Earth’s Landforms

Protecting Landforms

Landforms are of great importance and value. They not only give shape to Earth; they also serve as dividers or boundaries between places. They are the sites of the habitats of living things. They provide resources that help supply the needs of all living things. A resource is anything that can be used to provide supply or support when this is needed.

Landforms provide living things with resources for the latter’s needs for food, clothing, shelter, and other basic supplies. For instance, mountain forests are valuable sources of wood and of minerals such as gold and silver. Plateaus are very good areas for grazing animals because of their large expanse of grassy growth. Valleys and plains are ideal for planting crops such as rice, corn, fruits, and vegetables. They are also important as sites for building houses and other structures.

It is clear that landforms contribute a lot toward sustaining life on Earth. Thus, much effort should go toward protecting and preserving them.

Even at your young age, you can already help to protect Earth’s landforms through the following simple ways:

  1. Join tree-planting activities. The roots of trees absorb water and help prevent erosion, or the process when wind, water, and other natural causes blow or wash away soil and rock from Earth’s surface.
  2. Do not throw your trash just anywhere. Throw them in trash cans. Trash or garbage pollutes any landform. This is particularly true of plastic materials that are thrown away or left in land areas. Plastic materials do not decompose, or rot. Unlike such garbage as fruit and vegetable peelings, they do not turn back into materials that blend with the soil or earth. A plastic candy wrapper that you throw on the ground today will remain the same even hundreds of years later.
  3. Take care of the plants and animals that live on landforms. For one, do not destroy their habitats. These living things help to make landforms more productive. For instance, even the earthworms that live in the soil help to make the soil more fertile by the way they move in and out of the ground. Their movements help to bring more air and water into the soil and make it richer.