I had to stop and give my head a shake the other day. I was reading a book and found myself silently cheering the prospect of a world without humans. I never expected to be doing that. It was kind of strange to catch myself in the act. But that’s the kind of reaction Alan Weisman’s story ‘The World Without Us’ can provoke. Weisman does it not by advocating anything in particular. He’s no ed enviro-hothead, calling for a total overthrow of the entire global economic system (like Derrick Jensen does in his equally startling book ‘The Culture of Make Believe’). Weisman’s method is simpler, untainted by ideology (at least so far), and quite imaginative. What he does is report on certain human-created situations in the world, from the point of view of their impact on nature as it once was. Then he imagines how nature would reclaim them – say, New York City, or the gigantic petro-chemical complex around Houston Texas – if humans suddenly disappeared. How long would it take for the skyscrapers of New York to crumble? How about the mighty bridges? What sort of scene would greet a visitor from space in 50 or 100 years? How much would it resemble what was originally there? Weisman lays out a credible scenario. Weisman spends quite some time examining the presence of plastic. On some beaches, it constitutes as much as 20 per cent of the mass of the sand. Minuscule particles of plastic float in the ocean (or sink, in some cases) in enormous amounts, to be ingested, but never digested, by creatures large and small. This has only been going on for 50 years and the numbers are staggering. One scientist figures that if plastic waste dried up tomorrow, it would take 100,000 years for it to break down and disappear from the eco-system. And of course there are far more toxic substances than plastic, although some of it contains some of them. Then there’s the plight of large animals, in Africa and elsewhere. The prognosis isn’t good. Some wild animals may thrive for a while in parks surrounded by farmland, but the gene pool can’t handle such isolation, and humans can’t tolerate depredation of their valuable crops. There were 20,000 black rhinos in Kenya 1970; now there are maybe 400, in one park enclosed by electrified fence. Say goodbye to another species. The author, as I say, doesn’t advocate anything. He provides the facts and speculates what might happen in a world without humans. Forests would reclaim much of their former territory, and many threatened animal species would rebound. You find yourself cheering for such an outcome, as if you’re watching a movie and rooting for the good guy. Then you realize you’re cheering a scenario where your own race has disappeared. The next question, obviously, is how can we get some of those good results without having to vacate the planet? It’s a big question. A really big one. I don’t know if the book deals with it, because I’m only halfway through. Whatever the solution, I predict it won’t be as simple as Al Gore makes solving global warming sound. I also predict it will come down to conscientious action on the part of individual citizens like you and me, to not be so careless and wasteful, in small and large ways. It’ll be about reducing our impact, one person at a time, one corporation at a time, one government at a time. Or maybe the next ice age will take care of it in one fell swoop.

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