The people who appear in this book were incredibly generous with their time, their thoughts, and often their homes. I’m truly grateful to them, and to many others who remained behind the scenes.
For help navigating Kiev and Chernobyl, I must thank Olena Martynyuk, Damian Kolodiy, Dmytro Kolchynsky, and of course Nikolai and Dennis.
In Fort McMurray, in addition to Don and Amy, I was welcomed by Matty Flores and Corey Graham.
Port Arthur is a better town than it gets credit for, and I am especially grateful to Hilton Kelley, Steven Radley, Laura Childress, Peggy Simon, Charlie Tweedel, Duane Bennett, Rhonda Murgatroyd, Jeremy Hansen, Bryan Markland, and everyone at the Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown museum. For background on the Gulf Coast and its refineries, I depended on conversations with Ilan Levin, Jim Blackburn, and Kristen Peek, among others. I especially want to thank Jane Dalton, Scott Dalton, Don Harlan, Kirk Boomer, and Walter Mattox for opening doors in the Southeast Texas oil industry. Adam Ellick of the New York Times not only nominated Port Arthur as a notable polluted place but also was generous and exacting with his reporting advice.
My visit to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was only possible thanks to Project Kaisei’s inclusive spirit, and I wish to thank Mary Crowley, Lenora Carey, and the entire Ocean Voyages Institute. I may have questioned their approach, but I don’t doubt their passion and commitment, and I am deeply grateful for my experiences as a deckhand on the Kaisei. It also seems important to thank any group of people whose company you still enjoy after three weeks at sea, which was true of the Kaisei’s crew. Special thanks to Stephen Mann, who was largely responsible for our survival. I am also grateful to Nikolai Maximenko, of the University of Hawaii, and Bill Francis and Marieta Francis of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation. Gabriel Goldthwaite, Henry Whittaker, and Tim Jones very kindly reviewed the chapter, and Tim provided coordinates for the Kaisei’s route.
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.
by Andrew Blackwell
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