Alan Weisman - The World Without Us

Artist Jon Lomberg’s contribution here goes far beyond the reproduced silhouette he drew for the interstellar Voyager spacecrafts. Jon’s vision exemplifies how art can literally soar beyond our supposed limitations and surprise us with manifestations of spirit that feel linked to eternity. His act of preserving sounds and images that embody such spirit is truly one of humanity’s enduring achievements. I am deeply thankful to him, and to Manhattan art conservators Barbara Appelbaum and Paul Himmelstein, for what they bring not only to this book, but to us all.

At MetalPhysic, their Tucson studio and foundry, Tony Bayne and Jay Luker preserve human expression in that most enduring of metal alloys, bronze. I met them through a sculptor who, to my miraculous good fortune, is my wife, Beckie Kravetz. To know that bronze sculptures such as the graceful figures she conjures have a better chance than nearly anything else we humans do of lasting until the end of Earthly time feels utterly fitting and proper to me. Here’s a vast understatement: without her, this book simply would not exist.

Here’s another: All of us humans have myriad other species to thank. Without them, we couldn’t exist. It’s that simple, and we can’t afford to ignore them, any more than I can afford to neglect my precious wife—nor the sweet mother Earth that births and holds us all.

Without us, Earth will abide and endure; without her, however, we could not even be.

— Alan Weisman

Addiscott, T. M. Nitrate, Agriculture, and the Environment . Wallingford, Oxfordshire, U.K.: CABI Publishing, 2005.

Andrady, Anthony, editor. Plastics and the Environment . Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003.

Audubon, John James. Ornithological Biography, or an Account of the Habits of the Birds of the United States of America . Edinburgh: Adam Black, 1831.

Benford, Gregory. Deep Time . New York: Avon Books, 1999.

Bobiec, Andrzej. Preservation of a Natural and Historical Heritage as a Basis for Sustainable Development: A Multidisciplinary Analysis of the Situation in Białowieża Primeval Forest, Poland . Narewka, Poland: Society for Protection of the Białowieża Primeval Forest (TOPB), 2003.

Cantor, Norman. In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death, and the World It Made . New York: Free Press, 2001.

Colborn, Theo, John Peterson Myers, and Dianne Dumanoski. Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Own Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival? — A Scientific Detective Story . New York: Dutton, 1996.

Colinvaux, Paul. Why Big Fierce Animals Are Rare: An Ecologist’s Perspective . Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1978.

Cronon, William. Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England . New York: Hill and Wang, 1983.

Cronon, William, editor. Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature . New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1995.

Crosby, Alfred W. Ecological Imperialism (Second Edition) . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Demarest, Arthur. Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, United Nations. World Population Prospects: The 2004 Revision Highlights . New York: United Nations, February 2005, vi.

Depleted Uranium Education Project. Metal of Dishonor, Depleted Uranium: How the Pentagon Radiates Soldiers and Civilians with DU Weapons (Second Edition) . New York: International Action Center, 1997.

Dixon, Douglas. After Man: A Zoology of the Future . New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981.

Dreghorn, William. Famagusta and Salamis: A Guide Book . Lefkosa, Northern Cyprus: K. Rustem and Bros., 1985.

Dreghorn, William. A Guide to the Antiquities of Kyrenia . Nicosia: Halkin Sesi, 1977.

Dyke, George. V. John Lawes of Rothamsted: Pioneer of Science, Farming and Industry . Harpenden: Hoos, 1993.

Erwin, Douglas. Extinction: How Life on Earth Nearly Ended 250 Million Years Ago . Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2006.

Evans, W. R., and A. M. Manville II, editors. Transcripts of Proceedings of the Workshop on Avian Mortality at Communication Towers . August 11, 1999, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University, 2000, published on the internet at http://www.towerkill.com/and http://migratorybirds.fws.gov/issues/towers/agenda.html.

Flannery, Tim. The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples . Melbourne: The Text Publishing Company, 2001.

Flannery, Tim. The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People . Sydney: Reed Books/New Holland, 1994.

Foreman, Dave. Rewilding North America: A Vision for Conservation in The 21st Century . Washington D.C.: Island Press, 2004.

Foster, David R. Thoreau’s Country: Journey Through a Transformed Landscape . Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999.

Garrett, Laurie. The Coming Plague . New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994.

Hall, Eric J. Radiation and Life . London: Pergamon, 1984.

Hilty, Steven L., and William L. Brown. Birds of Colombia . Princeton N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1986.

Hoffecker, John. Twenty-Seven Square Miles: Landscape and History at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge . U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2001.

Jefferson, Thomas. Notes on the State of Virginia, 1787 . Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1982.

Kain, Roger, and William Ravenhill, editors. Historical Atlas of South-West England . Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1999.

Koester, Craig. Revelation and the End of All Things . Grand Rapids, Mich.: W. & B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001.

Kurtén, Björn, and Elaine Anderson. Pleistocene Mammals of North America . New York: Columbia University Press, 1980.

Kurzweil, Ray. The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology . New York: Viking, 2005.

Langewiesche, William. American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center . New York: North Point Press, 2002.

Leakey, Richard, and Roger Lewin. The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Humankind . New York: Doubleday, 1995.

LeBlanc, Steven A. Constant Battles . New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2003.

Lehmann, Johannes, et al. Amazonian Dark Earths: Origin, Properties, Management . Dordrecht; Boston; London: Kluwer Academic, 2003.

Leslie, John. The End of the World: The Science and Ethics of Human Extinction . London: Routledge, 1996.

Lovelock, James. The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our living Earth . New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988.

Lovelock, James. Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979.

Lovelock, James. The Revenge of Gaia . London: Allen Lane/Penguin Books, 2006.

Lunine, Jonathan I. Earth: Evolution of a Habitable World . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Mann, Charles C. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005.

Marcó del Pont Lalli, Raúl, editor. Electrocucion de Aves en Líneas Eléctricas de México: Hacia un Diagnósticoy Perspectivas de Solución . México, D.F.: INE-Semarnat, 2002.

Martin, Paul. The Last 10,000 Years: A Fossil Pollen Record of the American Southwest . Tucson, Ariz.: The University of Arizona Press, 1963.