Our crimes against nature

   We know the terrible stories of sea otters choking on polyethylene rings from beer six-packs, and of swans and gulls strangled by nylon nets. The damage caused by large pieces of plastic is visible, but the harm caused by small particles of plastic is not so clear. The little granules in some exfoliates that we use to scrub our faces and bodies are known as polyethylene beads. When we wash our faces, they go right down the drain, into the sewers, to the rivers and finally, into the ocean. Sea creatures are prone to swallow them, mistaking the brightly colored plastic pellets for fish eggs and krill. Plastic has been around for barely more than 50 years. Yet organisms will be dealing with our plastic refuse indefinitely: thousands of years, or possibly more.

Nature takes over

  Alan Weisman speculates that the day after humans disappear, nature will take over and immediately begin cleaning house. Even if you live in a denatured, postmodern city where the human touch has submersed nature, nature is not dead. The ancient and modern wonders of the world will eventually fade away when humans are no longer around to care for them. The Great Wall of China will be defenseless against tree roots and water and the highly acidic rain produced by China’s rapid industrialization. Without human maintenance, it will steadily melt away until only scattered stones remain. When the human race is wiped out, domestic animals will be devoured by wild predators, though perhaps a few species may prove resilient. The Dingoes, now Australia’s top predators, were originally companion dogs to Southeast Asian traders.

What Lasts

   The structures that have been buried from the beginning, such as the underground city in Cappadocia, Turkey, are probably the things that will last long enough to be found for the species that will succeed human beings. Archeologists discovered the underground city Derinkuyu which has chambers descending at least 18 stories and 280 feet beneath the surface and large enough to hold 30,000 people. The prehistoric structure, built more than 10,000 years ago, has lasted until now because it was intact from cacophony of the land above, lasting into whatever hereafter lies beyond human existence on Earth. It is the fate of the humans to become extinct eventually, just as so many other species already have. Nor is the earth destined to last forever. 5 billion years from now, the sun will expand into a red giant, taking all the planets of the inner solar system back into its fiery womb.

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   The World Without Us shows the incurable wounds we have inflicted on nature, and argues for the need of a reconciliation between human beings and nature. Humans have chosen to pursue technological development in the hope of a better life, yet technology may well be the cause of our death. Thus we need to cultivate a mature and symbiotic relationship with nature. We must remember that the earth will survive without us, but we cannot survive without the earth.