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Join us for an interactive discussion with Alan Weisman, author of the New York Times bestseller, The World Without Us.
In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman takes on an irresistible concept: How our planet would respond without the relentless pressure of human presence. Breathtaking in scope and filled with fascinating detail, this book will change the way you view our world and your place within it.
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Comments: 35
Also, hi Alan, haven't seen you for awhile, and just one suggestion: Next book, how about "The World Without George W. Bush and Dick Cheney". That would give real hope to all of us and the planet. S.mcgregor
I'm so pleased to have this oportunity to chat with you today. I'm curious, how did you go about your research for this book?
The World Without Us is actually a way of distancing ourselves enough from our presence on this planet to then give us a better sense of how we might remain in this world with everything else, but in a more balanced way.
I traveled to 6 out of 7 continents, and I sought out experts in all different kinds of fields--from scientists who could tell me what the world was like before humans, to biologists who are trying to see what it takes to maintain ecosystems, to people who maintain our infrastructure, ranging from subway personnel, who try to keep tunnels in cities from flooding, to people who man our nuclear and petro-chemical plants--and posed to each of them the question, "What would happen if we extracted humans from this scenario?"
Their answers, though speculative, generated a great deal of imaginative dialog.
I traveled to 6 out of 7 continents, and I sought out experts in all different kinds of fields--from scientists who could tell me what the world was like before humans, to biologists who are trying to see what it takes to maintain ecosystems, to people who maintain our infrastructure, ranging from subway personnel, who try to keep tunnels in cities from flooding, to people who man our nuclear and petro-chemical plants--and posed to each of them the question, "What would happen if we extracted humans from this scenario?"
Their answers, though speculative, generated a great deal of imaginative dialog.
As a journalist, I have covered the environment from pole to pole. I've looked at some of the most serious problems that our activity on the planet has generated, and for a long time I'd been seeking a way to talk about the entire global, ecological crisis in a way that would really give readers a complete sense of the problem and the urgency for us to respond.
However, another problem is that these issues are so overwhelming that a book discussing them all together, runs the risk of repelling readers because it's potentially depressing, or just downright scary. So, I've wanted to finda way to get readers to pay attention that would not frighten them away. And it occurred to me that rather than writing something that suggest "If we don't change immediately, we're all going to die," why not pose a fantasy, perhaps farfetched but remotely possible, that the worse has already happened.
Something has whisked us off the planet, perhaps a homosapien specific disease that picks us off but leaves everything else intact. Perhaps a rapture. Perhaps some evil genius' nano-sterilization of all of us. However, readers then get to stick around to see what happens next, to the rest of the planet.
No longer worrying about whether we're going to die, because it's no longer a problem. And I find this irresistible opportunity to peer into the future, through the informed speculation of the experts I consult and the absence of the fear-factor, because we've suspended reality by entering a fantasy in which we're already gone, allows readers to keep turning the pages, to see the Earth without us and all of our stuff in the way.
There's also the added attraction, which many take strange and inexplicable delight in, in watching how nature would dismantle all the stuff we left behind—from our houses, to our cities, to our greatest and most massive infrastructures.
Well, the problem with fatty foods is that they taste great. And, the negative consequences only come later. Just the same way, we can instantly gratify ourselves in the moment and postpone or even never see the distant consequences of our consumption until much later when they appear, often in a completely different and unexpected form.
If we decide to eat cantaloupe in the middle of winter, we can buy it at our grocery store. But when we eat it, we don't see the amount of fuel it took to transport it from the Southern Hemisphere, we can't count the number of trees that were felled to clear space to cultivate this unnecessary export crop to satiate our impulse to eat summer fruit in the winter, we don't think about the number of migrating birds that won't complete their journey because of habitat or trees missing en route, and we certainly can't see the invisible carbon dioxide that's been released into the atmosphere to transport our snack to us.
When all this appears in our vicinity in the form of quieter forests, without songbirds, or hotter temperatures because of a carbon-charged atmosphere, it's hard for us to make those connections.
It's unfortunate that it has taken people so long to listen to what Al Gore was telling us back in the 1980s about the potential for global warming, which he in turn had learned from experts like Rodger Revelle when he was at Harvard as an undergraduate. However, it's encouraging that so many people are finally aware that a movie, that is essentially a slide show, is now so important that it can win an Oscar.
I hope that my book will also help people see from a fresh and unexpected direction what our impact is by theoretically removing us, then showing how much nature could itself, and then consider how we might be able to stick around to be part of a refreshed ecosystem.
I absolutely hope that policymakers, who have been so distracted by all the noise and news we humans make, will be able to see our planet more clearly through my approach. The fact that it's on several bestseller lists indicates that it's being read by many more people than just those who are already conscious of and concerned about environmental issues.
To solve the problems we face will require a wide consensus, so, without over-simplifying or trivializing the issues, I have written this book to appeal to the widest possible audience.
My book discusses some of the things that humans have done that may last long after we're gone, and they're not just alarming stuff like plastics or nuclear waste, they also include our artwork in materials such as ceramics, which are chemically similar to fossils, and sculptures made of bronze, one of the most durable alloys that humans have created.
I also talk about some of the grandest examples of human expression that are now being carried into outer space aboard interstellar spacecraft such as the two Voyager missions, and even things such as broadcasts of our greatest music, heading outward on radio waves, and for that matter even our prayers.
I happen to believe that humans deserve to be here on Earth as much as any other species that has evolved this far, because we have our own unique contributions to make on this planet. However, the problem arises when we over-reach to the point that we cloud other species off their rightful place here with us.
After considering many offers, I have now signed an option agreement with a wonderfully imaginative production company from France, PMP Morgane, who produced the magnificent film, Motorcycle Diaries. And we will soon be discussing the details.
I researched this book for three years beginning with a trip to the last fragment of primeval, European forest in Poland and Belarus, and visiting other places that ranged from the Korean demilitarized zone, to the Panama Canal, to abandoned farmlands, both fields that had never seen chemicals and fields that had been heavily treated with fertilizers and pesticides in the United States and Great Britain. I also included research from prior assignments that had taken me to places such as Antarctica, Chernobyl, and many parts of the tropics.
I then locked myself up for seven months and wrote for an average of fifteen hours a day, at the end of which it took several months of physical therapy to unthaw my neck and upper back. I don't recommend this approach; however, the task was immense and as my publisher kindly but insistently reminded me, time was of the essence.
I see two and a half billion more of us in fifty years, so we won't be going at this rate, but at a far more intensified version of what we already see happening around us. Let's all please think about that.
I did not want to get sidetracked in this book by the various views of various religions on what the purpose of the world is, especially since many believe that the world was put here for humans and after we no longer are here there is no purpose for the planet. However, I had to anticipate that many readers who are religious adherents would feel that my research was incomplete if I did not consider such points of view. So, I at one point did poll various representatives of various religions as to their opinions of whether the world would even exist after humans were done with it or after the universe were done with us.
Perhaps my favorite response was from a Muslim cleric, a Sufi master from Istanbul, who does believe that without humans, there would be no more Earth. However, he added, we have no way of knowing when God will bring us and this planet to a close. And in the mean time, just as it is our duty to keep our bodies pure to channel our prayers, it is our responsibility to keep this earth as clean a temple for God's creation as possible.
Everyone points to the Industrial Revolution, when we began to need such concentrated doses of energy that we began to mine energy that nature did not need and had therefore buried, and to expel a lot of exhaust into the atmosphere. I would also, however, point to the agricultural revolutions of the 20th century in which we employed technology to greatly increase crop yields. We were told that this would alleviate hunger on the planet. However, all it did was fuel a population explosion that has simply and enormously increased the number of hungry people. One thing very hard to face, but we must face it, is that it's not just what we do on this planet, but how many of us are here doing it.
And thank you to all the Gather members who participated. Until next time!
I don't believe that the world was created for us and only us, but we are part of the natural order of this planet. What we do as humans is also part of the natural order. We're here. If we evolved, then we certainly are part of the eco-system and our actions are natural causes and effects. If we were created, then we're also part of the natural order and our actions and the consequences are part of the natural order of life for us on this planet.
So who wants to go first or who should go first in the quest to rid the Earth of the pestilence that is humanity?