The story of a blue planet_EN_1 - Bulgaria

The story of a blue planet

Long ago, there was a planet. It was a beautiful planet with fertile plains, mountains, lush forests, clear lakes and rivers and deep oceans. Many millions of different types of animals and plants lived there. It was their only home, the only place where the living things on it could live. And that was okay because it was big and there was plenty of space and food for all.

One day, something happened that would change the planet and its creatures forever. 

Can you guess what happened?

A new type of animal, a sort of ape, began to walk on two legs. These ape people became very clever and, as the years passed, discovered how to make tools and fire. The planet was perfect for them. Plenty of animals and plants eat from the land, the rivers and the seas. With their tools, they cut trees for cooking fires and shelters. (Later, they called themselves humans, Homo sapiens - wise man - because they thought they were very clever.)

The people prospered and had many children. 

They were happy on their beautiful planet. Soon the numbers of people grew to many thousands and they divided up into tribal groups in different parts of the planet. They worshipped their different gods and began to live together in clusters of shelters (houses) which grew bigger and bigger. They became towns and, later, cities.

People in the cities began to develop special skills. Some became carpenters, others skilled at building with stone. Others started trading - buying things from some people and selling them to others. And still others became very important and powerful - kings, priests, politicians. But they all needed one thing: food. So another group of people became skilled in producing food. They were farmers and learned how they could grow large areas of food crops by cutting down or burning the forests, tilling the land and sowing seeds.

As the cities grew, the farmers cleared more land to supply the hungry people. They learned to divert and dam rivers so they could grow even more food in dry lands and even generate power. More trees had to be cut to build wheeled carts to carry the food from the farms to the cities and to build boats for fishing.