Many years ago, when I was a callow science fiction fan among other callow science fiction fans, we used to walk about the city, talking about this and that. A topic that often came up was: What would happen to the city if all the human beings in it suddenly vanished? What would become of the buildings? How quickly would nature re-assert itself? How long would it take for human structures to crumble, be engulfed by nature? What would go, what would last? From our limited stock of knowledge, we made our guesses. It was nothing new. Science fiction novels had dealt with the subject since the nineteenth century.
This book, however, looks at the problem more systematically than our idle speculations. Weisman draws on the expertise of engineers, architects, and scientists to answer the question in detail. In the course of his explorations, the reader is gradually drawn into contemplating some of our most complex ecological problems. Some of the most interesting parts of the book draw on the evidence of places that have been abandoned by human beings for political reasons, such as the demilitarized buffer zones between North and South Korea, and an abandoned urban section of Cyprus. The site of Chernobyl also gets attention.
Most human structures will not last long before they are erased by natural forces. Modern structures, usually made with shoddy materials, will go faster than ancient stone structures. Things buried underground fare best — the Underground City beneath Montreal, for example, will still be there when all signs of the city will have vanished from the surface. But one of the most delicious ironies is that the last works of human art to exist will probably be the first: the brilliant cave paintings made at the dawn of human culture at Altamira and Lascaux.
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