energy and the environment

Earthquakes are very common on Earth. They are caused when tectonic plates bump into each other and make energy waves. [read more...]

Did you know people kill tigers every day even though it is against the law? In China, for instance, at least one tiger is killed each day. This is largely because tigers are sold for a lot of money to the Chinese medicinal market. [read more...]

Water covers most of the Earth. All of us have seen water in forms like rain, snow, or just in bodies of water. Water travels from place to place like from rivers and lakes to oceans. But how does it move? Does the wind blow it? Or do sea creatures push it? Either way, water is constantly moving—even when people are asleep. [read more...]

Did you know that the Amazon River was named after fierce women warriors from ancient Greece? Spanish explorer Fransico de Orellana first named the river after he fought a tough tribe of women near the river who reminded him of the Greek women warriors called “Amazons.” [read more...]

Across the Earth, thunderstorms happen at least once a day. Some of these storms are so strong that they can demolish entire buildings. [read more...]

People talk about climate change all the time. You can see the effects of it everywhere you go, but some people don’t really know what it is, or why it’s happening. [read more...]

The end of the Ice Age did more than create lakes in Wisconsin. In fact, rising temperatures also caused the extinction of many fascinating animal species. [read more...]

Earthquakes could first be detected a long time ago in 130 AD. That’s when a Chinese astronomer invented an instrument, that is now called a seismometer, to detect them.first paragraph [read more...]

Would you like to put some extra money in your pocket? If you do, driving a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) would probably help. [read more...]

Some pollutants can actually be useful to people in some places, even though they are harmful in other places. For example, ozone is a gas that is important in the high atmosphere, but harmful in the low atmosphere where it becomes a pollutant. Down on Earth, ozone is a major ingredient in smog and is dangerous to living things, including people. Ozone is made when oxygen interacts with sunlight high in the atmosphere. Yet, we need ozone in the high atmosphere because it keeps the Sun’s harmful rays away from our skin. When ozone disappears, more of the rays reach the Earth, damaging plants and causing more sunburns and skin cancer in people. [read more...]