The World Without Us

Among them, I deeply thank Peter Jessop of Integrity Development and Construction in Amherst, Massachusetts, and his design colleagues Anna Novey, Kyle Wilson, and Ben Goodale. Along with Amherst architects Chris Riddle and Laura Fitch, they explained details I’d never dreamed of about the kind of frame structures in which I’ve lived much of my life. Similarly, a day spent with architect Erin Moore and Arizona State Museum antiquities conservation specialist Chris White, walking through another place I’ve called home, Tucson, was both illuminating and humbling to realize how much of my own surroundings I’d never fully seen before. In New York City, landscape architects Laura Starr and Stephen Whitehouse, who had just guided the redesign of Battery Park, offered many insights and even more questions that I needed to probe in order to address the fate of buildings, infrastructure, and landscaping without constant human maintenance.

I also thank Brooklyn Botanical Garden’s Steve Clemants, who spent some patient hours enlightening me, as did New York Botanical Garden’s Dennis Stevenson, Chuck Peters, and herbarium director Barbara Thiers. Across the parkway at the Bronx Zoo, Eric Sanderson and his Mannahatta Project gave me continual inspiration. Charles Seaton of New York Transit arranged my trek through the subways, which Paul Schuber and Peter Briffa ably and affably guided. I spent yet more hours with Cooper Union’s civil engineering chairman Jameel Ahmad, and with NYU’s poly-talented scientist Tyler Volk and physicist Marty Hoffert. And, courtesy of Jerry Del Tufo, I now appreciate that a bridge is so much more than simply a means to the other side.

Outer space is as far a stretch from home as we can make; it’s my good fortune, however, to have had a genuine rocket scientist for a neighbor. Astrophysicist Jonathan Lunine of the University of Arizona is responsible for much of the thrilling work that has brought us images and understanding of the outer planets. He has the gift of explaining hugely complex cosmic matters in language that not just a college freshman, but even I can understand, and to him I owe the idea of using the I Love Lucy show to demonstrate the trajectory of radio signals.

Previous assignments had taken me to some locations that became settings for this book, but several others I had never seen before. In each, I am beholden to people whose knowledge, patience, and generosity added up to an enthralling education.

In Ecuador, I thank cousins Gloria, Bartolo, and Luciano Ushigua: a new generation of Zápara leaders, resurrecting their people.

Seeing Poland’s and Belarus’s ancient Białowieza Puszcza/Belovezhskaya Pushcha felt like entering holy ground. It is a pilgrimage that I wish every European might make, lest this unparalleled natural heirloom be overwhelmed. My thanks to Andrzej Bobiec, Bogdan Jaroszewicz, and Heorhi Kazulka, not only for showing it to me, but for their exemplary courage and principles.

On the beautiful, sadly divided island of Cyprus, I toured the Green Line courtesy of Wlodek Cibor of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus. Asu Muhtaroglu of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Turkish Cyprus, and botanist Mustafa Kemal Merakli showed me Varosha, Karpaz, and much more, as did artist and horticulturist Hikmet Uluçan. In Kyrenia, I thank Kenan Atakol of the CEVKOVA Environmental Protection Trust, Bertil Wedin, Felicity Alcock, and the late Allan Cavinder— and, for invaluable advice and introductions, a longtime former Cyprus resident: American classical guitarist, journalist, and novelist Anthony Weller.

In Turkey, I am deeply obliged for the help and imagination of another novelist, Elif Shafak, who also introduced me to journalists Eyiip Can and David Judson, editors at the Istanbul newspaper Referans. Eyüp, in turn, connected me to columnist Metin Münir. All these people gorged me with more wonderful ideas, food, drink, and friendship than I knew a human could hold: learning that it’s possible is one of the blessings of field research. In Cappadocia, my excellent guide, Ahmet Sezgin, took me to the Nevşehir Museum to meet archaeologist Murat Ertuğrul Gülyaz, another new friend I intend to keep. Yet another fine journalist, Melis Şenerdem, translated my conversation with Sufi master Abdülhamit Çakmut of the Mevlâna Educational and Cultural Society. After having the honor of witnessing his dervish disciples whirl, I am beholden to him for their reminder that humans are capable of not just Earthly, but ethereal beauty.