VeganCleopatra

I've been a firm believer that the planet would have been/will be better off without the human species. This book does absolutely nothing to dispel that feeling. I had a firm grasp of the various ways in which the human population has destroyed the planet, but it is still difficult to read it all encompassed into one book without wanting to scream bloody murder. Unfortunately even if the scenario in the book becomes reality, all humans disappearing by means that only destroy us, we have still left nearly irreversible harm behind. Radioactive waste that has a HALF-LIFE of 4.5 billion years? Literally incomprehensible in human time. Our sun isn't even expected to be the same by around this time but half of Uranium-238 deposits will be here! Plastics, which are a horrendous plague upon the Earth and seas especially, are another major issue and we've only managed to do that in about half a century! Human creations will seemingly forever (at least NEARLY so) harm the Earth and it pains me to think of all the irreversible damage done upon it simply due to the ability to do so, greed, arrogance and general disregard. Perhaps anyone touting the greatness of humans should read the book, it might knock your pedestal down a peg or two.

The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because I felt Weisman could have been more detailed in portions and more concise in others. I think the topic of climate change could have been expounded upon as well, although emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases would be severely limited once we perish plus there are a number of ways in which global warming can go--the entire book could have been dedicated to it!