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The World Without Us

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The World Without Us

By: Alan Weisman
Narrated by: Adam Grupper
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

'On the day after humans disappear, nature takes over and immediately begins cleaning house - or houses, that is. Cleans them right off the face of the earth. They all go.'

What if mankind disappeared right now, forever...what would happen to the Earth in a week, a year, a millennium? Could the planet's climate ever recover from human activity? How would nature destroy our huge cities and our myriad plastics? And what would our final legacy be?

Speaking to experts in fields as diverse as oil production and ecology, and visiting the places that have escaped recent human activity to discover how they have adapted to life without us, Alan Weisman paints an intriguing picture of the future of Earth. Exploring key concerns of our time, this absorbing thought experiment reveals a powerful - and surprising - picture of our planet's future.

©2008 Alan Weisman (P)2021 Penguin Audio Biological Sciences Earth Sciences Environment Science Solar System Ecosystem

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This booked is based on a strong, fact-based approach to reviewing the impact of humanity on planet earth. It can feel laborious to listen to for extended periods (due to the barrage of statistics and facts), however, it’s a price worth paying to properly understand the narrative.
Recommended but take your time!

Packed with facts and figures

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I was so excited about this book BUT the presentation of the story is so awful I'm finding it hard to concentrate on the content. In fact I have given up. It makes something that I think I would like, beyond boring.

Story might be better than I have indicated

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book is interesting for some parts, you get a chapter which you cant stop listening to and then you get an a chapter where you just phase out as he doesn't talk about much in particular or goes of subject bit, might be for some people but i didn't finish it for this reason

very mixed opinion on this

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Love this book and bought the audio to reread it. Hated the reader though and would avaoid anything else read by him.

Voice Horrible

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We all know the damage we have done and are still doing to the planet, but without us it seems the planet would recover. Fact based and easy to understand this book paints a harrowing picture of what we’ve done and how much we need the planet rather than the other way round.

Fascinating and frightening.

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Great eye opener of the vast impact we don’t se just because it is out of our eyes. Just have a listen and think of your impacts on the planet you live on, that has given you the place to exist.

P.S
If true, man, is this just the next step of getting rid of people.
Whoever read this, sounds like he spent a lot of time in a sound booth repeating phrases and words and algorithm synthesised a voice that reread the text.
Very poor, unemotional and sometimes weird pronunciations of words took out of otherwise great story.

Great collection of impacts, not so great listening experience

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