As a child, I loved the natural world. Maybe it had something to do with growing up in a small town. Maybe it was because nature had so many secrets and I was thrilled to be a detective, uncovering them one by one. I'm sure that when people from my generation think back to their childhoods, many recall a tree house, family picnics, or a passion for fishing, hunting, or horseback riding. Most of us had an occasional appetite for dirt as we explored backyards and nearby vacant lots. As someone who grew up in such a world, I enthusiastically encourage parents to bring back that happy childhood pastime of letting kids get muddy once in a while. I have more than my own experience to show as evidence that this is a good thing: Study after study indicates that children grow up healthier and happier when they experience a direct connection to nature. Just as importantly, those young people are also far more likely to value the natural world when they've developed a connection to it. The need for this has never been greater than it is today. Our natural world is extraordinary in its diversity and complexity, but it's also under tremendous threat. In the past decade, countless tropical rainforests and coral reefs have been lost forever due to human activities, and many more are critically endangered. These areas don't just house animals and plants found nowhere else on the planet; they also provide important economic services that benefit human health. Streams make fresh water clean; forests reduce flooding; tree provide medicines and insects pollinate (......) crops. The natural world represents an economic backbone for the future of local communities by promoting tourism and local people's livelihoods. The damage to the earth's living systems is fast approaching irreversible   "tipping points," and although we now have a wealth of technological tools--both to understand the threats and to assist with solutions--there's still no substitute for a connection to the real world when it comes to understanding the complexity of natural systems. Besides, establishing a connection between child and nature is one of the best and simplest ways to inspire young people to make good decisions about personal health, climate change, and sustainable   use of natural resources. They need to know what affects the chemistry of the ocean, why tropical rain forests are critical to life in the temperate regions and how millions of years are required to create fossil oil from dead plants. This understanding becomes realest and most meaningful when a person is connected to the natural world. The author writes the passage mainly to_.
describe her childhood to the readers encourage readers to protect the nature stress the importance of natural science advise parents to let kids experience nature