The founder of ecology, the German zoologist Ernst Haeckel, could not have envisioned to what degree “Oecologie”, i.e. ecology, the term he coined 150 years in 1866, ecology would have and will continue to have a strong influence on man’s life and the planet’s survival. Haeckel was born in Potsdam in 1834 and died in Jena in 1919. What he did was very simple: he put two words together – the Greek word for oiko = habitat – environment and logo = word or thought and out came ecology.
It is a unique word, one that enables us to understand nature’s ‘building blocks’ and our natural as well as personal environment and the role we play. Ecology reveals how interconnected life is.
Habitat Games© help to unveil the interconnectedness of life. They also demonstrate how we humans impact our environment, both in a negative and in a positive way. Global warming and habitat degradation have reached a frightening dimension, a dimension that no nation can continue to overlook. The United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris from November 30 to December 11, 2015, brought more than 190 countries together. Will national governments proceed to take the necessary action? Soon?
Participating in Habitat Games© helps you to discover what an ecosystem is, how it adapts to man-made as well as seasonal change. Habitat Games© encourage us to reflect on which actions each of us can take starting today or tomorrow at the latest. Be it our personal ecological footprint or that of the town we live in. The sooner we take the first step the better.
See also: http://esapubs.org/bulletin/current/history_list/history47.pdf