Analyzing Weisman's The World Without Us

The post-apocalyptic subject in the film industry is an area that often thrives at the box office. People thoroughly enjoy watching movies that exhibit Earth’s tarnished environment and humans’ last means of survival. At one point of time or another, the scenes in these once fictional movies may come true with the way humans are abusing the planet. Elizabeth Kolbert’s novel, The Sixth Extinction, discusses the five major causes of mass extinction. She alludes human existence as the cause of the next mass extinction. The author cites established chemist, Paul Crutzen, claiming “we are no longer in the Holocene; we are in the Anthropocene” (Kolbert 108). The Anthropocene is human dominated epoch that is disrupting other species’ existence. Of

In “The Changing Nature of Nature: Environmental Politics in the Anthropocene” environmental politician Paul Wapner depicts the human impacts on nature, and their significant intervention in ecosystem dynamics. His research outlines the “end of nature” (Wapner, 37) and aims to put emphasis on the beginning of the Anthropocene, suggesting that we are finally realizing that nature is not merely a material object. With this in mind, Wapner argues that the ways in which we protect nature should be significantly different, this, justifying his study. In order to form an argument, Wapner begins by summarizing a general piece of academic research, and through this is then able to provide an organized overview of the logic of his argument. The alternation

Although Martin is correct in his observation that humans have a direct impact on extinction, he cannot refute the fact that meteors can cause extinction. His argument in regards to dinosaur extinction was flawed. Martin argues that every child in the first grade knows that dinosaurs vanished 65 million years ago. However, there is no evidence that there were humans on this Earth when dinosaurs existed so his whole argument becomes null. He cites factual inaccuracies in this

The Power of Nature: Rhetorical Strategies in Weisman’s The World Without Us: Unbuilding Our Homes

He compares and contrast on how environmentalists have mislead society into thinking that we as a race are doomed. He states that environmentalists argue that Earth is currently facing lot of environmental concerns and that our raw materials are becoming more and more scarce. Environmental problems like global warming, animal extinction, air and water pollution, waste buildup, and many more affect mankind. And also the degrading of our planet has increased at an alarming rate over a small time span. As a result, our actions have not been in favor of protecting the planet, so natural disasters are hitting us on a bigger than before.

The world is in a constant state of change, today’s decisions will affect the future of all species large and small, defining the ways in which society will continue to live. The essay “No New Worlds” written by Dr. Adrian Forsyth explores ideas associated with ever changing populations and states of the world. The essay describes the existence of humankind by their impacts on the surrounding environments. The reader is then introduced to the implications our world faces if these problems are not solved and additionally steps to solving these issues. Thus, both men and women need to take action to help or pay the consequences and protect the only world we have, planet Earth.

The most surprising aspect of this article was that humans today are said to be the cause of the sixth extinction. This was surprising to me because I did not know our planet has been impacted so much by our existence. Also, it surprised me because I have recently heard about how we were trying to fix our planet. The sixth extinction is horrible. Also, because we do not yet know the full extinct of our actions, the ramifications of our actions have yet to harm humankind. If we keep going we may not exist in 1,000

Alan Weisman’s diction is formal, neutral, and even informal. He includes no personal anecdotes, irony, metaphors, comedic relief, or anything throughout the entire book. Weisman has one distinct opinion on saving the earth, which is saving the earth, and remains neutral throughout the entire piece. His diction comes off as informal for he addresses the readers as “you” multiple times (Weisman). Right at the beginning, Weisman says, “You may never…,” which makes an instant, more personal connection with the audience (Weisman 9). To help his readers better interpret the world without us, Alan Weisman chooses to apply imagery and describe every detail mentioned. In doing so, he acquires a complex language to make his argument more concise. This may be due to his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science degree and being culturally diverse from his previous travels (Author).

Extinction: A Radical History is a book published by writer, professor and activist Ashley Dawson. It was published on the 22nd of April 2016. Dawson talks about multiple broad subjects in his book like how Capitalism is the main source of mass extinction. By doing so, he takes into account the lengthy history of the Homo Sapiens species, their activities and their discoveries and how us, humans, have affected today’s biodiversity, and probably the future of our planet Earth. He also offers solutions but are they realistically possible? Today, we no longer face natural risks like asteroids and comets. As Dawson states we now face anthropogenic risks like climate change and biodiversity loss which leads to a change in the earth’s ecosystem.

The author mentions that the oceans could all evaporate and the Earth probably couldn’t handle those conditions. This would lead to the release of hydrogen gases into outer space, losing a vital gas, and turning into our neighbor planet Venus. Although this is highly unlikely, many organisms cannot withstand such dramatic change over such a short time, the Earth would reach a point where only rats and cockroaches could survive in such conditions. Humans would even have a difficult time adapting as seen by the Mayans who died because of a minor setback on rain. The author believes that a lot of carbon will settle in the rock and be “a record, written in stone of a world changed by a single

“Never again" becomes more than a slogan: It's a prayer, a promise, a vow. There will never again be hatred, people say. Never again jail and torture. Never again the suffering of innocent people, or the shooting of starving, frightened, terrified children. And never again the glorification of base, ugly, dark violence. It's a prayer. (Elie Wiesel in Hostage)

Pollan is right in his mindset to push humanity into action in order to undo the damage we have caused, and although the most beneficial changes for the environment seem like drastic lifestyle changes, such as growing our

The author also mentions how some of the damage already caused to the earth might be irreversible. He uses articles and books to support all his arguments and statements making it seem reasonable. I can agree on some of his points but he seems to change his stance and says that people are working on maintaining the earth which makes it seem a bit contradictory. His argument seemed consistent and unbiased while making clear statements with books and articles to help backup his

With the awareness of substance abuse as an illness, attention has also been directed to the families and loved ones of those that suffer. Why do they stay with someone who is so obviously ill? Why do they tolerate being taken advantage of? Codependent No More (Beattie, 1986) was one of the first books addressing this issue, stating that the issue at hand was codependency- the individual in the relationship with the addict suffers from an illness as well. This paper is an analysis of the book, compared with research on the topic.

The destruction of the Earth’s environment is known by almost every human alive. Our planet is time and again being attacked by the dominant human race. People treat the earth as if it does not have a role in our survival as a species. This assault on the environment has been going on for centuries and has brought about consequences that many of us cannot even fathom. If the world is anything like the environment depicted in the novel He, She, and It, the world we know today will be seen as a haven. The environment in the novel as horrible as it may be, is not far from reality. Deterioration of the earth’s environment, population growth, depletion of our resources and world poverty are all issues that point to the future shown in He, She and It. The possibility that we could annihilate ourselves has never been more real. However, our species is one of the most adaptable creatures on Earth, and with our developing technology we might just be able to salvage the world we have left.