The basic premise of the book is a hypothesis on what would happen to our world if humans just suddenly disappeared. Not all living things, just humans. The author points out quite early on that nature would simply reclaim our built environment, in some cases quite rapidly, and he backs it up with a lot of scientific fact and expert opinions. There are some pretty interesting scenarios here, such as what will likely happen when there are no humans to monitor our built environment, such as the prevention of water into the Manhattan subway system, and in the vast petroleum fields of Houston. The author also uses some actual environments to illustrate his theories, such as Pripyat, Ukraine (Chernobyl) and the completely unpopulated town of Varosha in Cyprus (restricted from human access by the Turkish military since 1974).

The book is slow going in other sections that stray from this theme. The chapter on the long-term impact of petroleum based plastics in our environment offered a few details I was not aware of, but was a little preachy and seemed off the subject. I was much more interested to learn that the Chunnel and Mount Rushmore may be our most long lasting man-made creations.

Overall, it’s worth a look, but a tough book to read cover to cover.