Getting divorced is a lot easier than it used to be. In the past, most states required that you state a specific reason for getting a divorce (including abandonment). But now, all states recognize no-fault divorces. This basically means you simply have to claim you can no longer get along with your spouse, and you’ll be granted a divorce. Located between Hawaii and New Zealand, over 3,000km east of Brisbane, Tonga's archipelago of islands is an expensive place to send a car. Area and population ranks: there are c. 300 islands over 20ha in extent and 93 permanently inhabited islands were listed in the 2011 census. Such is the rapacious wheel of capitalism. Colonialism also: an unexpected trip is to Tanzania, where the imperial Amani Biological-Agricultural Institute was established in 1902. The German imperial powers have gone, but their plants remain. The Institute was formed to discover which species might thrive and be useful cash crops to the colonial powers. The clear-cutting of native growth and transplanting of species happened on a vast scale, and at Amani the imported species – an “alien invasion” that includes bamboo and sugar palms – are now rampaging through the unique, isolated ecosystem of the Usambara Mountains. “Known horrors had been turned loose upon one of the world’s most isolated, most fragile, most biologically rich habitats… and no one was paying attention.”

Standing on the edge of the landfill, he points to a pit that was meant to be gradually filled with rubbish over 10 years. In 2005, Tongans began waking up to a new sound, one that was already familiar to many people in other countries.Some of the only truly feral cattle in the world wander a long-abandoned island off the northernmost tip of Scotland. A variety of wildlife not seen in many lifetimes has rebounded on the irradiated grounds of Chernobyl. A lush forest supports thousands of species that are extinct or endangered everywhere else on earth in the Korean peninsula’s narrow DMZ. When one spouse simply walks away from that delicate balance, it can create extreme financial hardship.

Even if you have sources of funds you can tap, the stress of being on your own, the anger and fear of an unknown future, a disruption in routines and normalcy, and how this will affect your children can also put you on edge. Leaving because of physical or mental cruelty can be a justifiable reason for constructive abandonment. In some states, refusing sexual intercourse can often be claimed as constructive desertion as well. There are also instances when a spouse is required to live with abusive or intrusive inlaws or they refuse to relocate to a new state or city as forms of constructive abandonment. What happens when humanity retreats? Or is forced to abandon? What happens to those areas of desolation? Is “desolation” just another of our human-centric terms? Do we mean: desolate of us, abandoned by us? We talk of post-industrial wastes, of contaminated land. But given time, what happens? What might happen to the entire planet, when humanity shrinks away? Cal Flyn’s brave, thorough book sets out to explore places where angels fear to tread – if angels are traditional “nature writers” or “rewilders”. The result is fascinating, eerie and strange. And because the author has chosen to, it eventually nudges towards the optimistic. Yes, that is what I wanted to hear, that, and not another doom and gloom, end-of-the-world book, and god bless her, she does deliver a message of hope - not that everything will be fine, because it won't be, and there will be enormous losses, and our lives will likely get worse before we come out the other side (if we do). It's a tough, realistic message, and I agree with her; even if we are facing massive droughts, famines, and societal collapse in many areas of the world caused by climate change, we can't give up (or worse, be oblivious), because we haven't lost yet, and the best of the world is worth fighting for. Murray, W.H. (1966) The Hebrides. London. Heinemann. p. 231. Murray speculates that the disease may have been typhus.Burton and Beazer are both members of the Barbudan People’s Movement, which sits in opposition on the Barbuda council and in the federal legislature. They blame the government for the slow recovery. They think Gaston Browne’s Antigua Labour party government is using the hurricane to consolidate power in Barbuda, particularly over land, which is held through a complicated tenure system. One 2015 analysis of satellite images estimated at least forty thousand square miles of forest regrowth in eastern Europe and European Russia alone—noting that only an estimated 14 percent of the abandoned farmland had yet converted, thus raising the prospect of large-scale carbon sequestration well into the future. In its prime, it was home to British officers who operated a penal colony and jail on the island for many years, when it became known asthe "Paris of the East." The British residents made it their home with extravagant dance halls, bakeries, clubs, pools, and gardens, until 1941 brought an earthquake and an invasion by the Japanese, who claimed the land for their war bunkers.