Introduction: The World Outside
What comes to mind when you think about nature? The sky-scraping mountains of the Alps, the canyon-carving Colorado River, a field of wildflowers, a thunderstorm? Maybe you picture something smaller and closer to home: dandelions that grow in sidewalk cracks or the honeybees that buzz outside your window. This book is a guide to all the extraordinary and ordinary things in nature, wherever you find them.
In
The Wild World Handbook, you’ll learn about nine amazing habitats—from polar lands where the sun sometimes shines all day, and sometimes not at all, to mysterious rainforests that are still full of secrets. You’ll read stories about natural wonders like the tallest tree in the world and deserts that bloom so bright you can see them from space.
You’ll also read stories about people, because people have the power to hurt nature or to help it—and you do, too. The people in this book had incredible experiences in nature and then they did something about it. They’re scientists and activists, but they’re also photographers, writers, athletes, and explorers. Each of them started out just like you—an ordinary kid—but their actions changed the natural world for the better and helped us understand our place in it.
You probably know this by now: humans have done a lot to hurt nature and the habitats that make up our beautiful, wild world. And we still do. We cut down forests in unsustainable ways, pour pollution into waterways, and take more than we need from the earth. Today we’re facing a lot of big environmental challenges as a result of people’s actions, such as plant and animal extinction, plastic pollution, and melting glaciers. And all these problems are made worse by climate change and its effects. It can be sad, and scary, to think about all this destruction.
That’s why it’s helpful—and hopeful—to think about these things, too: There are birds that fly in our skies today because someone a hundred years ago cared enough to protect them. There are forests growing tall because someone planted seedlings. There are rivers with cleaner water and healthy fish because someone cleaned them up. History is full of people who destroyed nature and history is full of people who protected and cared for it. Each generation had a choice and we do too: Will we destroy nature and use it up until it’s gone? Or will we take care of our world’s incredible habitats and help them thrive?
You don’t have to be a scientist or a park ranger or a politician or an adult to explore nature or to protect it. You don’t have to live in the woods or even like to camp. You don’t have to own hiking boots or look a certain way or be from a certain place. There are many ways to explore nature and there are many ways to take care of it. This book will show you how.
Copyright © 2021 by Andrea Debbink. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
