The World Without Us

cut flowers cultivation, 73–74

electric barricade, 73

wildlife, 72, 73, 74

without humans, 74–75

acid rain, 153

and plant life, 29, 31

adobe walls

deterioration of, 18

Africa

AIDS and, 85–86, 86–87

Australopithecus africanus, 48, 69, 101

ecosystem, fragmentation of, 49–52

extinctions in, 68, 82–83

and human evolution, 44, 47–49, 68–69

Maasai people, 43, 79–81, 82–83, 84–86

national parks, 73–74, 78–81

paleolithic humans in, 68–71

Serengeti Plain, 84–86

Sahara Desert, 75–76, 168

slavery and, 76–78

wildlife, 45–46, 51–52, 68, 71–73, 73–74, 74–75

without humans, 74–74, 75–76

African Conservation Centre, 79–80

African white-backed vulture, 247

sculpture of, 245–46

Agent Orange, 156, 183, 267

agriculture

and civilization, 145–46

engineered crops, 164–65

environment, effect on, 146–47

GMOs (genetically modified organisms), 160–62

in Maine, 146–47

Rothamsted Research, 152–53, 153–57

slash-and-burn, 12, 167–68, 227

See also

fertilizer;

plant life

Ahmad, Jameel, 26–27, 28

AIDS, 85–86, 240

animals and, 86–87

albatrosses, 200

Algita Marine Research Foundation, 121

aluminum

deterioration of, 17, 18

Amboseli National Park, 79, 81

American passenger pigeons, 192–93, 193

animal life, 36–37

Americas, biological interchange between, 180–81

domestic pets, 37

extinctions, 54–55, 55–58, 63–67, 229–32

extinctions, humans and (Blitzktieg theory), 58–61, 61–64, 271–72

fossils, 53–55

hunting and, 61–64, 66

Ice Age and, 61–62

insecticides and, 74

marsupial mammals, 180

megafauna, hunting, 61–64

placental mammals, 180

predators, 36–37

Andrady, Anthony, 125–26, 126–28

Ankara (Turkey), 105–6

Appelbaum, Barbara, 37, 247–48

Appleseed, Johnny, 31

Arecibo Radio Telescope (Puerto Rico), 253

Aristotle, 248

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, 65–66

Armstrong, Louis, 251

art and literary works

bronze sculpture, 245–47, 247

Library of Alexandria (Egypt), 248

museums and museum vaults, durability of, 37

paper, survival of, 248

survival of, 245–47, 247–48

Asia, 190

See

Southeast Asia

Aşikli Höyük (Cappadocia, Turkey), 108–9

Attwater’s prairie chickens, 140–41

Australopithecus africanus, 48, 69, 101

Bach, J.S., 251

bacteria

dependency on humans, 235–36

Baekeland, Leo, 118

Bakelite, 115, 118, 237

Baker, Robert, 217

bank vaults

durability of, 37

BART subway system (San Francisco-Oakland), 105

Bartholdi, Frederic Auguste, 246–47

Bayonne Bridge (NYC-NJ), 34

Beason, Robert, 194–95

Belarus

fallout from Chernobyl, 216

Belovezhskaya Pushcha, 217–18

Belovezhskaya Pushcha. See Białowieża Puszcza

Beqaa Valley (Lebanon), 42

Berry, Chuck, 251

Bessemer, Henry, 246

Bethge, Hans, ix

BHP Billiton Diamonds, 219–20

Białowieża Puszcza (Poland/Belarus), 9–10, 10, 11, 12–13, 13–14, 21, 217, 247, 261

partition of, 13

bighorn sheep

without humans, 235

birds

Attwater’s prairie chickens, 140–41

automobile traffic and, 196

cats and, 197–98

DDT, 74, 129, 159, 196

insecticides and, 74

extinctions, 63, 191–92, 192–93, 193, 199

high-tension power lines and, 193–94

humans and, 63, 191–92, 192–93, 193, 198–200

island dwellers, 200

migrations, 198–99

nonnative invaders, 29–30

plate glass picture windows and, 196–97

raptors, resurgence of, 28, 34

radiation and, 214–16

radio-transmission towers and, 193–94

red-crowned cranes, 186–87

without humans, 191–92, 199, 235

black rhinos

poaching of, 72

without humans, 235

Blitzkrieg theory, 58–63, 271–72

Blue Mosque (Istanbul, Turkey), 103

Bobiec, Andrzej, 12, 13

Borglum, Gutzon, 181

Bostrom, Nick, 240–41, 243–44

BP, 135

accident at, 136

EPA and, 138

Brazos de Dios River (TX), 134, 135, 142, 143

Briffa, Peter, 24–26

bronze sculpture, 245–47

melted for weaponry, 247

Browne, Mark, 114, 117–18

Çakmut, Abdülhamit, 270–71

Cappadocia

history, 108–9

Mount Hasan Dağ, 106–7

underground city, 106, 108–9, 109, 109–11

carbon dioxide (CO₂), 39–40, 40–42, 267

and burning coal, 222–23

sequestering, 223

carbonic acid, 40–41

Carnegie Desert Botanical Laboratory (AZ), 55

Cassava, 2–3

cast iron

deterioration of, 18

Çatal Höyük, 106

cattle, 65

Maasai people and, 82–83, 84–86

cats

population of, 197–98

as predators, 197–98

survival of, 37

Cavinder, Allan, 91–92, 93–95

Cental Park (NYC), 22–24

animal life, 36–37

coyotes in, 33–34, 36

nonnative invaders, 30, 30–31, 30–31

Shakespeare Garden, 30

statue of Waładyslaw Jagiełło, 21–22, 247

CCZ (Civilian Control Zone, Korea), 183

wildlife, 188

cement

deterioration of, 19–20

CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons), 204–5

Chambura Gorge, 47–49

Chang-Hee, Ahn, 183

Changes in the Land (Cronon), 147

Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc (France), 101

chemical fertilizer, 74

chemical weapons

Rocky Mountain Arsenal (CO), 207–8

chemicals

DDT, 74, 129, 159, 196

Dieldrin, 74

EDCs (endocrine-disrupting chemicals), 124

insecticides, 74

PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), 125–26, 156, 159, 267

and plant life, 29, 31

See also

petrochemicals;

plastics;

soil

Chernobyl (Russia), 214–16, 217, 267

Pripyat, 216

wildlife, 217–18

Zone of Alienation, 215, 218

Chesser, Ronald, 217

chicha, 1, 2–3

Chile

Clovis people in, 60

chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), 45, 47–48

and AIDS, 86–87

bonobos, 50–51

Pan prior, 46–47, 49

China

scrap iron and, 133

Chinese ailanthus tree, 26–27, 29, 32