Why Are the Ice Caps Melting? The Dangers of Global Warming

Do you have a little scientist that loves to know how things work and why things happen? In our recommended books about the Earth for Earth Day, here is a great one from the Let’s-Read-And-Find-Out Science series from Random House books called, "Why Are The Ice Caps Melting? The Dangers of Global Warming," by Anne Rockwell.  Readers will learn about global warming and the effects that humans have on the changes in the earth that cause global warming.

The Earth is a unique place.  Earth is the only planet that has the just the right environmental conditions to allow humans and animals to live and plants to grow. 

Among the most important conditions that have to be just perfect on Earth to sustain life is temperature. It can’t be too cold or too warm.  Recently, scientists who study the temperature of the earth have discovered that things are heating up; getting too warm, in fact.  This warming change in the earth’s temperature is called global warming.

Global warming occurs when the “greenhouse” layer of gases that cover our Earth and maintain just the right temperature, trap pollutants below them, making the earth too warm. 

The greenhouse layer's job in the atmosphere is to let the sun in and provide a shield to keep the warmth from escaping too fast.  If the greenhouse layer gets too thick with harmful pollution gases, it will then hold in too much warmth from the sun. This will cause the earth to get too warm and the earth’s natural systems will become unbalanced. 

Large pieces of ice are melting at the South Pole and falling into the sea, causing the sea to grow deeper and sea levels to rise. With temperatures year-round getting higher, migratory birds are not heading south as they used to and some animals, insects and birds are popping up in new areas. Read this fascinating fact-filled book with your child to find out what gases are causing the earth to get too hot and what other environmental changes are being caused by global warming.    

What can your family do to help?  Planting trees (which provide lots of wonderful clean oxygen for the air) is an excellent way to cut down the carbon dioxide in our air by providing more oxygen.  Stopping deforestation in rain forests (which contain a lot of trees) to keep the good gases flowing.  Stop using aerosol cans.  Say no to hairspray! 

Other ways to help reduce excess greenhouse gases are carpooling, riding bikes instead of driving, buying appliances that use less energy and of course writing local representatives in Congress and telling them that your family cares about global warming. As always, turn the heat down, don’t use the air conditioner unless absolutely necessary, encourage the kids to turn off the TV and computers when not in use and especially the lights when leaving the room.  Recycle, and buy foods that with less packaging rather than more, which will mean less garbage in the landfill.

This is just the tip of the iceberg on what global warming is all about and how everyone can help to keep our Earth healthy.  If your young scientist wants to know more about global warming or more about how the earth works encourage them to check out other books from the Let’s-Read-And-Find-Out Science series. 

These books are paperback and suited for readers aged 5-11 years old.  The scientific information is just right for this age group and is explained perfectly with diagrams and illustrations. Readers are the leaders of tomorrow and who knows, your scientist might just end global warming around the world when they grow up.