Letters to the Editor
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What would the earth look like if humans suddenly disappeared?
Who would know?? Who would write about it?? How can WE (Humans) be in awe of something we are not a part of????
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The purpose of our lives
I don't think the author is advocating nihilism in his book, that we should all just give up and die so that the rest of the biosphere can go on.
The real value of this creative thought experiment is to make us question why we humans do the things we do. Why do we create societies that damage and pollute the environment? He's asking us to question the assumption that we are inherently materialistic, consumerist, war-like, and destructive. He wants us to let go of our perfunctory daily lives and really imagine a world where we humans could live in harmony with other creatures and with each other. Perhaps where the values of peaceful relations, simple living, and sustainability (basic wholesome foods, few clothes, energy-efficient non-wasteful production and transportation) take precedence over aggression, acquisitiveness, unlimited growth, and disposability.
If we are to lives lives where we consciously give up our rush for more and more, our need for power and control, this will only come about through some sort of spiritual awakening. Can we sit still and just be, just be happy being instead of doing or buying or constantly seeking new experiences?
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I LOVE this:
"There is no wild, simply the places man chooses not to live. The only truly wild species left are those that live in opposition to man. The rat, the roach, the pigeon, the ant, the beasts who make their way surviving because they are the most fit to do so. That is the wilderness not the secured and hermetically sealed environment of Yellow Stone.
Yellow Stone in a museam, beautiful and filled with wonders, but it is not the wild. The wild is between the cracks in the sidewalk where grass grows in defiance of man's will."
Clockwork Smurf, this is simply beautiful. I'm sending it along to some friends, if you don't mind.
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The World Without Us
Kamiya does an outstanding job of capturing this book's importance.
Weisman has limned many themes and issues that we need to think on deeply. But we must do more than think; we must act to adjust our impact on our environment, and even on our (US) society.
Readers can see some of his ideas animated (including the un-building house) at www.WorldWithoutUs.com
Disclosure:
Matthew Baldacci
vp, director of marketing and
publishing operations
St. Martin's Press
(the publisher of The World Without Us)
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Yeah, but Anonymous...
Haven't you considered the possibility that, when we endlessly seek more and more domination, excess, etc., we are acting absolutely consistently with our animal natures? You think most animals live "in harmony" with other animals? Ask the gazelle being chased by a cheetah how harmonious its existence is. Or, check out two different tribes of chimpanzees fighting over the same piece of territory because it's rich with edible vegetation. Life for most animals is a struggle, and more often than not a struggle against other animals. I think any of those animals would choose a life of excess and luxury if they could, but none of them are in a position to completely dominate all the others. Sometimes the cheetah catches the gazelle; most of the time the gazelle outruns the cheetah. Either way, it's a life-or-death struggle for both parties.
The problem with us is not that we engage in an effort to dominate our environment, but that we've gotten too darned good at it. But even then, Mother Nature has a way to check our dominance, in that our success will eventually become our undoing.
I am quite dedicated to the cause of environmentalism, but am not so arrogant to think that I have some sort of duty to "save the planet" or am at all acting out of selflessness. I do want to save the whales, the tigers, the pandas, etc., but that's because I enjoy seeing them--which is selfish. Moreover, I do want to live in "harmony" with other species, but that's only because I think I have arrived at a more enlightened self-interest, such that I see a more sustainable form of living as essential to the survival of my own species. Really, I'm just looking out for my own family, the same as any other animal on this planet would do.
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Excess and luxury
>I think any of those animals would choose a life of excess and luxury if they could
Huh. You've never rehabbed wild birds, I take it. Adults ALWAYS want to escape back to the wild, no matter how much luxury they have and no matter what injuries they might have. And virtually all baby birds, even with gentle hacking out where they'll be fed as long as they like, quickly go off and make their own way and stop returning for food.
It's only humans who are happy living in their parents' basements and contributing little or nothing to their own livelihoods as long as they can get away with it.
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OK
We quit, how about at the end of the summer - on a holiday -
we put a bag over our head after getting drunk and all die leaving our leavenings to disgorge alcohol and Co2 to the biosphere in peace...
do we all get bloody useless virgins if we sacrifice for our biosphere?
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Mayan Like Me
go ask those people what a world w/o people looks like.
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Quiet Type, Please correct my gramar & spelling
Presuming you weren't being sarcastic, feel free to quote me. =o)
"There is no wild, simply the places man chooses not to live. The only truly wild species left are those that live in opposition to man. The rat, the roach, the pigeon, the ant, the beasts who make their way surviving because they are the most fit to do so. That is the wilderness not the secured and hermetically sealed environment of Yellow Stone.
Yellow Stone is a museum, beautiful and filled with wonders, but it is not the wild. The wild is between the cracks in the sidewalk where grass grows in defiance of man's will."
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Why would all the humans be gone?
If the large animals could survive then humans would as well. Even if only 5% of the population survived they would adapt to their new enviroment and continue to rule over the animals just as the Neanderthals did