WEEKEND BOOK REPORT – The World Without Us

The World Without Us
Alan Weisman
2007
432 pages

“The World Without Us” was largely promoted as a book that explores in satisfying detail what would happen to the world were humanity to suddenly vanish from the face of the earth.  From flooding New York City Subway tunnels devoid of workers (union or not!) to maintain the pumps that keep them free of water, if not musicians, to nuclear power plants going Chernobyl, to refineries either shutting down in an orderly manner as automatic safety features kick in, or shutting down in a far more disorderly manner as very large fireball explosion features kick in, the book appeared to be a carefully researched peek at a post-Armageddon world. 

And parts of the book are like that.

But describing “The World Without Us” as a story about the decay and destruction of the material trappings of civilization would be like describing “The Old Man and The Sea” as a story about a guy who goes fishing.

And I don’t mean that in a good way.

In hindsight, had I read the reviews more carefully, or to be honest, to the end, I would have known what I was in for.

Because the book’s title, “The World Without Us” is not descriptive. It’s a plea.

Author Alan Weisman can’t help but betray his general annoyance at the existence of human beings.    The New Yorker review picked up on this theme noting that the book details how “the earth might revert to Eden.”

As readers may recall, Eden, at most, has a human population of two. (And no, you are not one of them.) 

This sense of dread regarding our fouling presence on the planet is present throughout most of the book. A section that details the hazards that clear glass windows pose to bird populations leaves one with the impression that windows were invented for the specific purpose of avian genocide (the fact that they allow us to look outside to make sure the guy at the door is not a Jehovah’s Witness is purely a side benefit).

But why do I still give it three (out of five) Planet Morons?

First, the parts of the book that detail the decay and destruction of our creations (or not, it seems plastics will be around for a while and ceramics pretty much forever, suggesting that future visitors from space will deduce that we were a species of cultish mushroom worshippers) are very well presented and Weisman goes into fascinating (if at times excessive) detail of how various animal and plant populations would fare in our absence, and in fact, have fared in places largely devoid of human population such as the Korean DMZ (although nothing about the equally depopulated gift card section of your local Circuit City).  Second, there are some very real environmental degradations that Weisman outlines in disturbing detail that are useful to consider.

But readers overly fond of the human race should be forewarned.  Yes, Weisman offers up the occasional “but some of my best friends are human”-type caveats, but he does seem to be more concerned with the unhappy fate of follicle mites than with their human hosts, and he can't help himself but to to include a discussion of the goals of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement towards the end of the book.

An interesting, if at times frustrating book, it earns its three Planet Morons.

J.