Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape

Product Information

I was very pleased (though I am, of course, biased) to see her discuss evolution this much—and get it right. The author brings so much insight and perspective to the abandoned areas discussed, it's incredibly moving. Exploring some of the eeriest, most desolate places in the world, Cal Flyn asks: what happens after humans pick up and leave? To access your ebook(s) after purchasing, you can download the free Glose app or read instantly on your browser by logging into Glose.

Ebooks fulfilled through Glose cannot be printed, downloaded as PDF, or read in other digital readers (like Kindle or Nook).On Montserrat, the village of Plymouth was buried by the eruption of a volcano that “ is a known erratic, a drunken lout known to stir into destructive rage even after years of troubled sleep” (p. This sees her engage with the Ehrlichs and the Scrantons of this world who believe it is already too late, that the geological forces put into motion will run their course no matter what, and that the best we can do is brace for impact. A vivid reflection on the “post-human landscape”, Islands of Abandonment finds its author embarking on a series of bold expeditions to examine the marks left on our land after humans have retreated. Whether due to war or disaster, disease or economic decay, each extraordinary place visited in this book has been left to its own devices for decades. This has been particularly well-studied in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone but is in no way exclusive to it.

Dotted around our planet are numerous areas now devoid of human habitation: ghost towns, conflict zones, pollution hotspots, and areas wrecked by natural forces. I definitely think nothing can top this for my non fiction reads this year, just wish I had gotten to it. Now for the bit that was new to me: in some abandoned sites invasive species initially run rampant to then fall victim to native diseases or pests years or decades later. Flyn sees the same everywhere; humans leave and nature comes rushing back in like an unstoppable tide.Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape is available on William Collins, 9hr , 6min.

By turns haunted and hopeful, this luminously written world study is pinned together with profound insight and new ecological discoveries that together map an answer to the big questions: what happens after we're gone, and how far can our damage to nature be undone? Maybe painstaking is the wrong word, she opines, for it “ implies slow deliberate travel in a single direction. She introduces Greg Garrard’s notion of disanthropy: “ the yearning for the absence or negation of humans” (p. A haunting journey through the world’s abandoned places, Flyn’s wide-ranging and reflective meditation on how nature continues in humanity’s absence is an eerie yet ultimately optimistic account of ecological diversity.

According to the IUCN, more than half of the worst invasive plant species are escapees from botanical gardens, though she is also balanced enough to discuss the arguments put forth in Inheritors of the Earth about invasive species not always causing disruption.