The World Without Us

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

"On the day after humans disappear, nature takes over and immediately begins cleaning house - or houses, that is. Cleans them right off the face of the earth. They all go."

What if mankind disappeared right now, forever ... what would happen to the Earth in a week, a year, a millennium? Could the planet's climate ever recover from human activity? How would nature destroy our huge cities and our myriad plastics? And what would our final legacy be?

Speaking to experts in fields as diverse as oil production and ecology, and visiting the places that have escaped recent human activity to discover how they have adapted to life without us, Alan Weisman paints an intriguing picture of the future of Earth. Exploring key concerns of our time, this absorbing thought experiment reveals a powerful - and surprising - picture of our planet's future.

© Alan Weisman 2008 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critics Review

  • Compelling … jammed packed with fascinating “what ifs”

    Guardian

  • A powerful vision of a possible future for the earth

    Sunday Times

  • A fascinating nonfiction eco-thriller

    The New York Times Book Review

  • Drawing from hundreds of interviews with engineers, scientists and archaeologists, it unfolds like a thriller

    Guardian Best Books about the Post-Human Earth

  • One of the grandest thought experiments of our time, a tremendous feat of imaginative reporting!

    Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and Deep Economy

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