uNDERSTANDING

To understand life on the third planet from the sun, you have to understand the flow of light energy bathing the planet each day, how it is captured and utilized, and how it powers the great cycles of the building materials of all living things -- the air, the water, and the soil. Together, that energy and those materials combine in varying amounts in different places and times across the surfaces of the earth. From the beginning, those variations in the quality and quantity of energy and materials available have given rise to various communities of life whose inhabitants are continually interrelating with one another as they go about obtaining their own energy and material needs. And within those percolating pools of life there is the constant ebb and flow of change. Things change one another, they change their surroundings, and their surroundings, in turn, change them.

In short, all living things draw upon sunlight energy for their existence, and each represents a temporary ordered arrangement of matter interacting with its neighbors. Each builds up, then breaks down as the materials of its own body inexorably crumble over time.

Four key understandings then explain the basic functions of life on this planet: the flow of energy, the cycling of matter, the interrelating of life, and the changing of forms. It is these broad brush strokes that we must focus upon in explaining the big picture of life on planet earth.

Continue... The WHATS: Feeling

Earth Education... A New Beginning Copyright © 1990 The Institute for Earth Education. All Rights Reserved.