I was reading a national geographic a while back, an article on the waxing and waning of the earths climates and how the Arctics' and Antarctica were once hot, humid swamp lands, and how, maybe in 10,000 years they would be again.
What effect would this have on humanity, maybe it would become a new place to live, maybe wars would be fought over the new land and countries founded. Maybe we would find out that we had already been there before.
Hence Recede, a quick journey through the geological era's as ice makes way for water, water to sand, sand to rock, rock to grass, grass to tree then back round again, humanity presence barely noticeable on the radar.
A brilliant concept, executed with perfection! The way the statue [thing] gets slowly revealed by the changes, instead of just standing there in different environments is a nice touch.