Elsewhere : a journey into our age of islands /
Alastair Bonnett.
- 249 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 23 cm.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 236-238) and index.
Part one: Rising. Why we build islands -- Flevopolder, The Netherlands -- The World, Dubai -- Chek Lap Kok, Airport Island, Hong Kong -- Fiery Cross Reef, South China Sea -- Phoenix Island, China -- Ocean Reef, Panama -- Natural, overlooked and accidental: other new islands -- Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai, Tonga -- The Accidental Islands of Pebble Lake, Hungary -- Trash Islands -- Part Two: Disappearing. Disappearing Islands -- The San Blas Islands of Guna Yala, Panama -- Tongatapu and Fafa, Tonga -- The Isles of Scilly, UK -- Part Three: Future. Future Islands -- Seasteading -- Dogger Bank Power Link Island, North Sea -- East Lantau Metropolis, Hong Kong -- Not an ending.
"Because of their size and boundedness, islands tell tales about what's happening to our world more clearly than continental lands ever could. One of those tales is about the inexorable rise of sea levels and the disappearance of land, which is plainly visible on islands. But surprisingly, islands also continue to come into being regularly, some created through natural forces such as volcanism or melting ice, others through human desires for political and economic expansion, military defenses, or simply new tourist havens. Often the human-made islands are being built heedless of rising waters-just a few feet above current sea level-and are themselves contributing to the destruction of the environment. As in his previous books about the world's unusual places, Alastair Bonnett here features stories of his visits to a number of islands or island groups, ranging from the South Pacific to Panama, with stops in Dubai and northern Europe. Along the way, he discusses the many ways islands rise and fall, the longand little-known history of human island building, and the prospect that the hills and valleys of today's continental lands-as on North America's eastern seaboard-will one day be a series of archipelagos"--