The World Without Us

Monte Verde (Chile), 60

Moore, Charles, 121, 123, 123–24, 124, 125

Moser, Edda, 251

mosquitoes

flourishing without humans, 129–30

Mount Hasan Dağ (Turkey), 106–7

Mount Kenya (Kanya), 72, 73

Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania), 79

Mount Rushmore (SD), 181–82

mountains

erosion of, 120–21

mountaintop removal for coal mining, 221–23, 222

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 251

Münir, Metin, 96–97

Murray Springs (AZ), 63–64

museums and museum vaults

durability of, 37

musk oxen, 220

Mzima Springs (Kenya), 77

Nairobi National Park, 78–82

National Museums of Kenya, 68

National Wildlife Refuges

contaminated sites as, 207, 267

Nature Conservancy, The, 140–41, 258

Navajo people, 120

New England

agriculture in, 146–47

cultivation, effects of, 146–47, 149–50

Erie Canal and, 147

forests, 148–50

forests, increase of, 147

Native Americans and, 147–48

stonewalls, 146

New Scientist Magazine, 165

New York Botanical Garden

Hemlock Forest, 28–30, 32

New York City

animal life, 36–37

biodiversity, 27–28, 32

bridges, 33–36

flooding of, 41–42

garbage landfills, 37–38

Hemlock Forest, 28–30

High Line (elevated railroad bed), 27

Lenni Lenape people, 23, 32, 33

Mannahatta Project, 22–24, 30, 32–33

MTA subway system, 105

natural state, 28–30, 33

next Ice Age and, 37–38, 39

original geography, 22–23

pavement, 26–27

plant and tree resurgence, 27, 27–28

skyscrapers, collapse of, 28

Statue of Liberty, 37, 246–47

statue of Waładysław Jagiełło, 21–22, 247

subway system, 24–26

underground water, 22–23

wiring and plumbing, remains of, 38

without humans, 25–26, 26–27, 27–28, 35–36, 36–38, 41–42

See also

North America; South America

Newhouse, Fred, 137–38, 141–42

newspapers

ecological damage from, 119–20

Nicosia (Cyprus), 91

Nogales (Sonora, Mexico), 65

North America

biological interchange, 180–81

Carnegie Desert Botanical Laboratory (Arizona), 55

drought, 168

extinctions, 56–58, 62–63, 63–64

fossils, 53–55, 62–63

placental mammals, 180

reintroduction of elephants, 81

reintroduction of horses, 71

reintroduction of top predators, 271

See also

New England; New York City; South America

North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (horse latitudes), 121, 122, 123–24

Novozybkov region (Russia) fallout from Chernobyl, 216, 218

nuclear facilities

accidents at, 208

contamination from, 215–16, 216

durability of, 210, 212

meltdowns, 212–13, 213–14, 214–16

reactors, 36, 209–11, 212, 212–13, 213, 213–14, 214–16

waste, storage of, 210, 212

nuclear fission

atomic bombs, effects of, 201–2

natural decay, 202–3

See also

plutonium; radiation; uranium nuclear weapons

Hanford Nuclear Reservation (WA) Hiroshima/Nagasaki, 201–2, 206–7

Johnston Atoll, 266–67

Rocky Flats (CO), 207–8, 208–9

and surplus U-238, 205–6

ocean-conveyor cooling, 41, 171, 166–67

oceans

coral reefs, 255–58, 258–59, 259–61, 261–62, 262–63, 263–64, 264–65

fertilizers and, 156

Great Britain’s shoreline, rubbish along, 113–14

horse latitudes (North Pacific Subtropical Gyre), 121, 122, 123–24

plastic particles pollution of, 113–14, 114–16, 116–18, 118–19, 119–20, 120–23, 123–24, 124–25, 125–26, 126–28

shark population, 255–57, 263, 265

Olduvai Gorge, 43–44, 69

Olmstead, Frederick Law, 22, 30

Olorgesailie depression (Kenya), 68–71

Olsen, David, 246

Ottoman Empire.

See

Cyprus

Turkey

ozone

destruction of, 204–5

oxygen-ozone, 204—5

ultraviolet rays, 203–4

PAHs (polyaromatic hydrocarbons), 156, 165, 267

paleolithic humans

in Africa, 68–71

and slash-and-burn agriculture, 167–68

toolmakers, 68–69

Paleozoic Era, end of, 230

Palm Beach Hotel (Varosha, Cyprus), 91–92, 93–95

See also

Constantia Hotel Palmyra Atoll (Line Islands), 264–65

as munitions dump, 258–59

Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station (AZ), 209–11, 212, 213

Panama Canal, 173–75, 177–79, 178

Culebra Cut, 176–77

electricity and, 175, 177

engineering and building, 175–77

Lake Gatún, 176, 177, 179–80

Lake Alajuela, 177

Madden Dam, 177, 179

Río Chagres, 175–76, 177–79

and wildlife, 199–200

without humans, 176–77, 178–70

Panama City, 179

paper, survival of, 248

pavement

deterioration of, 26–27

Pazar, Michael, 238

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

and hermaphroditic polar bears, 159

Pérez, Abdiel, 175–77

permafrost

thaw of, 219–20, 220–21

methane deposits, 220–21

Permian Extinction, 229–31

Peters, Chuck, 29, 32

Petexbatún (Mayan kingdom), 226, 227–28

petrochemical industry

accidents, 136, 138–40

Houston and, 132–33

storage, 135–36

petrochemicals

butadiene, 132

styrene, 132

synthetic rubber, 131–32

See also

chemicals; petroleum; plastics; polymer

petroleum

BP, 135

pipelines, 132–33

and plant life, 31

salt dome storage caverns, 133

synthetic rubber, 131–32

Valero, 135, 136

plant life

extreme conditions, tolerance to, 159–60

genetic modification, 159, 160–62

Ice Age and, 61–62

nonnative invaders, 29–30, 30–31, 32

threats to, 29

plant resurgence

in New York City, 27, 27–28

in Chernobyl, 215–56

plaster walls

deterioration of, 18

plastic

Bakelite, 115, 118, 237

biodegradation of, 17–18, 18, 125–26, 127–28

consumption after 1945, 118–19

ecological damage from, 119–20

natural polymers, 118