Talk Back

[malabar]

Alan Weisman was challenged with a question: what would the earth be like if all humans were to disappear suddenly? That question went from a possible article to this complete book. He traveled the world looking at the few natural habitats left and the places where mankind has left an obvious mark.

It seems that humanity has always been prone to changing the environment more permanently than it could know at the time: the myths of indigenous people at one with nature, leaving no trace, are just that. And now, having modified the world so comprehensively, humanity could disappear tomorrow and the effects of our technology would remain for centuries. Nature would soon reclaim some things, like cities built in defiance of or lacking water, but the legacy of others, like nuclear waste, would persist.

A fascinating and sobering look at human effects on the natural world.

[jeffp]

I've heard about this book, but I have to say that I was put off by the nature of the question asked. How likely is it that all humans will just vanish and leave everything as it is right now? Not very likely. Impossible, in fact. Even if it were an engineered, 100% fatal plague that wiped us out the associated social upheaval would create a much worse mess of things before we finally died off.

And, of course, the most likely way in which we'll die is unknown. Nuclear holocaust is still possible, and that would change the world radically from what it is now. Wars - particularly over scarce resources - could wipe out a lot of the population over time. Economic collapse associated with any of the above would add to it. And let's not forget climate change; that might cause an ecological collapse making the planet unable to sustain large life forms for some millions of years. And so on.

For me this author is asking (and answering) the wrong question. I'd be interested in a sober assessment of what we're going to leave behind in reality should we kill ourselves off in some way. Asking what would happen if we all just disappeared is similar to asking how many angles can dance on the head of a pin.

[malabar]

Point taken, but to me it said, "Yes, OK, we know that humanity has screwed things up big time and that it would take all kinds of mediation to fix it" - having all the humans suddenly disappear is sort of the best-case scenario from the earth's perspective. If the planet had all human pressure lift simultaneously, how long would it take to recover/adapt? If nothing else, the book is a well-written thought experiment.