Landscape - what was on your backyard before you?

Here's a TED talk about NYC and the landscape that was there before the current city. I'm not saying we shouldn't be here or build a city etc... I DO think we should remember the long history of the physical place, the land you live upon now. (yes the geological time scale is absolutely humbling) - but the acute history....

I mean, have you ever looked at a landscape through the eyes of a Native? With little scientific understanding of tides, or exploding guysers at Yellowstone, or volcanic eruptions, or moon phases, or seasons, or the ebb and flood of the skookumchuck narrows? I LOVE the oral tradition and stories that were exchanged and passed down to explain the landscape and these natural processes. Even... it wasn't that long ago when we thought that the Earth was the center of the universe, or that the world was flat, or that Noah's flood formed all geologic formations. (oh wait, some still believe that). BUT - think how much we still don't know.

Oops, that was a tangent, but let's remember the ground beneath us was foundation to others before-humans and natural ecosystems-

CLICK HERE to go to the TED Site and watch it (kind of long and maybe boring if you aren't interested, but I think it is pretty neat!)