The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

When I saw this title first offered by one of my book clubs, I decided to pass. Do I really need to be further depressed by being reminded of how much we've damaged the earth? I read a few reviews of it, was intrigued and decided to give it a try. This is not a feel-good book, not by a long shot, although it does offer some hope for the earth if all us human destroyers were suddenly raptured or plagued or kidnapped away. I learned a lot from the book.

For one thing, I didn't know there was a "dead zone" the size of New Jersey near the mouth of the Mississippi. So much for the theory that there's so much ocean polluting it won't matter. :P I knew about the acid rain, dead fresh water lakes, blooming algae, the strangulation of the Chesapeake Bay and a few other places but not about that. I didn't know about a theory that the reason there's no mammoths left in America is because early man killed them all off ala the buffalo. Maybe the reason there are still elephants and giraffes in Africa is because man and animal evolved alongside each other. Those animals learned to be cautious around us lethal bipeds. In North America, the animals were here long before humans and when we appeared they didn't know to hide.

On the up side, life would go on and adapt even though the world would be poisoned for millions of years by heavy metals left in the soil and in the air when nuclear reactors go. It seems the world would be a better place without us. So sad...but would this book bring about change? I wish, but I'm not holding my breath.