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Alan Weisman

Alan Weisman Books

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“Whether we accept it or not, this will likely be the century that determines what the optimal human population is for our planet. It will come about in one of two ways: Either we decide to manage our own numbers, to avoid a collision of every line on civilization's graph - or nature will do it for us, in the form of famines, thirst, climate chaos, crashing ecosystems, opportunistic disease, and wars over dwindling resources that finally cut us down to size.”

ReligionPoliticsBreedingPopulation GrowthOverpopulation
Book:Countdown: Our Last Best Hope for a Future on Earth?
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“En un mundo sin humanos, las luces rojas dejarán de parpadear al cesar las emisiones de radio y de televisión; dejarán de producirse millones de conversaciones diarias a través de teléfono móvil, y al cabo de un año habrá varios miles de millones más de pájaros vivos. Pero mientras sigamos aquí, las torres de transmisión representan solo el principio de la involuntaria matanza que la civilización humana está perpetrando con unas criaturas con plumas a las que ni siquiera nos comemos.”

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Book:The World Without Us
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“Sin embargo, no hay muchas probabilidades de que ninguno de los que vivimos actualmente dejemos una impronta duradera. Es raro hoy día que alguien quede cubierto con limo, rico en minerales, que a la larga reemplazaría a nuestro tejido óseo hasta convertirnos en rocas con forma de esqueleto. En una de nuestras más extrañas necesidades, nos negamos a nosotros mismos y a nuestros seres queridos, la oportunidad de gozar de un recuerdo auténticamente duradero: el estado fósil,adoptando extravagantes protecciones que al final solo protegerán a la Tierra de que la manchemos.”

MuerteFuneralsExtincionEcologia
Book:The World Without Us
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“En todo el mundo, la población humana aumenta en un millón de personas cada cuatro días. Dado que en realidad no somos capaces de captar lo que significan tales cifras, estas seguirán aumentando de forma descontrolada hasta hacernos entrar en crisis, como les ha ocurrido a todas las demás especies que se han hecho demasiado grandes para este contenedor. Lo único que podría cambiar eso, aparte del sacrificio de la extinción voluntaria de toda la especie humana, es que demostráramos que, después de todo, la inteligencia nos hace realmente especiales.”

DistopiaExtincionDemografiaSuperpoblacionMalthusianaRobert Malthus
Book:The World Without Us
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“One of the reasons I think the population question is important, if we want to be as green as possible, any of our energy that is truly renewable is limited. Solar and wind are intermittent and they're so diffuse, it's difficult to harness them in a significant way. But one thing we could be doing is making it a law (like it is in Israel and Cyprus) to take every building eight stories or under and heat all of the water in those buildings with solar energy. It's absolutely simple and cheap technology.”

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Author:Alan Weisman
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“The fact that the infrastructure is falling apart is not necessarily because it's built poorly. The New York City subways were built in 1903. The fact that they're still running at all is an enormous success. The fact that New York City's bridges have held up as long as they have is extraordinary, and the engineers didn't have computers to tell them about tolerance. They overbuilt these things - traffic on them is like an ant on an elephant.”

LongStillsFactsRunningFallCitiesNew YorkComputerBuiltExtraordinaryToleranceEnormousBridgesNew York CityEngineersTrafficElephantsFalling ApartInfrastructureAntsSubway
Author:Alan Weisman
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“The real people who hold our civilization together are the maintenance people. If it weren't for them - pumping water out of subways, painting bridges to keep from rusting, fixing a steam pipe that is 70 years old - we'd be sunk. If we got rid of all the politicians and the policymakers in the world, the world would keep going. If you get rid of maintenance people, the whole thing breaks down.”

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Author:Alan Weisman
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“In a future that portends stronger and more-frequent hurricanes striking North America's Atlantic coast, ferocious winds will pummel tall, unsteady structures. Some will topple, knocking down others. Like a gap in the forest when a giant tree falls, new growth will rush in. Gradually, the asphalt jungle will give way to a real one.”

WayGivingRealAmericaFallGrowthCitiesTreeWindStrongerStructureForestsGiantsGapsTallCoastJungleHurricanesKnockingNorth AmericaReal OnesAsphaltNew Growth
Author:Alan Weisman
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