Articles & Books From Environmental Science

Article / Updated 06-15-2023
The wildfires burning across Canada have become a global story. As of early June, more than 10 million acres have burned, and it could be Canada's worst wildfire season ever. The fires have led people to wonder, "does climate change cause wildfires? ©Atilla Adam / Adobe StockWhile it's uncertain whether climate change has directly caused these particular fires, scientists do believe that, overall, we are seeing more wildfires every year because of a warming planet.
Article / Updated 04-20-2023
Conversations about the cause of global warming typically focus on the big offenders — the worst industries, dirtiest factories, and scoff-law nations. There’s nothing wrong with that. But everyone plays a role in climate change.Each of us uses energy — specifically, fossil fuels — on a daily basis: Electricity: From the moment the alarm sounds in the morning until you shut off the computer or TV at night, you’re connected to an electrical grid, often fueled by coal or oil.
Article / Updated 04-04-2023
The rash of tornadoes that came in early spring 2023, devastating parts of the U.S. South and Midwest, no doubt had many people thinking about how climate change is affecting the weather. Tornadoes seem to be happening earlier in the season than ever, and in larger numbers. ©Dan Ross / Adobe StockA tornado scours a farm field in Illinois.
Climate Change For Dummies
Get clear about why climate change is so complicated and discover how you can help reverse itMore and more frequent extreme weather events occur each year, and planet Earth is in danger of developing more climates where life — whether animal, vegetable, or human — is unsustainable. Climate Change For Dummies explains how rising temperatures, shrinking lakes, rising oceans, and shifting weather patterns affect your life on a daily basis.
Article / Updated 04-09-2024
Celebrate everything that is beautiful about our planet by reconnecting with nature, learning more about the natural environment, or picking up a new eco-friendly habit or two.April 22 is Earth Day — a world-wide celebration commemorating everything that makes our blue-marble planet unique and beautiful, and all the things we can do to protect it.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-08-2022
This Cheat Sheet describes how and why greenhouse gases are formed, investigates some important global warming terms, uncovers the negative impacts of climate change, and offers solutions you can implement in your everyday life to alleviate rising greenhouse gas emissions.Although climate change is connected to ugly futures, melting icecaps, rising sea levels, soaring temperatures, worsening hurricanes and monsoons, and the list goes on, it’s also a link to a better future.
Weather For Dummies
What in the world is going on up there? Look up! It’s a bird; it’s a plane; it’s a Polar mesospheric cloud! When you look to the sky, do you wonder why the Sun is so bright or why the clouds are white or why the sky is blue? Then, Weather For Dummies is your resource to fuel your curiosity about the weather. It takes you on an exciting journey through the Earth's atmosphere and the ways it behaves.
Article / Updated 04-20-2021
Elasmobranchii (pronounced ee-laz-mo-brank-ee-ee) are a familiar subclass of fish that includes some of the most misunderstood and maligned creatures in the world—sharks, skates, and rays. They’re characterized by a rigid dorsal fin (the top fin) and have four to seven pairs of gill slits to breathe.They’re all carnivorous, feeding on everything from large marine mammals to small crustaceans, and they lack a swim bladder, equipped instead with an oily liver to maintain buoyancy.
Article / Updated 04-20-2021
Osteichthyes (pronounced ah-stee-ick-thees) is a class of about 28,000 fish characterized (in most forms) by a bony skeleton, scales (some without), paired fins, a single pair of gill openings supported by bony gill arches each covered by an operculum, jaws, a mouth with many teeth, a swim bladder (air-filled sack) for buoyancy, paired nostrils, and external fertilization of eggs.
Article / Updated 04-20-2021
Bivalves are headless mollusks with a hinged, two-part shell, sort of like castanets. They’re very diverse, boasting a membership of more than 15,000 species divided into four main groups—clams, oysters, mussels, and scallops—generally based on where they live and the shape of their shells. Clams prefer an infaunal lifestyle, buried in the sand or silt, whereas mussels, oysters, and scallops live a more epifaunal lifestyle (on or above the seafloor).