Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape

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I think one of the reasons that people have responded to the book is that sense of hope and faith in the natural world that perhaps comes through in these locations. Exploring extraordinary places where humans no longer live – or survive in tiny, precarious numbers – Islands of Abandonment give us a glimpse of what nature gets up to when we’re not there to see it.

Ebooks fulfilled through Glose cannot be printed, downloaded as PDF, or read in other digital readers (like Kindle or Nook). Abandoned places are like magnets to a certain group of people, yet the underground world of urban explorers does not feature in this book. Yet, having acknowledged the devastation humans have wrought, she finds cause for optimism in the most desolate terrain where vegetation has flourished and the animal kingdom has adapted. Posted in ecology, environmental issues, wildlife conservation and tagged book review, evolutionary biology, HarperCollins, invasive species, nature writing, pollution, post-industrial sites, radioactivity, urban environments, warfare, wastelands, William Collins on September 8, 2021 by inquisitivebiologist. Thus, she talks of ecological succession in abandoned landscapes when plants recolonize, including both human wastelands and sites of natural disasters.We pay respect by giving voice to social justice, acknowledging our shared history and valuing the cultures of First Nations. Cal Flyn’s Islands of Abandonment is a book about abandoned places: ghost towns and exclusion zones, no man’s lands and post-industrial hinterlands – and what happens when nature is allowed to reclaim its place. Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape is available on William Collins, 9hr , 6min. The author brings so much insight and perspective to the abandoned areas discussed, it's incredibly moving.

Flyn reveals how “when a place has been altered beyond recognition and all hope seems lost, it might still hold the potential for life of another kind”. Some locations Flyn visits have almost become popular attractions, such as the decaying boomtown of Detroit, but most are not places you want to be. 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? And yet, Flyn sees the same everywhere; humans leave* and nature comes rushing back in like an unstoppable tide.Flyn ponders what lessons this holds for our intensive, hands-on conservation efforts that often include culling, “ one of the biggest ethical quandaries at the heart of comtemporary conservation” (p. Because her forays have shown her the power of nature to rebound—albeit damaged, changed, and with great time and effort—she ultimately cannot accept their conclusions.

In this time, nature has been left to work unfettered – offering a glimpse of how abandoned land, even the most polluted regions of the world, might offer our best opportunities for environmental recovery. Filled with understanding and adventure … Written with a beautiful attention to detail and a generous and imaginative frame of mind. Shortlisted for this year’s Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction (the winner is announced on 16 November), the book describes the isolated and often eerily dystopian fortress islands, irradiated exclusion zones, abandoned towns and shuttered industrial sites that have been recolonised by the natural world. Elsewhere, she travels to Estonia and the land that was once the site of Soviet-era collective farms, and to Plymouth in Montserrat, a town entombed under 40 feet of mud and lava save for the tops of the buildings. I know that when I think about the environment when I think about climate change and all the damage that's been done, it is overpowering and I think to move on and to keep going every day it is important for us to have that sense of hope and optimism.But for me, I need to see that sort of glint of light and and, you know, the plants coming through the cracks in the pavement for me to understand what the route forward is. In West Lothian, Scotland, Flyn climbs enormous slag heaps of spent shale dating to Scotland’s 1860s–1920s heydays of oil production. 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.

Abandoned ship scrapyards around New York hide a darker legacy of soil and sludge laced with lethal levels of dioxins, PCBs, and pesticides that is best left undisturbed.These abandoned sites offer many case studies of how our actions affect evolution in animals and plants. This is a book about abandoned places: ghost towns and exclusion zones, no man's lands and fortress islands - and what happens when nature is allowed to reclaim its place. This is a book about abandoned places: ghost towns and exclusion zones, no man’s lands and fortress islands – and what happens when nature is allowed to reclaim its place. Dotted around our planet are numerous areas now devoid of human habitation: ghost towns, conflict zones, pollution hotspots, and areas wrecked by natural forces.