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It happens occasionally. Theres a book that interests me and gets hyped enough that I want to read it.
Alan Weisman's "The World Without Us" is the latest.
Ive often pondered What would the Earth be like if human beings vanished. I spent far too many hours of my childhood sitting high up on hillsides watching "the progress" down below, while imagining what it was like before, and what it will be like after.
The book was reportedly prodigiously researched. The seed for this book was Weisman's 1994 article about Chernobyl for Harper's magazine. He found that birds returned within a year of the explosion and reactor fire that broadcast deadly radiation worldwide in 1986. Chernobyl voles, a species of rodent, have accelerated their sexual maturation to deal with a radiation-shortened life span. Even poisoned, the ecosystem there seemed more diverse, more lively, than it had been when man operated the power plant. There are many other examples cited in the book.
The climate change we've initiated would take thousands of years to play out. Radiation from waste stockpiles, munitions and 441 exploding nuclear reactors would unleash clouds of radioactivity and affect the evolution of species left behind. In Arizona, some of the initial changes would come along our river systems. Dams, including the massive structures of Glen Canyon, Hoover and all the lesser dams of the Colorado, would fail and crumble. The Colorado River would flow again to its delta on the Gulf of California.
Weisman also explores how we should prevent our own demise. You know the usual, reduce consumption, reduce birthrate, and yes there will need to be technological solutions. All pretty obvious, but Weisman says that by restricting reproduction to one child per couple, "our population could shrink to 1.6 billion by 2100, and the world will be a better place." I can hardly believe that, thats true. Guess Ill have to read the book.
website
Alan Weisman's "The World Without Us" is the latest.
Ive often pondered What would the Earth be like if human beings vanished. I spent far too many hours of my childhood sitting high up on hillsides watching "the progress" down below, while imagining what it was like before, and what it will be like after.
The book was reportedly prodigiously researched. The seed for this book was Weisman's 1994 article about Chernobyl for Harper's magazine. He found that birds returned within a year of the explosion and reactor fire that broadcast deadly radiation worldwide in 1986. Chernobyl voles, a species of rodent, have accelerated their sexual maturation to deal with a radiation-shortened life span. Even poisoned, the ecosystem there seemed more diverse, more lively, than it had been when man operated the power plant. There are many other examples cited in the book.
The climate change we've initiated would take thousands of years to play out. Radiation from waste stockpiles, munitions and 441 exploding nuclear reactors would unleash clouds of radioactivity and affect the evolution of species left behind. In Arizona, some of the initial changes would come along our river systems. Dams, including the massive structures of Glen Canyon, Hoover and all the lesser dams of the Colorado, would fail and crumble. The Colorado River would flow again to its delta on the Gulf of California.
Weisman also explores how we should prevent our own demise. You know the usual, reduce consumption, reduce birthrate, and yes there will need to be technological solutions. All pretty obvious, but Weisman says that by restricting reproduction to one child per couple, "our population could shrink to 1.6 billion by 2100, and the world will be a better place." I can hardly believe that, thats true. Guess Ill have to read the book.
website
nature heals itself, that's its magic and its purpose. all we have to do is get out of its way!
heard an npr story yesterday about how birth rates are going up in the upperclass competive NY suburban crowd... used to be 2 kids, now it's like 4 or 5.
then today on the today show there was the family with 17 biological children, all gifts from god.
breeding can be scary
Hear hear!!
Another tidbit from NPR the other day was a man talking about how humanity has gone through its most significant evolutionary periods as a result of environmental change, which in some ways is the definition of evolution for all species... so our species may be in store for some acceleration here in the coming years, I just hope the majority of all the fabulous species can keep up with us, which is I guess what folks are saying is not very likely and why we tend to get all depressed about it, but... to paraphrase SS I say we just need to focus on doing the best we can and not get bogged down by what is outside of our control.
But I guess the guy has no children... I don't know.. Mother Nature is tired, that is obvious.. but doesn't God help her to keep up the balance? There are so many religious people in here, they will tell us. Especially the Church's problems of "abortion", and campaigns for giving birth to as much as we can..
Me myself believe in spending the least I can - so I rather turn off the PC now and go to work.. on public transports. Kisses :-)