The World Without Us
I have yet to see the new Pixar flick, WALL-E, but apparently the first hour or so parallels Alan Weisman’s The World Without Us (St. Martin’s Press, 2007).
Movies are a summer luxury in our family. So are good books. Which means it is no surprise to have the kids off watching WALL-E, while I am immersed in the book that may have been its inspiration.
Weisman’s premise is simple: humans leave earth. No nuclear holocast. No global warfare. No exotic disease. Just a nice clean departure. And with humans gone he takes a look at how nature might respond to our absence. It’s a daring undertaking.
It is a captivating exploration of everything from architecture to the bacteria we rely on to clear the dead skin from our eyelids.
The World Without Us explains how we pump groundwater out of New York City to keep the subways from flooding. Doing so maintains the integrity of the structures upon which the city rests.
I’ve read my share of oil industry books, and this account of what would happen to our petroleum infrastructure in our absence is a sheer delight.
From freeze-thaw cycles to rust to unchecked kudzu the book shines a clear light on our role in planetary ecology. I loved it.
Perhaps Bill McKibben kicked off the idea of our species inexorably altering the plant in The End of Nature. That idea is a given for Weisman and makes for a refreshing start point.
With clear writing and boundless curiosity Weisman appears to have wandered the globe discussing the absence of humans with everyone from canal operators to coral reef ecologists to chemical plant engineers. And it is a delightful trip.
In a way the book is a long, solid argument for population control. He foreshadows his conclusion with a conversation with E.O. Wilson who suggests the species will start self limiting population growth about now. And ends with the grim suggestion that if humans are to avoid complete ecological collapse, every couple must be limited to one offspring.
As a father of four with a vasectomy, it’s hard for me to plug into that one, exactly. And I have watched my children argue about environmental issues with childless opponents.
I suppose that in many ways the population argument is the one we are afraid to enter freely. All of our talk of conservation, and zero waste and carbon footprints is possibly silly in the face of population control. Which is one of the reasons The World Without Us makes for such a daring and bold book.
Now that it’s on the shelf, I guess I will roust the kids from their video screen and head to the garden. I believe we have potatoes, sweet corn, and edamame to harvest…