Did you know health is not just about not being sick? It is about feeling well. In healthy ecosystems, you can find plants, animals, water, rocks, and soil, all interacting with many microbes. Thanks to this biodiversity we have clean air, fresh water, and nutritious food. Bees and other animals pollinate flowers to help grow fruits and vegetables. Birds spread seeds that grow into trees and forests. Plants clean the air we breathe. And people feel better in nature. Healthy ecosystems, therefore, keep people healthy. While public health programs teach people about healthy food and give them access to medicines, people make ecosystems healthier by protecting nature. You can help too, by taking care of your health and your surrounding ecosystem, learning about the world, and supporting decisions and actions that protect nature and people. By becoming guardians of Earth’s biodiversity, we can all have a healthy future together.
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Dealing With Wild Neighbors
Even though neighborhoods are built for people, lots of wild animals also call these places home. You might have seen a squirrel, a fox, or a deer munching on your garden or running down your street. Living near people gives some animals food and places to live, but it can also cause problems for both animals and people. Sometimes people do not agree about what to do about the animals that live near them. We were curious about how people and wild animals live together and decided to investigate. We studied how people make decisions about deer in the suburbs of Massachusetts, where some people think there are too many deer and others are not so sure. We discovered that people often disagree, and politics matters. Paying attention to this disagreement can help people work together and make choices that let wild animals and people to live together with fewer problems.
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- PAR ID:
- 10560963
- Publisher / Repository:
- Frontiers
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Frontiers for Young Minds
- Volume:
- 12
- ISSN:
- 2296-6846
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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