Being Here: The Geologic History of Long Island

Sure, those living on Long Island are often aware of existence at the nexus of solid, liquid and gas, particularly the tremendous forces of wind and wave.  However, because of scale, less apparent to us are the enormous astronomical and geological forces that influence nearly every move we make.   For nearly a billion years, heat from deep in the Earth made our location the locus of mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes.  The next major influence were the vast continental ice sheets of the past two million years, the last of which strew this island about like so much flotsam over a thick blanket of mountain tailings.  Lastly, humans have changed the island’s biota and groundwater chemistry.

PRODUCER:  Carleton Schade
http://diebackandcollapse.com

Carleton Schade trained as a geologist and has worked for years as an educator, writer and futurist.  Through various media – the classroom, theatre, Internet, scientific journals, in conferences and salons – he has been involved in integrating the diverse fields of the human experience and sharing the synthesis with an audience.  His latest project is a book entitled, Dieback: The Science and Soul of the Coming Collapse, which interprets the accelerating ecological collapse as a crisis in our cultural evolution.