What if we weren't here?

That's the central and animating question of Alan Weisman's book, The World Without Us. To get a true sense of the massive effect that homo sapiens has on the planet, Weisman engaged in deep and wide-ranging research about all the things we do. Then he figured out what would happen if we suddenly stopped doing all that stuff. People like Bill McKibben and James Howard Kunstler are impressed with Weisman's achievement.

Just a few facts: within two days, New York's subway system would fill with water; in a week, nuclear plants worldwide would melt down as their cooling systems quit working; within a year, a billion birds that normally die colliding with man-made structures or being electrocuted would still be alive. The book's website features a couple of illustrations of some of these situations, and you can see what would happen to the typical house here.