ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

No book is an island, but here that is particularly true. I researched and wrote it over a year and a half, but it grew from more than a decade of experiences in China and Asia and benefitted from hundreds of people who have offered insights, friendship, and hospitality.

First there was my time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sichuan province, when my students and colleagues, as well as the other American volunteers, provided an unforgettable introduction to China. Many of the students I taught at Chengdu Teachers College have become friends and I am grateful for their kindness. David (Zhang Chao) embodies the friendship shown by many.

Then there were my years as a magazine and newspaper journalist. I am grateful to Melinda Liu, Newsweek’s long-time China bureau chief, for helping me find my feet, and to Andy Alexander and Chuck Holmes at Cox Newspapers for giving me a beat big enough that I couldn’t possibly get bored: the things I saw as I reported across Asia revealed the fragility of our planet and inspired this project. A few people deserve particular recognition: Lone Droscher-Nielsen, the director of the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rescue Center in Borneo, impressed me with her passion for wildlife; Janos Bogardi, the director of the Institute for Environment and Human Security at United Nations University, started me thinking about the importance of precautionary planning, particularly in regard to climate change; and Sze Pan Cheung, a Greenpeace expert, helped me recognise the impact of China’s timber demand on the world’s forests. As a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, I was lucky enough to learn from some of the world’s top researchers. Thanks especially to Penny Chisholm, Elfatih Eltahir, Gilbert Metcalf, Michael Vandenbergh, fellowship director Phil Hilts, and the Knight Foundation.

For the book itself, I am indebted to the scientists and experts who took time from their busy schedules to help and to friends who offered everything from places to stay to instructions on how to remove leeches. Some are mentioned in the preceding pages, but I want to offer special thanks to the following people: in China, Jesse Atkinson, Carter Brandon, Chang Shiyan, Leo Chen, Chen Yong, Sze Pang Cheung, Dai Xiaojie, Feng Yongfeng, Jiang Kejun, Lei Hongpeng, Li Hua of Everglory International Co., Evan Osnos, the Schmitz-Chu family, Sun Xiufang, Wang Canfa, Wang Chengyou, Wang Song, Wang Tao, Wang Yongchen, Wei Qiwei, Wu Bo, Xu Jintao, Yang Fuqiang, Zhang Dejun and Jiao Huichun, Zhang Jingjing, Shane Zhao, and Zhu Gongqian; in India, Deep Contractor, Tykee Malhotra, Jehangir Pocha, Valmik Thapar, and Belinda Wright; in Papua New Guinea, the staff of the Binatang Research Center, Benny Francis, Goodwill Amos, Fidelis Kimbeng and his family, Vojtech Novotny, Semcars and Junior, Phil Shearman, and Bob Tate; in the United States, Bruce Beehler, Jim Butler, Kerstin Canby and Forest Trends, Bill Chandler, Jerry Fletcher, Bob Flynn, Leslie Glustrom, Peter Hessler, Bruce Hope, the International Crane Foundation (particularly James Burnham and Jim Harris), Dan Jaffe, Johanna Lewis, Thomas Lovejoy, Susan Moran and Tom McKinnon, Kirk Olson, Fred Palmer, Juan and Courtney Pena, Stuart Pimm, Stapleton Roy, Roger Singer, David Smith, Bill Speidel, Ed Steinfeld, Richard Stone, Pieter Tans, Steve Trent, Peter Paul van Dijk, Alex Wang, Adam Weiss, the Woods Hole Research Center (particularly Richard Houghton and George Woodwell), Zhou Nan, and my in-laws—YR, Sen, and Jay; elsewhere, Hanna and Carsten Donau, James Hewett, Julian Newman, Paul Pearson, Louis Putzel, and Sam Turvey. This book is built largely on what they shared, and while I take responsibility for my opinions (and any errors), I acknowledge my debt: they are, and will remain, my friends and teachers.

Likewise, I have benefited from writers who tilled similar ground before me. While researching, I read dozens of books, scores of reports, and hundreds of newspaper and magazine stories. A few writers deserve particular credit. Jonathan Watts, a longtime Asia environment correspondent for the Guardian newspaper (now their Latin America correspondent) and friend, went far out of his way to offer advice, contacts, and corrections. His book, When a Billion Chinese Jump: How China Will Save Mankind—Or Destroy It, is a superb account of China’s environmental crisis and proved an invaluable source to which I’m particularly indebted. Judith Shapiro’s Mao’s War Against Nature: Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China provides a clear—and fascinating—framework to understand the roots of China’s environmental meltdown; she, too, offered invaluable advice and friendship. Samuel Turvey’s Witness to Extinction: How We Failed to Save the Yangtze River Dolphin offers a heart-rending account of the loss of the baiji, and, in the bigger picture, of the Yangtze itself. Jennifer Turner, the director of the China Environment Forum at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., was an incredible font of information and context, as were the CEF’s publications.

Jennifer and the Woodrow Wilson Center also generously provided me with a quiet place to write and the assistance of Sukran Moon, a very capable researcher. Back in Beijing, Qiu Xiaolei, my long-time assistant at Cox Newspapers, once again proved skillful at finding obscure data and correcting my errors. The D.C.-based Alicia Patterson Foundation provided fund-ing that allowed me to travel to Southeast Asia, China, and within the United States. I am grateful to its board of directors and to Margaret Engel.

In the publishing process, my thanks go first to Janet Silver, my agent, for believing in the idea and finding it a good home. At St. Martin’s Press, Michael Flamini offered encouragement, good judgement, and patience.

I am also fortunate to have a group of smart, knowledgeable, and verbally dexterous friends in China who kept me on my toes even as they helped me relax. Farther afield, Vijay Venkatesh kick-started the project by never forgetting to ask when I’d get around to writing that book I’d mentioned. Juan Pena set off my globe-trotting one chilly winter night by suggesting we visit Colombia.

Further back, my family deserves credit for helping me trust myself and then giving me space to do so. Without their example, I would not have taken the leaps that led me to China and into journalism. My brother, Ken, and sister, Donna Maribel, instilled a healthy fear of statistics and offered continual support. Thanks also to my parents for commenting on an early draft.

My wife, Jen, deserves a lion’s share of my gratitude. She—somehow—found ways to calm me down when my work seemed stalled and maintained her wonderful sense of humour and optimism even as we moved to Boston, Beijing, and Washington, D.C.: I never would have written this without her support.

Last but—except in size—not least, my daughter deserves recognition. We learned of the pregnancy as I was beginning to write, and through it all I thought of her. Some day she and her generation will inherit whatever we leave behind. May we prove courageous and generous.