You understand... just what the Taoists mean when they say…

“The Panama Canal,' says Abdiel Perez, 'is like a wound that humans inflicted on the Earth--one that nature is trying to heal.”

— Alan Weisman

The fact that the infrastructure is falling apart is not necessarily because it's built poorly. The New York City subways were built in 1903.…

— Alan Weisman

“Before artificial nitrogen fertilizer became widely available, the world's population was around 2 billion. When we no longer have it - or if we…

— Alan Weisman

“Puszcza, an old Polish word, means “forest primeval.” Straddling the border between Poland and Belarus, the half-million acres of the Białowieża Puszcza contain Europe’s…

— Alan Weisman

Change is the hallmark of nature. Nothing remains the same.

— Alan Weisman

“In recent years, a green burial movement has protested formaldehyde, which oxidizes to formic acid, the toxic in fire ants and bee stingers, as…

— Alan Weisman

“In the days when money was backed by its face value in silver or gold, there were limits to how much wealth could flow…

— Alan Weisman

“Missing, however, are nearly all fauna adapted to us. The seemingly invincible cockroach, a tropical import, long ago froze in unheated apartment buildings. Without…

— Alan Weisman

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…

— Alan Weisman

In a future that portends stronger and more-frequent hurricanes striking North America's Atlantic coast, ferocious winds will pummel tall, unsteady structures. Some will topple,…

— Alan Weisman

The real people who hold our civilization together are the maintenance people. If it weren't for them - pumping water out of subways, painting…

— Alan Weisman

“Once, we built structures entirely from the most durable substances we knew: granite block, for instance. The results are still around today to admire,…

— Alan Weisman

“Arsenic turned out to work even better, and was cheaper. Until it was banned in the 1890s, it was used widely, and heavy arsenic…

— Alan Weisman

For years, I have been looking for a way to look at the whole global environmental situation, which I have the privilege and burden…

— Alan Weisman

“In New York, the European starling—now a ubiquitous avian pest from Alaska to Mexico—was introduced because someone thought the city would be more cultured…

— Alan Weisman