Letters to the Editor
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Caulerpa taxifolia
Another inevitable consequence of our hypothesized sudden disappearance would be the continuing damage done by algae we bred for our aquariums because it looked "pretty," the fish wouldn't eat it, and it could tolerate cold: Caulerpa taxifolia. A Google search turns up page after page documenting the disastrous effect this single-celled organism has had on biodiversity, particularly in the Mediterranean. The fishing industry has been pretty well wiped out there. Without human vigilance, I have little doubt that over thousands of years, nearly all the species in all the oceans will face blue-green extinction, unless Nature can come up with a way to deal with it. This is probably a worse threat than plastic. I'm surprised the article (and presumably, the book) didn't mention it.
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There would be no torture for fun or profit or sexual thrills.
While there would still be death and suffering, without humans, the world would be a kinder place.
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A World Without Humanity?
We already HAVE a world without humanity; it's called the Republican Party.
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The world without us, but with 80s pop sensation Hall & Oates
What would the earth look like if humans suddenly disappeared, except for Daryl Hall and John Oates?
Hall & Oates at World's End:
http://electricstorytime.blogspot.com/2007/06/hall-oates-at-worlds-end.html
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Reminds me of an old George Carlin routine
Anyone remember the George Carlin routine where he lampooned the "Save the Planet" movement? It was something like this: "Save the planet? What unbelievable arrogance!! We haven't even learned how to take care of OURSELVES yet, and we're going to save the f*ckin' PLANET? What, you think a few plastic bags and some styrofoam cups are going to destroy this big beautiful blue ball floating in space? Plastic came out of the Earth. The Earth probably just sees plastic as one of its many children. And if plastic really isn't biodegradable, then the Earth will just configure itself into a new paradigm, the Earth Plus Plastic....Folks, the planet is fine. The PEOPLE are f*cked."
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Man Vs. Nature
Why oh why did those mean Aliens or God place this unatural mechanism called man upon this earth to destroy all that was once pure and perfect.
This book like most environmental diatribes places man outside of nature, as if we were not mearly the logical outcrop of Darwinian evolution, and our actions not practical for the survival of our species in a hostile world?
Here's the funny part, if man were whiped from the earth tomorrow, the next ape will rise to the occasion and fill the nitch left by our rapid departure.
The garden without man is a jungle, and the strongest and smartest survive. They do not care whom they eat, only that their children live to eat another day.
Chimps already hunt and make war, if we were not there to keep them in their place how long before they start to farm and dam?
Man does not destroy nature, man is nature.
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How suddenly?
I mean if tomorrow all the nuclear power plant, chemical, refinery and such workers didn't show up. I'm guessing it would all end in a toxic glowing atomic sludge bucket for the next 20 million years. Which would leave the cockroach as the master of the world.
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Lots of good letters
The environmentalists made a huge mistake when they emphasized our "destruction" of the earth, as reasons for conservation, etc. As many of the LW's point out, we cannot destroy the earth; all we can destroy is what we like about it. At least what some of us like. Republicans and their upper middle class and wealthy supporters think that they can always buy access to "nice" places, while excluding the rest of us. Bush and his allies would love to see our national parks and wildernesses turn into playgrounds for the well-to-do, while the rest of us stagnate in overpopulated warrens.
The great dieback will happen in this century, and the human population will be cut down to a reasonable level, if we are lucky and don't go extinct.
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"Sense of Awe"
"By restoring our sense of awe about the Earth, and our connectedness to it, Weisman takes us out of the merely political and into a deeper realm."
That, I believe, is the crux of the environmental debate. Western society, unfortunately, was saddled with some seriously off-kilter baggage when ol' Yahweh handed us the earth on a platter.
As others have stated here and elsewhere, the world could be just fine with people among its residents. In fact, it did quite well for an awful long time until we started breeding like rabbits and filling every damn niche we could find (after pushing out or ripping up whatever might have been there first).
But we've got to get over this "dominion over the earth" business and redefine ourselves as just one more cog in a very complex machine. Otherwise...
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Help me out, poetry fans!
Many years ago, in junior high, I remember a poem by Sara Teasdale with the first line "There will come soft rains..." It detailed a world without humans, which managed to survive very well without us. Does anyone else remember it?
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There Will Come Soft Rain
There Will Come Soft Rain
Sarah Teasdale
There will come soft rain and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum-trees in tremulous white;
Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.
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Sorry, one more...
Anonymous, I hit the publish letter too soon! One comment on Sarah Teasdale's "there will come soft rain"...
This, unfortunately, is also tainted by the whole "earth as Eden" mentality that colors western views of nature. The idea that you take mankind away and suddenly all is sweet and wonderful gets in the way of realistic environmental thinking. It's a nice thought, and a beautiful poem, but it's b.s. from a natural science point of view.
The earth without humans would be the same tooth and nail struggle for survival it is with humans. There would just be a few more ecological niches opened up and a little less global change going on. Lions wouldn't stop ripping zebras to shreds, cows wouldn't stop farting methane, and those pretty birds wouldn't cease pulling worms out of the ground and swallowing them alive.