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Cattle roam in the foothills of Sierra Nevada, in Cathey’s Valley, Calif., Feb. 4. Journalist Alan Weisman writes about what will happen to Earth if humans disappear, in his book “The World Without Us.” / AP-Yonhap |
 By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
Big-budget Hollywood films love to deal with doomsday scenarios, when the very existence of humans are threatened by asteroids, nuclear bombs, incurable deadly viruses and even aliens.
But what happens if the wildest Hollywood plot comes true? What happens if humans succumb to a virus and the entire human race suddenly becomes extinct tomorrow? It sounds crazy, but it is not far in the realm of possibility. If animals and plants can become extinct, what makes us think that humans will remain on Earth forever?
This is exactly what award-winning journalist Alan Weisman writes about in his thought-provoking book ``The World Without Us.'' He had originally written an essay ``Earth Without People'' for Discovery magazine in 2005, which was selected for the Best American Science Writing 2006.
The book expands on Weisman's essay, delving into different scenarios of what the Earth would look like after people are gone. It's a hypothetical look into the future, but everything Weisman writes is based on interviews with scientists and other experts.
``Humans are going extinct eventually. Everything has, so far. It's like death: there's no reason to think we're any different. But life will continue,'' said Doug Irwin, an extinction expert from the Smithsonian's Museum of National History.
One of the attention-grabbing sections of the book is when Weisman describes in vivid detail how New York City will disintegrate after people disappear. The subways and tunnels will be flooded with water within a few days, and the buildings, which you would think could last forever, will start crumbling in a few years. It is a sobering thought that even a great city like New York would be reduced to rubble after a few decades.
Weisman travels to different parts of the world, in search of places unspoiled by humans. To find an example of a world without people, Weisman went to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea, which has been no man's land since 1953.
Interestingly, the DMZ has become a refuge for wildlife such as the Asiatic black bear, Eurasian lynx, musk deer, Chinese water deer, yellow-throated marten and the Amur leopard. The Korean Federation for Environmental Movement is mentioned in the book as a group pushing for the preservation of the DMZ as a wildlife sanctuary or national park.
Rare red-crowned cranes, of which only 1,500 birds are known to exist, can be found in the DMZ. ``The truth is, if not for the seething hostilities that keep this zone clear, these birds would likely face extinction,'' Weisman said.
Plastic garbage is one of the biggest environmental problems today. The disturbing part is, even if humans stop existing and creating plastic, the plastic will still remain, but until when, no one knows.
Experts say every bit of plastic that has been manufactured in the world for the last 50 years, except those that have been incinerated, still remains. Over a half-century, total plastic production surpassed 1 billion tons.
``Today's amount of plastic will take hundreds of thousands of years to consume, but eventually it will all biodegrade,'' the book quoted Dr. Anthony Andrady, a senior research scientist at Research Triangle.
Sometimes, it is not even about the big things that people should be worried about, but the little things. It was surprising to find out many exfoliating scrubs that are so popular among women today, is a source of non-biodegradable polymer granules. These tiny plastic bits end up in the sea, eaten by birds, fish, other sea creatures, and eventually cause their death.
The real danger lies in the petrochemical and nuclear plants around the world. Weisman noted the petrochemical plants, described as ``ticking time bombs,'' will start breaking down once humans are no longer there to run the machines.
Even more disturbing is the fate of 441 nuclear plants operating on Earth. If every human were to disappear on Earth, Weisman noted that nuclear plants would briefly run on autopilot until each one overheated and spilled radioactive waste into the air and water. This would be like the Chernobyl nuclear disaster all over again, except multiplied 441 times.
Would anything man made last the next few thousands, or even millions, of years? Experts interviewed by Weisman said the Chunnel, the enormous undersea tunnel connecting France and England; bronze and plastic are likely to survive thousands, if not millions of years.
In writing a book about science, Weisman avoids using too many technical terms. Instead, he engages the reader in a conversational tone.
While the future looks dark for humans, he still injects a bit of hope for the world without people. After you finish reading how much damage humans have inflicted on Earth, you might even think that Earth would fare much better without humans.
cathy@koreatimes.co.kr | |
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