You have to watch this!

Read This Book!

I finished reading this book at least a month ago and I can't stop thinking about it! I think I'll just have to read it again. Obviously I recommend it. It's so interesting and it really makes you think about things in a different way than we're used to. One thing I liked is that Mr. Weisman really looks at things objectively and avoids the "humans are inherently evil" attitude that many enviromental advocates tend to have. I've never bought into that. While it would be completely blind to think that humans don't have a huge impact on the earth, to think that we have the power to all out destroy it is also ignorant. The truth is that the earth was here long before us, will be here long after we're gone, and has always and will continue to change whether we're here or not.
Some parts of this book made me feel better about where we stand with our relationship with the earth (it's NOT doomsday!), other parts were a little scary, but most of it was just plain interesting.
Those of you who have never heard of this book are probably wondering what this book is all about so here's some info from the website for the book:

In The World Without Us, 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; what of our everyday stuff 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.

The World Without Us reveals how, just days after humans disappear, floods in New York's subways would start eroding the city's foundations, and how, as the world’s cities crumble, asphalt jungles give way to real ones. It describes the distinct ways that organic and chemically-treated farms would revert to wild, how billions more birds would flourish, and how cockroaches in unheated cities would perish without us. Drawing on the expertise of engineers, atmospheric scientists, art conservators, zoologists, oil refiners, marine biologists, astrophysicists, religious leaders from rabbis to the Dalai Lama, and paleontologists – who describe a pre-human world inhabited by megafauna like giant sloths that stood taller than mammoths – Weisman illustrates what the planet might be like today, if not for us.
From places already devoid of humans (a last fragment of primeval European forest; the Korean DMZ; Chernobyl), Weisman reveals Earth's tremendous capacity for self-healing. As he shows which human devastations are indelible, and which examples of our highest art and culture would endure longest, Weisman's narrative ultimately drives toward a radical but persuasive solution that doesn't depend on our demise. It is narrative nonfiction at its finest, and in posing an irresistible concept with both gravity and a highly-readable touch, it looks deeply at our effects on the planet in a way that no other book has.

Where have I been?

Around. I don't know, I guess I've just been lazy. Spring is almost here and today was the first day I didn't have to wear a coat to work (remember, I catch the bus at about 6:30am). It was already over 50 degrees! I am getting ready to propagate my houseplants now, they are doing so well! I'm putting shelves on my windows so I'll have more room for them to get light and I'm thinking of getting a portable florescent light to supplement. Anyway, I don't have much else to say right now, I'm going to try to keep up with this better!