps.”

    posted Friday, March 21 2008
  • dragonfly867

    dragonfly867 said:

    “I loved it but after halfway I faded. ”

    posted Tuesday, January 29 2008
  • FatherOfHollywood

    fatherofhollywood said:

    “A good look at what might happen to the earth if humans were suddenly gone. An encouraging view of the world's ability to heal itself, but a bit scary in its description of what we would leave behind -- everything from plastic trash to nuclear waste. I pride myself on knowing about this kind of stuff, but there was a lot of new information in the book -- I learned a lot. Well written, and a fairly easy read. Recommended for anyone interested in the natural world.”

    posted Sunday, October 21 2007
  • jeremyb

    jeremyb said:

    “i thought this book was just going to focus on whet happened if humans dissapered. but rather it showed what happened in the past, what is happening now, and it gave scenarios for the future. terrific book overall.”

    posted Thursday, September 20 2007
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