Would our environmental problems disappear if all of humankind suddenly vanished?

An interesting article recently came out from the Scientific American, who
interviewed Alan Weisman who published a book called ³The World Without Us.²
The article is conveniently called ³An Earth Without People,² and it takes
us through Weisman¹s scientific studies on the effects of humans on the
earth, what it was like before our time, and hypothesizes about what it
might be like if we left it like it is right now, and essentially vanished
without a trace. Would we still leave a trace?

One of the most obvious human impacts that may stick around until the end of
the earth itself is the radioactive and chemical pollutants we have
contributed to the environment throughout the decades and centuries. That
is something Weisman says may never actually go away.

It is interesting to note, however, that nature is a truly brooding force,
and a big city like Manhattan would fall apart in a matter of days without
humans here to constantly ward off the forces of nature.

His book was written to help provide a new perspective on our impacts on the
environment and to give us hope to make a change in the future that we want
so badly for our children, our grandchildren, their children and so on.

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