As Those Who Have Hope

What might happen to the world in general if all people were to suddenly disappear? That’s the question posed by Alan Weisman in his book, The World Without Us.

We start with a story.

A story about a Cypriot community caught in the crosshairs of a devastating war. More than a generation ago, 1974, war broke out on the island nation of Cyprus between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots. The actual fighting lasted only a month before the United Nations brokered a cease-fire and set up a no-man’s zone called the Green Line between the two sides. The line was drawn between wherever the opposing sides were at the exact moment the truce took force. Thus the Turks ended up on the north side of this line and the Greeks on the south, with U.N. troops patrolling the no-man’s land between them.

One unintended casualty of this war was a community called Varosha, which had been under development by the Greek Cypriots as a resort to rival the Riviera. Tall hotels had been built along the sunny beachfront, with blocks of shops, restaurants, movie theaters, vacation bungalows and employee housing behind them. About 20,000 people lived or worked there....