Forum 2017-18 The World Without Us

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1. Nicholas Lawrence Staff English

   #1 12:48, Mon 2 Oct 2017

   Alan Weisman's The World Without Us, an extended thought experiment on what the world would look like if humanity disappeared tomorrow - “Is it possible that, instead of heaving a huge biological sigh of relief,
   the world without us would miss us?”

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2. Nicola Brown

   #2 20:34, Tue 3 Oct 2017

   After reading the Prelude to The World Without Us I thought that this article was interesting. Languages that are lost sever links to local landscapes, culture and nature forever.

   https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/28/appeal-launched-to-collect-poetry-in-endangered-languages

   Nicola

    

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3. Nicholas Lawrence Staff English

   #3 19:25, Sun 8 Oct 2017

   Thanks for posting this, Nicola - there are parallels here with the question of biodiversity and the 'sixth extinction' of earth's species now underway. See this essay by Elizbeth Kolbert, which became a book of the same title:

   https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/05/25/the-sixth-extinction

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