The World Without Us

The thought experiment journalist Alan Weisman follows asks what would become of cities, houses and wildlife if humans suddenly disappeared, and it expands his own Discover magazine article Earth Without People. Over 27 chapters he takes up subjects such as the fate of plastics, oil infrastructure, nuclear plants and works of art, quoting interviews with scientists including E. O. Wilson. Weisman reports from places already largely empty of people, among them the Korean Demilitarized Zone, Chernobyl and the Bialowieza Forest. He concludes that residential areas would turn to forest within 500 years, while bronze statues, radioactive waste, plastics and Mount Rushmore would outlast most traces of us. The 2007 book reached sixth place on the New York Times list.

Richard Branson named it among his top 65 lifetime reads in a list he drew up for World Book Day.