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5.0 von 5 Sternen
What Hath People Wrought?, 24. September 2007
The World Without Us raises a novel question (What if there were no people left?) that leads to some surprising answers: The best of what we've done wouldn't survive while most of the worst of our work will. The book also serves as an environmental and social critique of human attitudes and behavior.
Mr. Weisman looked across the globe for places where humans have left to see practical examples of what remains. Newer houses and modern buildings soon collapse, leaving behind only the metal and plastic as mementos. Buildings made of stone will, however, last a long time. Manhattan's surface will sink as water floods subway tunnels while filled-in swamps are refilled. Large predators will grow in numbers while pests that depend on us and our garbage like head lice and rats will do poorly. Domestic animals and plants will soon be wiped out. Nuclear plants will soon be spewing radioactive vapor into the atmosphere while leaving behind in-ground radioactivity for tens of thousands of years. The Panama Canal will soon cease to be a barrier to animal migrations between North and South America. Huge forests will reappear.
I don't want to share too many of the answers (or you won't want to read the book), but there are some pretty powerful ironies about what the most lasting aspects of human existence will be. It's worth reading the book just to find that out.
In the process, you'll learn a lot about the mass extinction that is occurring among species that are vulnerable to human influences.
If we look at what the Earth would be like without us, I suspect we'll all change how we behave every day. It's a cautionary lesson that all should heed.
I liked the way the book was organized. Most of the observations are built from specific locales and interviews with those who best know the science involved. I came away with several ideas of places I would like to visit that would never have occurred to me otherwise.
Those who don't want to read a book about how the environment is being damaged will find this book annoying because that secondary message is deeply embedded in the primary message.
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1 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
3.0 von 5 Sternen
Faszinierendes Gedankenexperiment, leider etwas langatmig, 22. August 2009
Im Februar 2005 veröffentlichte der Wissenschaftler Alan Weisman im "Discover Magazine" einen Aufsatz unter dem Titel "Earth Without People", den er einige Jahre später zu dem Buch "The World Without Us" - nun ja - "erweiterte". Gegenstand beider Schriften ist ein faszinierendes Gedankenexperiment: Was geschähe mit und auf der Erde, wenn die Menschen von heute auf morgen - aus welchen Gründen auch immer - verschwänden? Nach 2 Tagen wären die New Yorker U-Bahn-Schächte überflutet, nach 20 Jahren der Panama-Kanal verschwunden, nach 500 Jahren stünden Wälder, wo sich heute noch Vororte finden, und so weiter. Um es vorwegzunehmen: Die Lektüre des Aufsatzes genügt aus meiner Sicht völlig, das Buch ist mitunter doch etwas langatmig. Für die deutsche Ausgabe spricht, dass das amerikanische Original stellenweise jedenfalls für mich sehr schwer zu lesen war, für das Original spricht - wie so oft - das wunderschöne Cover. Anders als sein deutsches Pendant bringt es, in gut ausgewählten Farben und auf sehr zurückhaltende Weise, das Thema des Buches auf den Punkt: Was passiert, wenn der Mensch mit einem Mal verschwindet? Allein die Überlegung, dass die Suche nach Antworten auf diese Frage zum Beispiel in der Entmilitarisierten Zone zwischen Nord- und Südkorea beginnen könnte, weil sich dort seit 1953 praktisch keine Menschen mehr aufgehalten haben, während das Gebiet zuvor über 5000 Jahre von Reisbauern bewohnt und bewirtschaftet wurde, ist in meinen Augen so faszinierend, dass sie die Lektüre des Buches oder zumindest des Aufsatzes lohnt.
Fazit: Ein hochinteressantes Gedankenexperiment, eine wunderbare Idee. Leider im Buch nicht optimal umgesetzt.
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5 von 11 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
5.0 von 5 Sternen
Withdrawal symptoms, 27. November 2007
According to some biologists, the Earth is suffering an "infestation". The afflicting organism, "Homo sapiens" has overrun the planet. The infection is recent, several thousand years old in its most virulent phase. During that brief period, however, the surface of the planet has been seriously transformed. Alan Weisman has confronted the impact of our infection of the biosphere with an entirely fresh approach. Relying little on speculation, excepting only what might make the human species disappear, he points up our environmental foot print describing how the planet would recover from what our presence has effected. A captivating read, this book is at once an indictment and a challenge to our intellect and our values.
The great metropolis of New York City is one focal point in this account. Once traversed by 40 meandering streams feeding the ocean and river, the island, but for its striking Central Park, is now "tamed". Massive buildings line its many kilometres of pavement, and the storm sewer systems have replaced Nature's waterways. Yet, those rivulets persist, demanding flow rights. The loss of humanity would shut down the 753 pumps that keep the subway tunnels relatively dry. The streams, assisted by the bordering river and ocean would quickly inundate them. The bridges' streams of vehicles haven't stopped the return of wildlife to the city, and human abandonment would accelerate the process. Botany's realm, however, may never recover its original domain. Too many human-introduced species have an irresistible foothold. Those tall buildings bracketing the asphalt ribbons would also ultimately break down, providing havens for birds and small mammals before succumbing. The one species we've all been taught to be the ultimate survivor - the kitchen cockroach - would disappear with the first harsh winter.
Weisman doesn't limit his account for his native land's reading audience, however. The entire planet becomes his information hunting ground. An ancient patch of forest in Eastern Europe has been protected for centuries by hunting noblemen. While the deletion of humans would allow the forest to expand, it's likely the confined herd of European bison would enjoy the same recovery. In our original homeland, the natural predator-prey balance would be briefly offset by the ready meals our domesticated animals would provide. Herds of cattle, goats and sheep in Africa, untutored by natural selection to avoid lions and cheetahs, would fill feline bellies. Where the big cats would rule undeterred for a time, many microbes would be forced to make some spectacular adjustments. Oil dumps and nuclear stations, slowly breaking down would flood the landscape with hydrocarbons and radiation. Some microbes are already resistant to radioactive elements while some can "eat" oil. Others would have to expand their range of comestibles by adapting to them over millennia. Whether similar adjustments might be made for the mass of plastics we've dumped into the world remains an open question, Weisman says.
Although his original premise may be fantasy, the crux of his discussion is based on solid science. His interviews are with people who are in a position to gauge how we affect the world. Some of them are in place to prevent the recursion of nature into the habitat we've created for our species' benefit. One, archaeologist Arthur Demarest, is investigating a small segment of "the world without us", the site of the Maya realm. The 1600-year-long reign of those Central American people must have seemed "destined to thrive forever". The "spectacular, sudden collapse" took only a century. The return of the rainforest hides their existence from European invaders' eyes for another millennium.
Although Weisman's view of a dehumanised planet is compelling, almost desirable, he knows neither he nor his readership would be pleased by our extinction. We want to go on existing. Yet, he notes, "every four days, the world population rises by four million" - a clearly unsustainable rate of growth. Weisman has a scenario for survival, but its application would have to be nearly as instantaneous as his scenario of disappearance. His aim is curtailment of the human infestation - by the "draconian measure" of universal birth control. He argues that every human female must be limited to producing but one offspring. A challenging scenario, obviously, but one which he argues would reduce the planet's infesting species to a total of 1.6 billion by the end of this century. The number's validity may be disputed, but the goal is admirable. Could such a scenario possibly be envisioned, let alone implemented? It's that, he says, or a new wave of human colonisation - on other planets. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
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