The World Without Us
Alan Weisman (Author), Adam Grupper (Narrator), & 1 more
4.2 out of 5 stars 507 customer reviews
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©2007 Alan Weisman (P)2007 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC
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The World Without Us
Alan Weisman
Time #1 Nonfiction Book of 2007Entertainment Weekly #1 Nonfiction Book of 2007Finalist for the 2007 National Book Critics Circle AwardSalon Book Awards 2007Amazon Top 100 Editors’ Picks of 2007 (#4)Barnes and Noble 10 Best of 2007: Politics and Current AffairsKansas City Star’s Top 100 Books of the Year 2007Mother Jones’ Favorite Books of 2007South Florida Sun-Sentinel Best Books of the Year 2007Hudson’s Best Books of 2007St. Louis Post-Dispatch Best Books of 2007St. Paul Pioneer Press Best Books of 2007If 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.
$6.77 (USD)
Publisher: Picador
Release date: 2008
Format: EPUB
Size: 1.42 MB
Language: English
Pages: 346
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Product details
Audible Audiobook
Listening Length: 12 hours and 4 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Audible.com Release Date: June 25, 2007
Language: English, English
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507 customer reviews
4.2 out of 5 stars
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4 star 23%
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Eric Maroney
4.0 out of 5 starsLife Finds a WayJune 21, 2017
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
Alan Weisman's The World Without Us is supposed to explore what would or could happen to our world if humans suddenly ceased to exist. Weisman does do this, but he must of necessity discuss how we have altered/destroyed much of our world, in order to illustrate what would happen if we were to disappear.
So, Weisman takes us on a tour from the mass extinction of the passenger pigeon in North American, to the Moa bird in New Zealand. We look at climate change, nuclear waste, and plastic islands in the oceans. It is a depressing catalog.
The only bright spot is that, to quote Jurassic Park, nature finds a way. Animals, plants and birds no longer found in Korea thrive in the depopulated DMZ. In the quarantine zone around Chernobyl, wolves have returned, along with moose, deer, badger, and horses.
The take away, the world will do fine without us. In fact, it might just thrive.
4 people found this helpful
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Andrew M.
2.0 out of 5 starsMisleading book.September 4, 2018
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
For a book that is supposed to discuss the future and what would happen to the world if humans were to suddenly disappear, you would think it would discuss what would happen in great detail. Instead, this book spends 80% of it's pages discussing history, pre-history, and how humans have ruined everything. The first two chapters hook you in by discribing how houses and cities will fall apart without humans to maintain them, but the next 4 chapters are about natural history and evolution of animals and plants throughout Europe, Africa, and the Americas, most of which are extinct (which the author goes into verbose detail about how humans are responsible). After 100 pages I couldn't take it anymore, I wanted to learn about infrastructure and how nature will take back the world, but this book goes off on so many unrelated tangents that I gave up. I feel like I got jipped.
3 people found this helpful
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Jonas
4.0 out of 5 starsAn Adventure in JournalismAugust 2, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
The reason you came for this book is probably to find out what will happen to your home or New York City after people disappear. You want to learn if it will really be like "I Am Legend" or other Post-Apocalyptic stories where people are gone. At least, that's why I came.
And Weisman does explain just that. But he does so in the first few chapters. The remain 15 or so go into details about Earth without man you never would have expected. He examines places like Cyprus and the Korean DMZ, which people haven't touched in ages. He takes you places you never would have expected. Each chapter is a different story, a different location, a different analysis. Each could be it's own article.
This book ends up teaching a lot about human history as well. I certainly didn't expect that.
This book is an interesting read, a learning adventure across the globe. As cheesy as it sounds, its a great ride.
6 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
Pepper
3.0 out of 5 starsInteresting Facts Buried Amongst Boring-As-Hell FactsJune 13, 2013
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
I bought this book from the angle of a writer of post-apocalyptic stories. I wanted to understand exactly how the world would degrade (and how quickly) once humans were taken out of the picture. But most of this book is a history lesson.
I understand the need to look back in time in order to see where we might be in the future. But the time frames were so far-flung (and therefore so unrelatable) that I found much of this book so thoroughly boring that it was a real struggle to get through.
It's also obvious that the author did enormous amounts of research in putting this book together. Unfortunately, that left a lot of instances where the book went into painful detail about how this concept or that concept worked, and was just more writing for me to struggle through.
I really, really wanted to love this book. And while there are gems sprinkled throughout, I found the book as a whole to be utterly boring.
13 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
Todd J. Glosier
4.0 out of 5 starsNot a recap of the TV showJuly 7, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Quit different from the TV series. This book focuses mostly on the environmental consequences of our civilization if it were to vanish overnight.
The author uses examples of abandoned areas on earth now, such as the exclusion zone around Chernobyl and the DMZ on Cyprus to try and show what our planet used to look like before civilization came along.
He sites the work of researchers all over the world documenting the accumulation of waste and garbage that already clogs our oceans and beaches, such as the great Pacific gyre, and attempts to give an idea of how long it will take mother nature to clean up after us.
He also talks about the 400+ nuclear power plants and waste storage sites all over the world and gives an estimate of how long it would take to decay below lethal levels.
This is not light reading and the book assumes the reader has some basic scientific knowledge, but the style and prose are reader friendly.
Recommended for anyone with an environmental bent or those who just want to know what we might leave behind us.
4 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
See all 507 reviews
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507 customer reviews
4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5 stars
5 star 52%
4 star 23%
3 star 14%
2 star 7%
1 star 4%
Review this product
Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review
Ad feedback
Showing 1-5 of 507 reviews
Top Reviews
Eric Maroney
4.0 out of 5 starsLife Finds a WayJune 21, 2017
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
Alan Weisman's The World Without Us is supposed to explore what would or could happen to our world if humans suddenly ceased to exist. Weisman does do this, but he must of necessity discuss how we have altered/destroyed much of our world, in order to illustrate what would happen if we were to disappear.
So, Weisman takes us on a tour from the mass extinction of the passenger pigeon in North American, to the Moa bird in New Zealand. We look at climate change, nuclear waste, and plastic islands in the oceans. It is a depressing catalog.
The only bright spot is that, to quote Jurassic Park, nature finds a way. Animals, plants and birds no longer found in Korea thrive in the depopulated DMZ. In the quarantine zone around Chernobyl, wolves have returned, along with moose, deer, badger, and horses.
The take away, the world will do fine without us. In fact, it might just thrive.
4 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
Andrew M.
2.0 out of 5 starsMisleading book.September 4, 2018
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
For a book that is supposed to discuss the future and what would happen to the world if humans were to suddenly disappear, you would think it would discuss what would happen in great detail. Instead, this book spends 80% of it's pages discussing history, pre-history, and how humans have ruined everything. The first two chapters hook you in by discribing how houses and cities will fall apart without humans to maintain them, but the next 4 chapters are about natural history and evolution of animals and plants throughout Europe, Africa, and the Americas, most of which are extinct (which the author goes into verbose detail about how humans are responsible). After 100 pages I couldn't take it anymore, I wanted to learn about infrastructure and how nature will take back the world, but this book goes off on so many unrelated tangents that I gave up. I feel like I got jipped.
3 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
Jonas
4.0 out of 5 starsAn Adventure in JournalismAugust 2, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
The reason you came for this book is probably to find out what will happen to your home or New York City after people disappear. You want to learn if it will really be like "I Am Legend" or other Post-Apocalyptic stories where people are gone. At least, that's why I came.
And Weisman does explain just that. But he does so in the first few chapters. The remain 15 or so go into details about Earth without man you never would have expected. He examines places like Cyprus and the Korean DMZ, which people haven't touched in ages. He takes you places you never would have expected. Each chapter is a different story, a different location, a different analysis. Each could be it's own article.
This book ends up teaching a lot about human history as well. I certainly didn't expect that.
This book is an interesting read, a learning adventure across the globe. As cheesy as it sounds, its a great ride.
6 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
Pepper
3.0 out of 5 starsInteresting Facts Buried Amongst Boring-As-Hell FactsJune 13, 2013
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
I bought this book from the angle of a writer of post-apocalyptic stories. I wanted to understand exactly how the world would degrade (and how quickly) once humans were taken out of the picture. But most of this book is a history lesson.
I understand the need to look back in time in order to see where we might be in the future. But the time frames were so far-flung (and therefore so unrelatable) that I found much of this book so thoroughly boring that it was a real struggle to get through.
It's also obvious that the author did enormous amounts of research in putting this book together. Unfortunately, that left a lot of instances where the book went into painful detail about how this concept or that concept worked, and was just more writing for me to struggle through.
I really, really wanted to love this book. And while there are gems sprinkled throughout, I found the book as a whole to be utterly boring.
13 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
Todd J. Glosier
4.0 out of 5 starsNot a recap of the TV showJuly 7, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Quit different from the TV series. This book focuses mostly on the environmental consequences of our civilization if it were to vanish overnight.
The author uses examples of abandoned areas on earth now, such as the exclusion zone around Chernobyl and the DMZ on Cyprus to try and show what our planet used to look like before civilization came along.
He sites the work of researchers all over the world documenting the accumulation of waste and garbage that already clogs our oceans and beaches, such as the great Pacific gyre, and attempts to give an idea of how long it will take mother nature to clean up after us.
He also talks about the 400+ nuclear power plants and waste storage sites all over the world and gives an estimate of how long it would take to decay below lethal levels.
This is not light reading and the book assumes the reader has some basic scientific knowledge, but the style and prose are reader friendly.
Recommended for anyone with an environmental bent or those who just want to know what we might leave behind us.
4 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
See all 507 reviews
Write a customer review
