Solitaire (Randy) long ago told me about the book "The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman. When the local library opened, I put a hold on the book, and didn't think I would ever get it. It had 28 holds! Yikes! It took about 3 months, but I got it last week, hooray!

It was worth the wait. This book is fascinating! Basically, it's about what would happen to the earth and all the man made structures, if all the humans disappeared.

The book starts with New York City. Did you know that the water is constantly rising under the city? That the subway tunnels would quickly fill with water if certain pumps failed? The book talks a lot about how buildings would fail and come down. And how the plants and trees will take over.

This book also talks about Africa, nuclear power plants, abandoned hotels in Cyprus, plastics appearing in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, the Panama Canal, Art, extinction of megafauna (big animals), and so on. The author talks about so many things, I can't list them all. I read this book in about 2 days. I was so interesting, I was reading every second I had to spare!

If you have an interest in the environment, this is definitely a book to read. I didn't really understand how bad plastic is for the environment, until I read this book. Plastic just doesn't go away. Unless it is incinerated, it will be here forever. Maybe in the landfill. Maybe floating in the ocean, where ocean life eats the small pieces, mistaking it for food, and dies. Or is tangled in plastic, and dies.

After reading this book, I definitely think the world is better off without us, or at least, would be better off without so many of us.