The World Without Us

I enjoyed the readings this week in Wheeler on the topic of ecological design.  I was struck by the assertion, expressed by a couple of different authors, that humanity is at war against itself.  At one point in his sermon, William McDonough explained that we have designed a “vast industrial machine, not for living in, but for dying in.”  These words echoed in my mind as I read the article, “Principles of Green Architecture,” in which the authors described the insanity of a crude system in which climate was opposed by energy, aka air conditioning.   Both articles refer to the relationship between nature and humanity as a war.

These articles and their references to our impending end as a species reminded me of a book that I read titled, “The World Without Us,” in which Alan Weisman describes what would happen to our cities in the event that humans suddenly disappeared.  You can watch a video on the author’s website which illustrates this process for the typical single family home (http://www.worldwithoutus.com/index2.html).  The book provides the reader with a fuller sense of the fragility of our civilization and the level of participation that is required by humans in order to continuously prevent our cities from reverting back to their pre-industrial states.  Weisman explains how swiftly natural processes like the freeze-thaw cycle would destroy our infrastructure and how a lack of electricity would immediately flood important systems, such as the New York City subway.  It’s as if we are all living in a leaky boat, constantly patching holes and bucketing out water as fast as we can.