This is the future story of all the human impact that the earth will have to absorb. It's a lyrical investigation (beautifully written with many interludes into literature and myth) of the scars we'll leave in the strat, from obvious things like buried tunnels in the mountains and plastic returning to where it came from, to our bizarre burying methods of nuclear waste management and the layer of space junk way above us. A very good read for a different perspective on pollution, and a new way of thinking about environmental conservatism.