Trash Thursday: Everglades

Scientists studying the Florida Everglades have determined that portions of the elevated land, where vegetation and wildlife thrive, have grown from a foundation of garbage. An estimated 5,000 years ago, early settlers left piles of bones; scraps of food; and leather, charcoal, and tool fragments. When the organic waste decomposed, it released nutrients and phosphates into an ecosystem that typically didn’t have those elements. The resulting combination was enough to spur living, breathing, green islands into existence.  More...