This is the first of many guest blog posts that on the Stone Soup blog. Today's guest blogger is Lukas Cooke, 10, who urges us to think more about nature and how we can protect it.
Have you ever wondered what the plants and animals around you feel like? Us humans, we don't seem to realize that even in the city, the world around us is teeming with life. Beneath our feet, mice, moles, gophers, various insects and bugs, and other natural life live underground. In lakes, oceans, ponds, rivers, and other sources of water fish, water birds, some reptiles, amphibians, and mammals live together. And of course, the creatures we see everyday such as birds, rodents and others live above ground.
Plants are alive too. Trees, flowers and bushes grow on the surface of Earth just like we do!
Together, plants, animals, rocks, minerals, dirt, and others make up nature. Nature can be beautiful, and quite ugly, but no matter what nature looks like, it plays a very important role. Plants make oxygen, which is what we breath. Humans get food from nature which is essential to our survival, as is true with water. Water is natural too. In short, without nature, humans can't survive. Neither can any animals either.
But despite this fact, something dreadful is happening. The human race is destroying nature. Most of the time, when something is built, part of nature is destroyed. Fumes from machines and vehicles are toxic to animals and plants. Trash and litter tossed away often attract animals that end up suffocating.
It is a good thing that the National Park Service is helping create national parks that are protected places in nature where building is illegal. Still, there are many places where you see fields with a few trees. In a while, those places will turn into houses, stores, apartments and other buildings. What people fail to do is see the beauty in even the not so interesting places in nature. We focus on protecting the most beautiful places. If in the end the only places left in nature are the most stunning, they won't be so amazing anymore. We need to see the best in all the places in the natural world.
Nature needs our help. We need nature. I love nature and I want to protect it. There is a man whom I admire greatly, even though he is long dead. John Muir helped create the National Park Service and wrote essays to persuade the government to protect the wild.
So let's reinspire the John Muir legacy!