Summarized by Daniela Berenguer

1. Alan Weisman Summarized by Daniela Berenguer

2. Prelude- A Monkey Koan Subdivision I Alan Weisman opens his book with the story of Ana MaríaSanti, a Zápara Indian of the Equatorian upper Amazon. Her old age and the decay of her tribe is evident when, during a minga or barn raising celebration, she is offered spider monkey meat. This animal is considered the spiritual ancestor of the Zápara tribe, and she rejects the meat saying, “When we’re down to eating our ancestors, what is left?” Weisman connects this upsetting comment making us wonder if we are ‘eating up our ancestor’, if we’ve “poisoned or parboiled the planet, ourselves included” to a point of no return. Although he recognizes that it is impossible to know what effect we have had and will leave on the planet, he presents a hypothetical situation in which all humans simply disappeared form the face of the planet overnight. Through extensive research and expert opinions on the subject, he will try to answer the question, what will happen after we leave?

3. Part I Subdivision I Alan Weisman is not an expert in geology, a climatologist, or a biologist, but through broad research and help from different sources he is able to establish a prediction: if humans were to disappear from the planet overnight, nature would find a way of outlasting and conquering the ‘human world’, just as it has since the history of the world can remember. In chapter one, A Lingering Scent of Eden, Weisman illustrates the Białowieża Puszcza. This is an amazing ‘forest primeval’ in Poland, alive with five-hundred-year-old oak trees, elk, foxes, and animals and plants of all kinds. This natural oasis has been around from millions of years and has managed to survive World Wars, changes of government, and human disasters. He concludes by saying that “given 500 years without people, true forest could return” to all of Europe. In chapter two, Unbuilding Our Home, the author gives us a specific account of how, in not a very long time, nature will take over and destroy our houses, “Clean them right off the face of the Earth.” He describes how water will seep in, wind blow the walls down, and mold finish tearing the buildings down. This contrast demonstrates how something that we think to be as sturdy and enduring as our houses can easily be regained by the power of nature.

4. Part I Subdivision II In chapter three, The City Without Us, Alan Weisman insists that if humans were to leave the planet, some man-made and man-built materials might persist but eventually there would be “nothing to indicate that it was us who put it there”. He gives a point-by-point account of how each aspect of our ‘strong’, modern cities would decay until they fell to the ground. Ironically, he mentions that ‘old’ buildings like St. Paul’s Chapel, which are made of stone, will be some of the last to crumble down. Weisman dedicates a large part of the chapter to describing what will become of Central Park’s botanic and animal life. After doing extensive research and dedicated enquiries, he is able to describe how, even though people have introduced many foreign species to the park, in very little time local species will rule, others will adapt, animals will start intensely migrating. He uses specific examples to convince the reader of just how superficial our trace on the planet would be, if we were to leave before we made any irreversible, tragic changes.