Book excerpt: Before the Fall of Imperial Rome, priests cast the internal organs of sacrificial animals on temple floors, claiming to be able to divine the future from these entrails. By probing the remains of Alberta's past sacrifices -- reading her entrails -- Norman Conrad believes that we might dimly see at apparition of Alberta's future. This controversial book vividly portrays the history of land and life in Alberta, from the Ice Ages to the present. Making no apology for his criticism of government, regulators and large corporations, Norman Conrad makes a strident plea for Alberta's dangerously imperiled environment and presents a model that can be applied anywhere.