With a biome-by-biome structure that mirrors Mother Nature's own design, Our Earth Matters is a celebration of our fragile Earth, a warning to protect it, and an inspiring source book full of ideas for making a positive change. The book begins with a brief history of our planet's birth and development, revealing how an astonishingly unlikely series of accidents made Earth the only planet in the universe known to be suitable for life. As life flourished and spread, it changed the planet and created the "biosphere." Scientists divide the biosphere into global ecosystems, or "biomes," such as Desert, Ocean, Tropical Forest, and Grassland. Earth's delicate ecology is the unifying theme. Each section explores the unique ecological structure of a biome and reveals how human interference can upset the balance and damage the life-support systems upon which our existence depends Reference pages make up the first part of each section, with maps showing the extent of the biome, and spreads on climate, natural history, and ecology explaining how the biome works.
