Recently I read one article, An Earth WIthout People .. This is about a book called A World Without Us by Alan Weisman, who happened to be an associate professor of journalism in the University or Arizona. Now I have not read the book yet, but they have quite a long description of the book there.. the book is about a fictitious situation on our planet, where the human beings disappear suddenly, he does not give any reason though. In his own words- by theoretically just removing us—turns out to be so fascinating that it kind of disarms people’s fears or the terrible wave of depression that can engulf us when we read about the environmental problems that we have created and the possible disasters we may be facing in the future.
He presents some hypothetical situations, giving example of the high rise buildings of Manhattan. Surprisingly, mother nature will take very less time than one can imagine, to recapture the areas covered by the concrete jungle. If human beings are removed, then the first thing that will happen is.. there won't be power. Afterwards, underground tunnels wll be full of water.. most importantly.. there will be corrosion. The steel columns and frames of underground tunnels will corrode.. as a result some streets will form craters within a couple of decades! Since the high rise buildings will be waterlogged for a long time, some of them will start toppling.. falling, bringing down a few more in the immediate neighborhood. Wind will carry seeds of plants.. and gradually all the city area will form its own ecosystem.
Now lets come back home.. what work happen in a city like Guwahati?? Immediate effect is flood for sure.. there wont be anybody to clean the drains.. there wont be anybody to control the water flowing back from the Brahmaputra through Bharalu.. All the low lying areas of the city and the former wetlands will be claimed back by nature.. as water body.. It will probably take only a few years to cover all the red hills in and around Guwahati with green... Similar will be the fate of any urban settlement of our times.
I have only two questions in mind.. first.. Can we say, the world will become more beautiful.. without human beings and their creations? Secondly, will there be any creations by humans, which will endure all this?
He presents some hypothetical situations, giving example of the high rise buildings of Manhattan. Surprisingly, mother nature will take very less time than one can imagine, to recapture the areas covered by the concrete jungle. If human beings are removed, then the first thing that will happen is.. there won't be power. Afterwards, underground tunnels wll be full of water.. most importantly.. there will be corrosion. The steel columns and frames of underground tunnels will corrode.. as a result some streets will form craters within a couple of decades! Since the high rise buildings will be waterlogged for a long time, some of them will start toppling.. falling, bringing down a few more in the immediate neighborhood. Wind will carry seeds of plants.. and gradually all the city area will form its own ecosystem.
Now lets come back home.. what work happen in a city like Guwahati?? Immediate effect is flood for sure.. there wont be anybody to clean the drains.. there wont be anybody to control the water flowing back from the Brahmaputra through Bharalu.. All the low lying areas of the city and the former wetlands will be claimed back by nature.. as water body.. It will probably take only a few years to cover all the red hills in and around Guwahati with green... Similar will be the fate of any urban settlement of our times.
I have only two questions in mind.. first.. Can we say, the world will become more beautiful.. without human beings and their creations? Secondly, will there be any creations by humans, which will endure all this?
1 comment:
Good piece of thought. well as to the question of "will the world be more beautiful without us?" I don't think the notion of beauty will be relevant anymore; after all this is also a creation of humans. without the stereotype definition created by us, anything can be termed beautiful or ugly
Sikhar
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