The World Without Us

Front Cover
Macmillan, Aug 5, 2008 - Nature - 416 pages

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.

 

Contents

A Monkey Koan
1
A Lingering Scent of Eden
9
Unbuilding Our Home
17
The City Without Us
24
The World Just Before Us
47
The Lost Menagerie
65
The African Paradox
84
What Falls Apart
113
The World Without War
232
Wings Without Us
243
Hot Legacy
256
Our Geologic Record
279
Where Do We Go from Here?
301
Art Beyond Us
315
The Sea Cradle
328
Our Earth Our Souls
345

What Lasts
128
Polymers Are Forever
140
The Petro Patch
162
The World Without Farms
183
The Fate of Ancient and Modern Wonders of the World
217
Acknowledgments
355
Select Bibliography
371
Index
401
Copyright

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About the author (2008)

Alan Weisman is the author of several books, including The World Without Us—a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, winner of the Wenjin Book Prize of the National Library of China, and an international bestseller translated in 34 languages. An award-winning journalist, his reports have appeared in Harper's, New York Times Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Discover, Vanity Fair, and Mother Jones. A former contributing editor to Los Angeles Times Magazine, Weisman is a senior radio producer for Homelands Productions. He lives in Massachusetts.