The Amazing Earth!

3 The Amazing Earth! Earth -our home and our planet, is a truly amazing place to live. Think about billions of the creatures living on Earth. How unbelievable it is that life exists almost everywhere on this planet! If you have ever flown on a plane, you've surely gained a new respect for Earth. Secing it from the air makes you appreciate this precious blue and white planet. The third planet from the sun, Earth is the only planet known to support life. The differences in life forms on Earth extend beyond our imagination. At one end of the spectrum, there are tiny microbes that can only be seen through a microscope. At the other end, there are 30-metre long whales that swim through our oceans, covering thousands of miles in their travels. We have mountains nearly ten kilometres high and valleys many kilometres deep. The deepest valleys are underwater. These undersea valleys can reach 11 kilometres in depth. And yet, even under the extreme pressure of the water at that depth, life still exists.

Think of all the creatures that fly through the air. Some birds have wingspans over three metres while others have wingspans of only a few centimetres. There are bees that beat their wings 200 times per second, and swifts that can fly non-stop for years, eating and drinking while they fly. Look at the trees around you. Some trees are over 100 metres tall. That's like a 30-storey building! And they can be 1, 000 years old. We have soft grass to walk on, and trees with needles so sharp that they can make your finger bleed if you touch them. But the most amazing thing about this planet is the people. There are more than six billion people living on this extraordinary planet. We live in different places and speak different languages, but we all live on the same planet and enjoy the same sun, the same air and the same water. Earth-our only home, our privileged planet. Humans really are a lucky bunch to have such a wonderful place to call home.