Welcome to the Snowblog!
This is the place to hear the thoughts of those at Snowbooks. We'll post about book launches, new reviews, and whatever's running through our heads at any given moment. We hope you enjoy it!
Search the Snowblog and website
If you'd like to contact us about anything you read here, please feel free to email us at blog@snowbooks.com.
Feeds
Subscribe to RSS 2.0Elsewhere
Archives
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
Reference documents
Battling misanthropy
posted by Rob on May 27, 2008 01:02 PM
It's not easy. Read the newspaper and it's full of the bad, bad things humans get up to. Then watch a program like Life After People and it's difficult not to feel like the world would be a very agreeable place without humans: clean seas teeming with life; cities overgrown, the skyscrapers cracked and open, full of birds, vines wrapping everything, trees growing through the concrete, the air fresh and smelling of plant life. The program was a History Channel special and I missed it while I was in the States. Fortunately it popped up here on Channel Four last night and will be shown again on the History Channel on the 28th and 29th of June. The tone is one of tragedy: all of mankind's works fading and crumbling. But I couldn't help finding it optimistic. I really must focus more on the positive. Remind me again: what's good about there being six billion of us?
Comments: 5
All content © Snowbooks | Privacy policy
I missed the programme but it sounded an awful lot like a riff on Alan Weissman's The World Without Us Which is terrific (http://www.worldwithoutus.com - there's a great little video in the multimedia section about how your house would fare without you).
Posted by: alex on May 27, 2008 02:17 PM
I thought it was optimistic too.
I'd visualized a radioactive wasteland with tumbleweed plastic bags snagging on the footprints of a wandering Keith Richards.
Derek
Posted by: Derek H on May 27, 2008 02:30 PM
Fewer cockroaches?
Posted by: KatharineC on May 28, 2008 01:37 PM
Despite being a radioactive wasteland, the area around Chernobyl is teaming with wildlife.
This is a great video.
Posted by: Christopher Teague on May 28, 2008 07:21 PM
You're right: it was oddly optimistic -- we'll probably blow ourselves up, but, as per area around Chernobyl, Gaia will soon be blooming again ... but the "hidden political economy" of this way of thinking seems very troubling. It hints that we may as well keep polluting till we drop (because when we do all drop, the trees will will the long game).
The politics of misanthropy are comforting, but they tend, also, to be very racist. There are way too many of us, it says, but: hey, I can tell you a place where there are plenty of us dying out ...
Posted by: Mark Thwaite on May 29, 2008 01:35 PM