“the earth abideth forever,"--
One of the most profound yet readable books I  know, "Earth Abides" (1949)  by George R.  Stewart imagines a world where the Earth just can't take any more of our exploding population and technological waste....a sudden virus eliminates most of the human population...
Yet it has a positive and  intriguing theme.   However, back at that time Stewart could not have known  how our oceans would be taken over by masses  of non-degradable   plastic...