Well I've been busy with school and haven't had much of an opportunity to post on this blog.
However I am compelled to post because I have just finished an interesting book called the world without us by Alan Wiesman. It's an interesting premise, the idea being to explore what would be the legacy of the human race, if everyone disappeared tomorrow. Not through war or through a catastrophic event, but simple vanished.
The scariest chapters for me had to be the one on nuclear reactors, and also the one which describes the inability of nature to break down and biodegrade plastic. Every piece of plastic created by us since the 1950s is still with us. This coupled with the fact that much of it ends up in the oceans is quite disturbing.
Another chapter highlights the chemical complex that produces many of our everyday household products, the oil refinery complex in Houston. This chapter was just plain interesting, the way that different types of fuels and inputs for plastic making are separated and how the refineries are so connected and linked together.
It's definitely worth reading, although towards the end it gets a bit odd, and sticks less to its main theme.