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.