Chapter 1: The book begins by telling about the only half-million acres of Earth that has remained untouched by humans for its entire existence. This place is called Bialowieza Puszcza, which is Polish for "forest primeval." There is ten times more biodiversity here than in any other forest, and more species and overall kinds of life than anywhere else on the continent. The forest is described as reminiscent of a fairy tale story, with trees 150 feet tall and diameters of seven feet. This chapter was short, so I believe that it's just a summary of what the book is becoming and how something with such little human interaction could stay so perfect for so long.

Chapter 2: This chapter really caught my attention, and put the book into perspective for me. The author states that humans are merely visitors on this earth, and that the earth wants our respect. Weisman goes on to describe how the earth breaks down the materials that our found in our houses. This entire process of a house decomposing throughout many years is mainly caused by water, because it "always wants in." It breaks everything except for bathroom tiles because of the chemical properties of their fired ceramic. The cycle our planet undergoes is amazing because it's always starting fresh; tearing down the things that are old and weak and in the same spot replacing it with a youthful one, with many years of growth ahead of it. Weisman says that the earth would return to its natural state if humans ceased to exist. The only way to tell that humans were ever there would be fire hydrants

Chapter 3: This chapter is called "The City Without Us." Weisman describes the process that nature would undergo in order to restore itself to the way it was before anyone had tampered with it. Before the land was settled by immigrants, present day New York was covered by huge pine and oak trees, with hundreds of streams and a river running through the area. Then humans filled them all with dirt and created water management systems. Underneath the city is a huge flow of water that the subway stations have to hold back daily. Even now when man is thriving in the city, when there is heavy rain the subway risks flooding. It's almost as if nature is fighting back, always giving us reasons to leave it alone.

Chapter 4: Weisman begins this chapter with the alarming fact that a glacier is due to flatten Manhattan any day now since the last glacier left 11,000 years ago, although scientists are doubting it will come on time due to increased levels of carbon dioxide. Until around 200 years ago, carbon dioxide from the gaseous part above the atmosphere dissolved into the liquid part (atmosphere and oceans) below at a steady rate, keeping the world at equilibrium. Now that the carbon dioxide levels are so high, the ocean needs to readjust. Weisman points out that if we continue to increase our carbon emissions, Greenland will melt and turn Manhattan into just a few islets at its highest altitudes. Evolution is discussed towards the end of this chapter, where Weisman questions whether there is potential that another species, such as a lion, could have evolved as we did from apes, and have hegemony over Homo sapiens.