This is the same sludge pond I posted about HERE. (More pictures and back-story at that link)

It still has a strong stench of sewage from where the drilling company dumped their sewage. It also has a strong chemical and hydrocarbon smell.

On Monday, January 28th 2008, the History Channel premiered a show called Life After People.

It was very interesting.

The first segment of the show, titled Trash, provided some excellent food for thought regarding what we'll leave behind. One of the items mentioned is an abomination called "the Pacific Gyre" or "Garbage Patch" -- an area of plastic and man-made trash floating in the north Pacific, currently twice the size of Texas.

Below are two videos: the first is a YouTube segment of the first part of the History Channel special that addresses "Trash" after all the humans have gone. The second video is specifically about the Garbage Patch.

Watch them both, then think about what alternatives we have to address the following issues:

1. Re-use, recycling and minimization of non-biodegradable resources, including possibilities of re-engineering some items and re-purposing others in ways that could mitigate the negative impact.
   
2. Cleaning up our current mess: how?
   
3. Living and working smarter: how can we better utilize our technology and our understanding of science and nature to live, grow and mature as a species?
   

There are options. Some involve rethinking, some involve changing habits and some involve altering expectations. One resource I've mentioned before is this one -- what have you got in mind?

When the well is dry we learn the worth of water. ~~Benjamin Franklin

[Learning the worth of water]
The Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's fourth international assessment released earlier this year predicted that "drought-affected areas will likely increase"