Cal Flyn’s Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape is a fascinating study of the places where humans once lived, left, and are now seeing, as the sub-title informs us, a rebounding natural world.
Flyn masterfully threads a fine line between acknowledging the extraordinary damage our species has done to our planet while at the same moment highlighting the very real and incredible ability of the earth to heal. This is seldom discussed in environmental debates.
When people leave an area, whether it be the Red Zone in Verdun, the area around Chernobyl, or the expanses of blighted Detroit, nature does what it does best – break down the remains of human structures, and through the actions of water, wind, and encroaching plants and animals – conquer. There is something satisfying about the earth conquering us for a change - once we get the hell out of the way.
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