SECOND CLASS SCOUT

Why Care About Nature?

Studying animals and plants along with weather, water sunlight, an everything else that affects them is called ecology. It comes from the old Greek words oikos, meaning house and ology, meaning to study.

Ecology is simply the study of the home we share with all species.

We are affected by changes in nature happening everywhere on the golobe. Likewise, whate we do has effects on the environment that that can reach far beyond our neighborhoods. The way we treat the Earth today will leave its mark for years to come.

Each of us has a great responsibility to care for this Earth house of ours. The better we understand it, the more we can work to keep it clean, repair it where it has been damaged, and do it no harm.

For more on ecology and nature, see the BSA's Fieldbook and the following merit badge pamphlets: Bird Study, Environmental Science, Fish and Wildlife Management, Forestry, Geology, Insect Study, Mammal Study, Nature, Plant Science, Reptile and Amphibian Study, Soil and Water Conservation, and Weather.