Andrew Blackwell - Visit Sunny Chernobyl - And Other Adventures in the World's Most Polluted Places

In Brazil, I depended utterly on Gil Serique’s limitless store of energy, enthusiasm, and knowledge. Anyone seeking a guide, translator, or drinking buddy in the Amazon should seek him out immediately. I am also indebted to Rick Paid, who was immensely generous with his time, as were Josenilson de Souza Guimaraes (aka Tang), Eric Einstein, Eric Jennings, Steven Alexander, Joe Jackson, Luiz Machado, Antonio Carneiro, Raimundo Carneiro, and everyone at the Ambé Project. Carolina Klauck Moraes provided invaluable logistical support from afar, as well as after-the-fact translation.

I’m very thankful to Cecily Huang for her research, translation, and logistics work in China. My deep appreciation also goes to the Han family, to Liu, and to the coal workers of a particular mine near Linfen. Thank you as well to Jonathan Watts, Andrew Jacobs, David Yang, Helen Couchman, Ami Li, Evan Osnos, and Ruth Morris.

Of the many people who helped me in India, I would especially like to thank Mansi Midha. For the warm welcome at Man Mandir and on the Yamuna yatra, I thank Shri Ramesh Baba Ji Maharaj and his followers, including Brahmini, Sunil, Jai, and Mahesh. Thanks also to Jason Burke, Kakoli Bhattacharya, Vimlendu Jha, Anand Bhaskar Rao, and Shruti Narayan.

In both the Pacific and Amazon chapters, I combined my research for this book with the production of television segments for the weekly newsmagazine Dan Rather Reports. I am most grateful to Mr. Rather for that opportunity, and for his words of encouragement; also to the management and staff at DRR, among them Wayne Nelson, Elliot Kirschner, Steve Tyler, and Andrew Glazer, who provided me with work, contacts, and advice.

As my agent, Michelle Tessler has been an ideal advocate for this project, and without her guidance and enthusiasm it would not exist. Colin Dickerman also believed in the book from a very early stage and made a home for it at Rodale. As for everyone else at Rodale, I can’t thank them enough for their hard work and collegiality: Mike Zimmerman, Marie Crousillat, Brent Gallenberger, Aly Mostel, Maureen Klier, Amy King, and especially Gena Smith, without whose intelligence and judgment this book would be a confused mess.

It is impossible for me not to thank the New York Public Library and Wesleyan University for providing me with good places to write; as well as Keith Blount, who created Scrivener, the software in which this book was written. Professor Lesley Sharpe of the University of Exeter provided a clarified version of the epigraph. (The original version can be found in the subway station underneath Bryant Park, in New York City, which means I should thank the MTA as well.)

Many thanks to Paul Wapner for an engaging discussion of his work studying environmental politics, and to Jamie Tanner for drawing the beautiful maps that adorn the beginning of each chapter.

I’m truly humbled by the support I received from my family, especially Jane and Michael Blackwell, and from a deep roster of friends. They supported the dream of this book, indulged my stretches of writer’s despair, and provided invaluable feedback on the manuscript. They include James Taft, Laura Driscoll, Matthew Blackwell, Alice Towey, Katie Ender, Scott Dalton, Lorena Sanches Agredo, Victoria Schlesinger, Sally Kim, Anamaria Aristizabal (who took me to Kanpur in the first place), James Higdon (who named the book), Naomi Goodman, Nick Bussey, Bryan Reichhardt, Anna and Ben Low, Brigid Rowan, Eric Laplante, Fleur Knowsley, Kate Pound, Alisa Roth, Hugh Eakin, Chad Poist, Jeff Cohen, Andrew Goldman, Kristen Cesiro, and the ever-vigilant Erin Lee Mock. As for Adam Bolt, I don’t see how I could have managed without his help. I can’t thank him enough for his collaboration and friendship.

Above all, I will never be able to repay James, Laura, Erin Lee, and Adam. Time and again, these four put a roof over my head, gave me a place at their tables, and showed me what friendship looks like.

Amazon rainforest

carbon bomb potential in, 158

cattle ranching and, 159

feedback loops from cutting down, 158

future of, 195, 198

hydroelectric projects in, 179

record low deforestation in, 160

regulations on clearing, 183–84

secondary forest, 194

selective logging in, 176

size of, 158

soy moratorium, 190–91, 198–201

strangeness of owning, 202–3

Tapajos National Forest, 169–175

waste from logging, 176–77

waves of exploitation in, 164

Archeology sites on Spindletop, 109–10

Beijing, China, pollution in, 219–220

Carbon dioxide (CO 2)

China as biggest emitter of, 221

forests absorbing, 158

Fort McMurray’s emissions, 60–61

oil’s part in emissions, 77

small farmers’ footprint, 183

Cargill Incorporated

deforestation prompted by, 183, 186

forest “preserve” on land of, 193

Greenpeace and, 190–91, 199–200

Santarem terminal of, 159, 167–68

Chernobyl area

briefing for trip to, 15–18

cancer in, 36

firemen’s memorial, 18

Garbage Patch compared to, 127

liquidators in, 10

nature in, 23, 24, 25, 34–36

sanctioning of tourism to, 13

Chernobyl Museum, Kiev, 3–4

Chernobyl reactor

destruction caused by accident, 30

firemen at, 3, 18, 29

generation of electricity by, 5–6

model at Chernobyl Museum, 4

New Safe Confinement for, 31–32

nuclear lava in, 30

scale model of, 29–30

sequence leading to failure of, 12–13

Shelter Object around, 28–29, 30–31

visitor center, 29–32

Chernobyl town, 34–38

China

as biggest CO 2emitter, 221

government jobs in, 240

journalists unwelcome in, 208–9

lead poisoning in, 217

as major e-waste importer, 207

polluted cities in, 231

Climate change

forests as protection from, 158

oil sands mining and, 44, 60–61

oil’s part in, 77

Coal mining in China, 232–245

changes in industry, 233, 242

coal bosses, 232–36

dangers of, 233, 243

pollution from coal, 221, 237–38

Sad Coal Man, 224–25, 230, 239–240, 245

small mines, 237, 242

visit to a coal mine, 239–245

wages for, 243

Dead zone, Chernobyl area, 19–20, 35

Dragline mining of oil sands, 54–55

Electricity generation

from fossil fuels, 112, 221, 238

nuclear, 5–6

renewable energy in China, 221

Electronics recycling, 206–19

countries involved in, 207

government representative for, 214–15

processes of, 211–13, 214, 215