The World Without Us

The World Without Us, a new book by Alan Weisman, offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity’s impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us. In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; which everyday items may become immortalized as fossils; how copper pipes and wiring would be crushed into mere seams of reddish rock; why some of our earliest buildings might be the last architecture left; and how plastic, bronze sculpture, radio waves, and some man-made molecules may be our most lasting gifts to the universe.(book description)

Another way to try to understand our impact on the planet, is to read fiction about global warming or biotechnological catastrophe. Please check out these eco-thrillers listed below:

Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson
Fifty Degrees Below Kim Stanley Robinson
Sixty Days and Counting Kim Stanley Robinson

Black Leopard by Steven Voien
Bones of Coral by James Hall
Dead Game by Kirk Russell
Desert Burial by Brian Littlefair
The Green Trap by Ben Bova
Greenhouse Summer by Norman Spinrad
The Ice by Louis Charbonneau
Ill Wind by Kevin Anderson
Minutes to Burn by Gregg Hurwitz
Shell Games by Kirk Russell
The Swarm by Frank Schatzing
Zodiac: the Eco-thriller by Neal Stephenson