glitterbomb47's review against another edition
3.0
The first half of the book is very interesting. Explores how a house, a city, the subway system would all gradually "return to the earth" if humans suddenly disappeared. The author then broadens his focus to look at what could happen to nuclear reactors, oil refineries, and the Panama Canal, among others. It's all quite intriguing and full of useful tidbits.
The chapter on plastics has really inspired me to be more conscientious about recycling plastic!
You pick up the author's feeling that humans should stop spreading, but it still doesn't prepare you for his proposed solution to humans harming the earth: each woman on earth only has one baby. He proceeds to paint in rosy colors a future world in which our descendants can look out their windows and see the good they are doing to the earth by limiting themselves to one kid per woman, and then ends the book. That's it. Absolutely no discussion of the catastrophic impact of a world population halving itself every generation. No discussion of the complete collapse of every economy on the planet. How very likely our descendants would not be able to look out windows peacefully, because civilization would have collapsed under a disastrous reproductive policy. But no matter to the author. He clearly feels that is a small price to pay for having a lovely unsullied earth. Personally I would like to find a way to have a lovely earth without resorting to what even the author admits is a draconian measure.
The chapter on plastics has really inspired me to be more conscientious about recycling plastic!
You pick up the author's feeling that humans should stop spreading, but it still doesn't prepare you for his proposed solution to humans harming the earth: each woman on earth only has one baby. He proceeds to paint in rosy colors a future world in which our descendants can look out their windows and see the good they are doing to the earth by limiting themselves to one kid per woman, and then ends the book. That's it. Absolutely no discussion of the catastrophic impact of a world population halving itself every generation. No discussion of the complete collapse of every economy on the planet. How very likely our descendants would not be able to look out windows peacefully, because civilization would have collapsed under a disastrous reproductive policy. But no matter to the author. He clearly feels that is a small price to pay for having a lovely unsullied earth. Personally I would like to find a way to have a lovely earth without resorting to what even the author admits is a draconian measure.
jinwooooo's review
slow-paced
2.5
It wasn't the book I expected. How can every human be wiped out in a single moment? Thought this book would either be like what if humans never existed or what if humans slowly wiped out. Additionally, it describes so many specific places and culture, it's hard for me to understand even though it tries to summarize what the place and culture is...
beccacraven's review against another edition
4.0
I'm anything BUT a scientist, so I can't speak to the factual, scientific claims made in this book. I will say that to this lay-person the explanations behind the conjectures about what will happen if humans suddenly died off or disappeared from Earth make logical sense and seem to be well-researched.
The real reason I'm giving this book 4 stars is that I love the author's descriptive imagery. The extensive imagery was present in each portion of the book that used a real place to illustrate a point. I think I could read an entire book of Weisman just exploring remote and adventurous places and describing them to me.
Thought provoking and an interesting read over all.
The real reason I'm giving this book 4 stars is that I love the author's descriptive imagery. The extensive imagery was present in each portion of the book that used a real place to illustrate a point. I think I could read an entire book of Weisman just exploring remote and adventurous places and describing them to me.
Thought provoking and an interesting read over all.
lakecake's review against another edition
4.0
Much different than the show it inspired. This is kind of like An Inconvenient Truth, but with less pictures. It's a thought experiment taking the world we currently live in and removing humans--Weisman doesn't really say what would happen to us, and also that it's unlikely that anything could happen to us and leave everything else perfectly intact--and seeing what happens. The scariest things about it are obviously the environmental impact that we've made on the planet and how long it will take the planet to recover from us, even though we've only been here for a short time. Perfect example--plastic. Plastic doesn't break down. Maybe ever. We have no knowledge of anything that can eat or break down plastic reliably. So we have no idea what will happen to all that plastic once we're no longer here. Creepy, right? It could be a big empty world full of giant piles of plastic trash in the ocean. I really liked this approach to the environmental crisis because it's never sensational. Weisman isn't trying to scare us into changing, he's just calmly explaining how the world will be affected even when we're no longer here, and the evidence is scary. I think it would really change people's perspectives on what we're doing and what will happen to us.
kylearnzen's review against another edition
4.0
I often fantasize about being the only person on the planet. This book was like porn for me.
kristinnyoung's review against another edition
3.0
Ngl, the first few chapters of this book are so spooky and I don’t recommend reading it before bed or if you’re in a particularly dark place. But on the whole I found it so fascinating and educational! If you’re into this kind of content (which is exactly what the title implies - environmental dystopian analysis), it’s very engaging and I highly recommend.