Status of the local planet, in microcosm:

The former Lake Delton, WI

Chagrined tourists peer at the waterless lake in the WI Dells area, drained dry through a breech of a berm surrounding the made-made structure during the recent heavy rains and flooding. This is the lake made famous in videoclips shown around the world when exotic houses washed down from their tenuous perches and floated toward their nemises, adrift and crushed.

Surveying the lake bottom, viewers see the stumps of leveled trees covered once by a shimmering lake, now muddy sludge. The compliment of undegraded junk tossed overboard from pleasure boats completes the sordid picture.

We cannot keep from seeing this image as standing for the overall state of our once artful planet. The lake will be restored, authorities are saying..........

Let's hear that for the Gaia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_theory_(science)