xsBusiness - The World Without Us

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Manufacturer: Picador

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 304.2
EAN: 9780312427900
ISBN: 0312427905
Label: Picador
Manufacturer: Picador
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: 2008-08-05
Publisher: Picador
Release Date: 2008-08-05
Studio: Picador

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Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: I agree with the other reviews
Comment: Very well written. Not as much detail in some places, but given the scope of the topic, that's forgiveable. It's interesting to note how little we do that will be permanent. Especially modern housing. Great reading!

Customer Rating:

Summary: A fascinating intellectual exercise
Comment: The World Without Us concerns an interesting hypothetical scenario. What happens to the earth if humanity disappears? The cause of humanity's departure is irrelevant. Instead, what becomes of our cities? What happens to the massive human-created infrastructure that litters the planet? What are the long term effects of the environmental damage humanity has caused? What happens to animals and plants that we have directly affected over the centuries? Alan Weisman explores the answers to these fascinating, if somewhat morbid questions. Some people have criticized this book as a purely intellectual exercise with no real use or merit. My rejoinder is simple. We as humans cannot begin understand our impact on out planet without investigating our planet's reactions to us. This book does an excellent job of explaining the impact of the human footprint. Plus, I am admittedly a sucker for hypothetical scenarios such as this. What if? That has always been something that has interested me, and Alan Weisman looks into a very interesting and important What If? scenario.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Wiesman preaches the tenants of animism
Comment: Weisman refers to many less-complex life-forms as our ancestors.
Weisman prays to "Mother Earth" at the very end of the book.
These are tenants of Animism or worshiping animals because they are your ancestors.
Weisman proposes that watching animals and plants is more enjoyable than having raising children.
Weisman anthromorphsizes evolution giving it or animals the power to design their genetic mutations.

I won't even go into the way he practically deifies "Natural Selection" as if it actually could create new genetic information.

The two interesting things I took from it were that "science" doesn't know how the oil deposits formed under the ocean and that "science" claims there are actual tree parts multiple millions of years old that have not fossilized.

I also thought his description of the "Church of Euthanasia" was telling. Especially the four pillars of their faith.

Not withstanding, I'm guessing that the "science" in the book was probably mostly accurate in capturing what "science" at the time of the writing was. Now that "Global Warming" has universally changed to "Climate Change" much of his references to rising oceans seem as quaint as discussions of light being conducted by the ether.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Great Book
Comment: One other person wrote that this book is fascinating but depressing and that is why he/she chose to give it less than 5 stars.

I beg to differ, one of the reasons why I gave it 5 stars is because it was depressing. It caused me a lot of anguish reading how much we have damaged this planet and how part of this damage will take 1000s of years to go away. I guess that would have been part of the message of this book, which it delivered on superbly.

Another user also chose to give it less than 5 stars because it had too much focus on NYC and not other places. Again I beg to differ; the book did devote a whole chapter to Houston. Also I do not think this a huge shortcoming for the book, after all, it was written by an "American" for a largely American audience. Additionally, I think the author was limited by space. He could have gone on and on about other places, but he would have ended at something like 500+ pages. I think the book did deliver on it's message within the limitation of 350+ pages.

Customer Rating:

Summary: excellent
Comment: After reading this I would love it if someone banned the plastics used in shampoos. The author ended up taking us to some interesting places to seek out where humans have had to let go of portions of the earth and seeing what happened. I'm very happy I read this and I think you will like it too.

More Reviews

Editorial Reviews:

Time #1 Nonfiction Book of 2007
Entertainment Weekly #1 Nonfiction Book of 2007
Finalist for the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award
Salon Book Awards 2007
Amazon Top 100 Editors’ Picks of 2007 (#4)
Barnes and Noble 10 Best of 2007: Politics and Current Affairs
Kansas City Star’s Top 100 Books of the Year 2007
Mother Jones’ Favorite Books of 2007
South Florida Sun-Sentinel Best Books of the Year 2007
Hudson’s Best Books of 2007
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Best Books of 2007
St. Paul Pioneer Press Best Books of 2007

If human beings disappeared instantaneously from the Earth, what would happen? How would the planet reclaim its surface? What creatures would emerge from the dark and swarm? How would our treasured structures--our tunnels, our bridges, our homes, our monuments--survive the unmitigated impact of a planet without our intervention? In his revelatory, bestselling account, Alan Weisman draws on every field of science to present an environmental assessment like no other, the most affecting portrait yet of humankind's place on this planet.