The World With Out Us: Summary

Iván Darío JiménezSubsections 1 and 2

A Lingering Scent of Eden • Weisman introduces his book by describing the story a single

forest in Europe that survived centuries of wars and political changes. Still, upon the arrival of democracy, that sanctuary preserved by monarchs and dictators alike has begun to wane for its boundaries grow ever smaller. Although largely untouched, a single human landmark remains, a remnant of the iron curtain: a fence that has divided the forest’s fauna in two and risks causing its extinction. Despite the desperate attempts by conservationists to maintain it, governments, in need of its resources, continue to cut its wealth. Even, as the rural Europe moves to city and the forest reclaims those farmlands, that reservoir of European biodiversity continues to shrink.

Unbuilding Our home

• Then, the author takes us to a more familiar environment: a suburban home. We soon realize that a place so recently claim from nature will be one of the first to return to it after we are gone. The inevitable decay of wood, metal and all the components of a home are revealed by the day to day repairs we must do in. Weisman shows how the leaks, molds and cracks would eventually demolish the house except for a few materials that will be buried in as the layers of biological matter burry it.

The City Without Us

• Most reasonable people would agree that New York, the epitome of metropolis, will be the most resistant to the passage of time. A landscape dominated by manmade structures with the exception of the clearly delimited central park should last for centuries of nature’s siege. Still, this assumption crumbles as the city’s weaknesses are revealed. The endless streams of water that are pumped out of it every day and the endless maintenance of its parks prove that, despite their orderly appearance, an army is required for its upkeep.

The City Without Us

• With out us, the newest structures would crumble as their very base sinks into the flooded land. Asphalt would crack with season leaving space for nature to grow and as the centuries pass, only the oldest, more resilient buildings will survive. Those structures made before we could have exact calculations of efficiencies were indivertibly created to last but only for a millennium.

The Idea• Ultimately, this first quarter has a clear point: nature can

easily revert the current status quo. With out us, the might of nature would reclaim our cities and greatest structures. Even if some of the forces we have set in motion like global warming and the introduction of foreign species to a different land will not stop in our absence, the once gridded landscapes will be reconquered by nature and few of our changes will remain. In the end, only lines of sediment in the soil will testify to our presence for even the most durable inventions of man, must decay and vanish under the unrelenting force of nature.