The World Without Us

The World Without Us

Alan Weisman

The following is stolen from 'The World Without Us' and restructured to combine much of my thinking. (The combining of the book content and my thoughts doesn't imply that I have sound thoughts!)

Suppose we all of a sudden were unable to procreate. (Would some religions forbid intercourse?) (Is this is the old zero growth thinking revisited?)

The first to notice would be the crisis pregnancy centers. No one would be coming in. (Well, maybe coming in - but not coming in.) In a few months, abortion would be out of the dialog. It would be tragic for people who kept trying to conceive. (Maybe they'd eventually begin to see the joy they were having when previously they were principally 'trying'.)

Still, in five years, there would be no more children under five, etc. (Neonatal nurses could take all of the time off they richly deserve.)

How long would it be before we realized the reality of the finality of humans becoming extinct? (When would research face it and focus on living and cleaning the planet?)

The living circumstances of all children would improve as they became less disposable. No orphans would go un-adopted.

In 21 years, there would be no juvenile delinquency. (When would graffiti end?)

By then, as resignation sinks in, would spiritual awakening replace panic? It would have to at least begun to dawn on people that as life drew toward a close, it was improving:

There would be more than enough to eat, and resources would be plentiful, including safe unbottled water. The seas would begin to replenish. And, because new housing wouldn’t be necessary, so would the forests and wetlands, the air, the birds and large mammals. What would we do about Kudzu in North America?

Imagine the health of the last humans.

With no more resource conflicts, how long would we still be wasting lives in combat?

When would we begin to rid the world of the obviously unused, unsightly clutter that would have no purpose after the last one of us died? Imagine recycling as a final industry? Reactors and the fuel for them stored safe beyond doubts, How? Windmills and power lines taken down so the birds would be safe to fly about. Dams removed to revive the rivers. Houses dis-assembled to facilitate the return of natural landscapes. Would wilderness become a desired state of condition for the planet?

What to leave behind? Would we 'need' to leave a legacy? If so,what would we leave as a legacy? Would we remove the concrete channel that we have made the Mighty Missouri?

Would we consciously begin to help rehabilitate the natural wonders of the planet?
Would we leave the physical remnants of our presence to be dealt with in a natural way?
Would we attempt to leave a beautiful place behind as we breathed our last breath??

Would we leave the world so that the last humans could enjoy their final sunsets peacefully, knowing the planet has been returned as close as possible to the ‘Garden of Eden’? (I know, just the concept, not the religious one.) Lighten up.

I picture a beer commercial sunset (bikinis and beer - maybe a little or a lot of pot) at the beach at Ninilchik Creek where it drops into Cook Inlet on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. Of course I am imagining a warm summer days end, with a silent dispatch radio, the meter off, and Jimmy Buffet music from the finest portable boom box playing 'Margaritaville' clearly as the sun and my consciousness fade away. (Wait! I was the last human. No bikini!)

If you rode this far, I was not the last human, and I am so glad you wore a bikini.

Fare? No fare, remember the meter was off.
CABBY