In a very odd way, this was both an encouraging and very depressing book. Firstly, it's depressing because it posits what life on Earth would be like after the human occupation. I don't want any species to go extinct, and that includes humans. However, life on Earth went on a long time without us, and it's a bit encouraging to think that life on Earth could go on a long time after us.

It's the same reason walking with a dog or staring at a sunset over the ocean makes you feel better: it reminds you that you are, in fact, infinitesimally small compared to the world, and that perspective puts your problems in their place.

Weisman explores the effects our buildings, chemicals, structures, and lifestyles will leave upon the ecosystem, and how those systems will (or won't) bounce back, and what changes they will make. It's absolutely fascinating. And (of course) at times, heartrendingly depressing.

My favorite chapter, though, was the one on how quickly Manhattan would bounce back. In fact, for anyone who's interested in that in particular, I'd recommend this fascinating website.

A fascinating book. Imagine if humans disappeared tomorrow. What would be left behind, and how long would it last?

This is a non-fiction book, despite the premise. You might call it 'speculative non-fiction.' Weisman tours an impressive range of humanity's historic efforts and explores how they will cope if they're abandoned by their human caretakers. Everything from your house, to great dams, ancient pyramids, the holes and waste left by mining, our thousands of nuclear bombs, to sculptures made of copper, human probes already well beyond our solar system (and the messages we placed on them); all of these are fair game in this book.

The things we like to think least about - from the smallest plastic pellets (the slowly degrading particles of which will be eaten by fish for thousands of years to come) to the largest gaping mining holes and the toxins we've pumped into them - tend to leave the most enduring mark on the earth. Meanwhile all those grand developments we imagine as representing our nobility and progress - skyscrapers, art, the wonders of technology - look like the most frail artifice if you take a long enough view.

What is satisfying about this book is the careful mid-ground it walks between the pitfalls on either side: a revelry in the gloomy acknowledgement of the damage we've already done (and, despite the premise of the book, will no doubt continue to do) on one side and a sermon on the sacredness of mother earth on the other. The middle path is a peculiar one that at times gestures a little in both directions, but leaves a feeling of both sadness and hope. There is no room for doubt in this book that humanity is doing untold damage across the globe and yet we are only human, and the capacity for life to sustain itself in even the most extreme conditions is remarkable. The message is clear: We are not the centre of the earth; it will be here long after the conditions we've created do away with us.

The book at times loses itself in time and space, with interviews detached from any context. This is probably because it's trying to look too broadly. And toward the very end Weisman sneaks in a brief discussion of a 'solution' that just might save the globe, which diverts from the otherwise subtle approach he's taken. Namely, that one of the core of the environmental and societal issues (overpopulation) could be resolved with a universal 1-child-only policy. Though admitting this would be a draconian measure, he then goes on to graph just how effectively it would work.

Despite these issues, it's definitely worth a read by anyone who takes seriously the impact we have on the environment.

Encouraging in some ways and dismaying in others, this book looks at the large and small ways human activity has changed the world, in the context of which of those changes would reverse themselves and how long it would take if humanity disappeared from the Earth. The author's style flows well and is very conversational and readable, presenting a huge amount of solid information without ever being boring or hard to follow. I was already interested and fairly well informed about a number of these subjects, but some of what he explained in this book surprised (and occasionally shocked) me. An important book for anyone interested in the technological history of humanity, our future, the world's future, or the environment.

Delivers what it promises, a prediction of various habitats what happens when humans are no longer around. Can be dry at times and repetitive, overall still worth the read

I've had this book for what feels like years - picked up in a charity shop because it sounded like a fascinating subject. What would become of the world if Man pissed off tomorrow?
And to be fair to Alan Weisman, this isn't idle speculation doodled on a beer mat one Tuesday afternoon. Oh no. He's spoken to people and researched stuff.
And it is a fascinating book.
It's also bloody depressing.
Which isn't a criticism of Weisman's writing, but a reflection on the damage we have already done to this planet and the damage that will continue to unfold long after we're gone.
I am genuinely concerned that whatever evolves after we're wiped out will think we were nothing but a race of small, sexless, shiny pink folk who had no facial expressions and nylon hair - because Barbie and Ken will still be being dug up long after the next ice age.
But the book hits the buffers quite early on as points are laboured.
Yes, I want to know that tyres will still be around long after the car is gone. I care slightly less about how vulcanised rubber came to be. And yet, I get told.
Somewhere around farming and how it changed us all from hunters to lazy doowackies who had lots of leisure time because Bernard was growing cowses, you lose the will to live.
I cheated and skipped to the final chapter.
This is an important book with a vital message. It just needs telling more succinctly.

Posted to my Livejournal in March 2008:
I am not a big reader of nonfiction. I stay away from the factual in favor of the fanciful -- why read books that make me feel like I'm in school again, cramming for a test in a subject I'm not that interested in?

This book is different. Alan Weisman's The World Without Us is one of the most important books I have ever read. It's highly readable, intelligent, influential, terrifying, poignant, and hopeful.

Weisman’s premise is simple: if humans were to disappear en masse, what would happen to Earth? More specifically, what would happen to what we leave behind on Earth? In readable and engaging prose, Weisman shows how nature would reclaim our homes, our cities, and our farms, and how long it would take. He also goes beyond such everyday places (everyday for an American audience), to examine megafauna in Africa, an old growth forest between Poland and Belarus, underground cities in Turkey, abandoned hotels in Cyprus, the DMZ in Korea, the Kingman Reef in the Pacific Ocean, even satellites in outer space.

As Weisman travels the globe, imagining a future without us, he uncovers the disturbing reality of what we’ve done in the past and what we’re doing right now. For example, we learn about the indelible nature of plastics, and what they do to our oceans; how we contain nuclear waste, chemicals, and dangerous gases, and why the current solutions are only temporary ones; and the long-lasting effects of our ever-increasing population on a finite world. While this book shows nature’s seemingly endless capacity to self-heal, it also makes clear just how much we have already changed the world, permanently.

Though this book offers a sobering picture of our effects on the world, it is not one without hope. Weisman stresses nature’s ability to adapt, survive, sometimes even flourish, in the face of ecological and environmental disasters. Weisman leads us toward asking the big questions, the questions we need to answer if we are to survive as a species on this planet.

How can we reverse the damage we’ve done? How can we learn, as a global society, to live in balance with nature? Are we too late? And if we do die out, what will our legacy be?

As someone approaching forty years of age and is facing existential questions, as well as questions about extinction from my son, this book found me at just the right time. Wow! I learned a lot about many different topics. I was right all along that humans are doomed, but I am okay with it now because other life forms will do okay in the end.

You know how some books change the way you think about things? This was one of those books.

Amazing research on how the world would survive/thrive without humans on it, and what of our achievements would last. Wonderfully written, so it was hard to put down.

Everyone should read this book.