
In this 2007 nonfiction work, journalist Alan Weisman travels the world, interviewing evolutionary biologists, archaeologists and other scientists to find out what Earth would look like should the human race suddenly die off. What does he find? Life does go on. But on a planet lacking creatures with opposable thumbs, certain things begin to go to crap. Within two days, New York City’s subway tunnels would fill with water and within weeks, the world’s nuclear plants would deteriorate completely. The good news? After about 100,000 years, carbon dioxide levels would return to what they were before humans existed. The Washington Post called the book “a really cool thought experiment” and TIME called it “a pleasantly morbid parlor game.”