Get a grip on the natural world with this beautiful manual for the planet

Without functioning ecosystems, “everybody’s poop would be everywhere,” says Rachel Ignotofsky, the author and artist behind the new book The Wondrous Workings of Planet Earth. “The world doesn’t work if stuff doesn’t decompose,” she says.

It’s one of the many benefits humans get from our environment that Ignotofsky’s art-covered pages explore. The book hopscotches through ecosystems across the globe, shrinking complex food webs down to the size of specimen bottles. “It was kind of this whimsical idea that if it was small enough to see, then you would be able to understand and care for it as easily as you could care for a fish in your aquarium or a plant on your desk,” Ignotofsky told The Verge.

Published by Ten Speed Press, the new...

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