has anyone read "The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman?

[LSK]

Talks about what would happen to the world if humans ceased to exist. Looks interesting.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/002-9820007-1151211?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Alan%20Weisman

[Crankie Avalon]

1. No but I read this review of it on Salon yesterday...

...http://www.salon.com/books/review/2007/07/23/weisman/print.html

thinking of getting it for someone I know. It sounds right up her alley.

[Sequoia]

2. Like the cover.

Just put a hold on it at library, 30th in line so maybe by September...groan.

[w13rd0]

3. I was planning...

...on picking it up this week. Considering my personal position on the longevity of the human species, it should prove an interesting read.

[ramapo]

4. It lies in waiting

I bought it last week. I hardly ever buy a hardcover but I find this a fascinating subject. My daughter says I have a morbid fascination and I can't argue.

I do a lot of hiking and love finding old ruins, abandoned roadways, etc. There's quite a bit of that in North Jersey's woods. It is amazing how quickly nature will reclaim what was once hers. Just check out an unused parking lot or closed roadway. Nature is tenacious too, witness the stuff the grows out the highway divider on the Cross Bronx Expressway.

The book is next in line...can't wait.

[ramapo]

5. Just finished it

In some ways it validates my deep belief that eventually Mother Nature will be ok.

In some ways it validates my deep belief that the past 25 years have reaped so much havoc and death across the ecosystem. We took a bad turn around 1980.

The book illustrates the worldwide disregard for the environment. Even though we use much of the world's resources, the whole world practices anti-environmentalism.

It is truly amazing to ponder what has taken place in my lifetime of just over 50 years. It is difficult to imagine what will be the result of the same trajectory continuing for another half century.

This is an excellent book although I must warn you, it will not really brighten your outlook on life.

[MountainLaurel]

6. Thanks for the review

I've been wondering about it.

[Yupster]

12. Just finished it tonight

A sad story for sure.

It reminded me of the "Ghost Dance" religion that many Plains Indians had in the late 1880's. A Paiute named Wovoka had a vision that if the Indians (almost all by then on reservations and doing badly) would do a certain dance, then all the Whites would disappear, all the dead Indians would come back to life, and the buffalo would return in their millions.

Many Indians danced, Whites got nervous and the Massacre at Wounded Knee resulted.

It's kind of a desperate last hope that magically the world will go back to being right again. Sadly, just like the Whites didn't disappear, neither will the people from the earth.

Birds will continue to break their necks crashing into cell-phone towers in their millions and turtles will continue to choke on plastic grocery bags, and Albatross chicks will continue to starve because their stomachs are full of bic lighters and bottle caps. Maybe we can do better than we're doing today, but it's far too late for much of the earth's environments and its species.

And somehow we must get population growth under control for anything else to work, but no one even seems willing to even talk about that idea.

If you liked this book, I'd recommend "Collapse," and "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond. On similar subjects and better written IMO.

PS - I didn't realize there were camels, horses and lions in North America when the first Native Americans came in 13,000 years ago, along with so much other species of megafauna, which all disappeared within a thousand years of humans arriving.

[raccoon]

7. Just requested it at my local library.

Also, if that sort of thing interests you, you might be interested in EARTH ABIDES by George R. Stewart, published 1949. It's fiction, of course, but still real interesting.

[ramapo]

8. Thanks for the pointer

I never heard of Earth Abides. Probably the last thing I should read is another apocalyptic tale but I am morbidly fascinated by the genre. Especially interesting to me is that it was written in 1949 so I wonder how different of a perspective it offers.

[Sequoia]

9. Featured in New York Times Sunday Book Review.

I have a copy holding at the library but I want to read it now.

[sinkingfeeling]

10. No, but the author was on the Daily Show Monday (?) night.

[XemaSab]

11. When I get some scrilla

I am so there. :D

[XemaSab]

13. I read it

It was very good. :)

[raccoon]

14. Well, I finally read it. It was really good and informative.

One thing that really interested me (and there were lots!) was when talking about art, oil paintings from ancient times (ancient Greeks and Romans) haven't survived. And music---no music has survived from ancient times. The lyrics might have but not the tunes.

I got to thinking, I wonder if tunes from ballads of the Middle Ages might have survived as more or less the same tune it was then. If it was, how would we know? I wonder if the tunes would change over the centuries as language does?

[MonkeyFunk]

15. ooh! Sounds really interesting...

just got it on the Kindle. I'll check it out later. Thanks for the suggestion. I was looking for a good non-fiction read.