The World Without Us

艾伦·韦斯曼，屡获殊荣的新闻记者，他的报道在《哈珀斯》、《纽约时报杂志》、《大西洋月刊》、《发现》和美国国家公共电台等地方发表或播报。他曾是《洛杉矶时报杂志》的特约编辑，现在新闻从业者团体Homelantls Productionsrp担任资深出品人，并在亚利桑那大学教授国际新闻学课程。《没有我们的世界》是他对一篇文稿《没有人类的地球》（发表于2005 年《发现》杂志）的扩充，被评选为“2006年度美国最佳科学写作”。

出版者:Macmillan

作者:Alan Weisman

页数:324

出版时间:2007-7

价格:GBP 9.11

装帧:Paperback

isbn号码:9780312377885

图书标签:未来科学环境主义生态学环保原版科幻蘼芜

A penetrating, page-turning tour of a post-human Earth. in the WORLD WITHOUT US, Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity’s impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us.In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; which everyday items may become immortalized as fossils; how copper pipes and wiring would be crushed into mere seams of reddish rock; why some of our earliest buildings might be the last architecture left; and how plastic, bronze sculpture, radio waves, and some man-made molecules may be our most lasting gifts to the universe.WORLD WITHOUT US reveals how, just days after humans disappear, floods in New York’s subways would start eroding the city’s foundations, and how, as the world’s cities crumble, asphalt jungles would give way to real ones. It describes the distinct ways that organic and chemically treated farms would revert to wild, how billions more birds would flourish, and how cockroaches in unheated cities would perish without us. Drawing on the expertise of engineers, atmospheric scientists, art conservators, zoologists, oil refiners, marine biologists, astrophysicists, religious leaders from rabbis to the Dali Lama, and paleontologists---who describe a prehuman world inhabited by megafauna like giant sloths that stood taller than mammoths---Weisman illustrates what the planet might be like today, if not for us.From places already devoid of humans (a last fragment of primeval European forest; the Korean DMZ; Chernobyl), Weisman reveals Earth’s tremendous capacity for self-healing. As he shows which human devastations are indelible, and which examples of our highest art and culture would endure longest, Weisman’s narrative ultimately drives toward a radical but persuasive solution that needn't depend on our demise. It is narrative nonfiction at its finest, and in posing an irresistible concept with both gravity and a highly readable touch, it looks deeply at our effects on the planet in a way that no other book has.

读后感

2007年12月14日下午2：00与作者北京国图（中关村南路）学术报告厅亲密接触吧。美国亚利桑那大学学者艾伦·韦斯曼受邀来京演讲，有兴趣就去参加吧。应该还不错。  

忍不住从编辑的角度说几句话，这个是职业病，不要见怪。 这本书在美国是畅销书，它也确实具有畅销书的潜质。环保话题是热点，此书的角度新颖，引导人们去设想一个人类消失后的世界，进而阐明人类活动对于地球的影响。 不过，仅仅如此吗？ 人类灭亡是一个最引人思考的命题。...  

《没有我们的世界》，这样一本书注定很吸引人。电视台找了些学者同作者座谈，偶尔看到了这个节目中的几个镜头。电视节目设定的讨论题目之一，大意是问如果人类不存在了，世界上谁是No.1，也就是说，谁会替代人类，成为世界的主宰？比如，狒狒会称霸地球吗？哦哈，多拽的话题。 ...  

人类已经在周边世界的山坡上筑起了太多的大坝，一层层、一级级，令人不安的是，大多数人都没有意识到这有多么危险。我们似乎从来没想过那些坚固无比的大坝也有决堤的一天，更没想过如果决堤的大坝引起连锁反应，整个人类文明是否能再找到自己的方舟。我所说的“大坝”，并不是...  

用户评价

略有点科幻的 但是让你知道 人类（更无用说个人）的历史和地球（更不用说宇宙）相比是如斯的渺小 所以当下最重要。

经典而有趣，这种感觉仿佛又回到从前读guns germs and steel

经典而有趣，这种感觉仿佛又回到从前读guns germs and steel

经典而有趣，这种感觉仿佛又回到从前读guns germs and steel

经典而有趣，这种感觉仿佛又回到从前读guns germs and steel