The Theory

The Eco-Kids website exists to teach you about the environment and how you can protect it. What is an ECO-KID? An ECO-KID is a person of any age who is always trying to do the best for the environment. He or she is a person who cares about the Earth.

In the past, people asked, “What kind of world do you want to leave your children?” Now people are asking,” WHAT KIND OF WOLRD DO YOU WANT TO LIVE IN?” Time is precious. Now is the time to work on saving the earth. And kids can help.

Ecological crises, both natural and man-made, are happening all over the world - the Alaskan coast hit with oil spills, floods all over the world, holes in the ozone layer, and vast destruction of forests. In the face of such disasters, people can really do good things! For example, when Americans saw that their national symbol (the bald eagle) was almost extinct, people got together and fought to save them. Recently, this beautiful eagle was officially taken off the list of endangered species. People working together CAN MAKE a difference.

Ecology is a science that studies the interrelations between organisms and the environment. The “Father of Ecology” was Teofrasto in Greece and lived from 327-287 BC. In 1969, the UN held the first conference about the environment. Ecology is divided in several branches:

Autoecology (relations of only one species)

Sinecology (the study of a community of organisms and their relation)

Population Dynamics (causes and modifications of the species in an specific medium)

Applied Ecology (protection of species and the equilibrium of the environment)

Systems of Ecology (uses math and computers to understand the complex problematic of ecology).

The names may sound big, but the concepts aren’t too difficult. As a resident of Planet Earth, an Eco-Kid needs to understand some basic concepts about ecology. As you know, almost all all animals get their food either from eating plants or other animals. (There are some animals that live deep in ocean trenches that “eat” only chemicals.) You might have heard of the circle of life, or the food chain. Instead of imagining plants and animals connected one-by-one in a chain, try to think of all animals and plants linked together in a web. That’s one big web, isn’t it?

Have you ever heard of the triangle of food? No? Well, it’s a simple concept. Here’s one example: take a one-ton elephant. The elephant must eat more than a ton, in fact, it must eat about 10 tons of food (plants). Then think about a 90-kilogram human man killing the elephant and eating it. Energy is lost in the transition from plant to elephant to human. You need a lot of plants to support the life of animals; this idea is called the food triangle. Guess who is at the top? Humans are! We eat a lot of food from many sources.

But what happens when we begin to lose or pollute our sources of food? Pollution of the air and water affects not only ourselves but the plants and animals we eat and the substances we use in our every day lives. Pollution puts the web of life in danger. An Eco-Kid is interested in learning about how we hurt our environment in order to help protect it.

Look at this links to learn more: