“What would happen to our planet if the mighty hand of humanity simply disappeared?” (Alan Weisman)
“What would happen to the world and its creatures without man?” (George R. Stewart)
George R. Stewart presents a world where the human population almost becomes extinct, but the operative word is “almost.” Now imagine an Earth Without People, this is exactly what Alan Weisman did ten-years ago with his article. Most interesting is how Weisman’s article mirrors many of the same facts and conclusions as Stewart’s novel. Weisman notes that “the plants, crops, and animal species man has wrought by his own hand would be wiped out in a century or two” (Stewart addresses the same points on pages 273-274) after all human life ceased on Earth, and that “wild carnivores would make short work of livestock”; as well as, natural structural deterioration due to water erosion, just to name a few points of interest. The preceding are all important issues raised in “Earth Abides.” In chapter 7, pages 112-119, and the chapter titled “Quick Years,” pages 128-137, Stewart graphically presents to readers a logically reasoned biotic food chain that would inevitably occur with the disappearance of all human life. The commonalities between Weisman’s article and the Stewart’s novel has an intelligently creative parallel.
