Environmental Issues Articles for Kids

There’s a blue little planet floating in outer space. It’s the 3rd planet from the sun. It’s very special. Right now, it’s the only planet in the solar system that shows signs of Intelligent Life. It has everything life needs to flourish: water, sunlight, oxygen and a very stable inner core. This planet is our Mother Earth.

We call it Mother Earth because like our own mothers, it takes care of us and sustains us. It gives us water to drink, food to eat and air to breathe.

Are we loving it back the way we should be doing?

How is Mother Earth doing?

Right now, our planet is not doing so well. Our population has boomed and there is an estimated 7.3 billion people living on Earth…. And growing.

With that number of people, it follows that there are more people who use Mother Earth’s natural resources. We need more water, more fish and animals to eat and more land to live on. We mine more minerals, fossil fuel and oil. As our lifestyles become more advanced, we use up more energy, produce more trash and release more pollution into the atmosphere. 7.3 billion people need MORE from Mother Earth. The fact is, our planet cannot replenish the natural resources faster than we take it – and there are some resources, like water and oil, that cannot be replenished at all. Once we use it all up…. It’s gone.

What we’re doing to our environment

• U.S companies alone use up enough paper to encircle the Earth 3x
• Rainforest are being cut down at a rate of 100 acres a day
• When we cut down a whole forest of trees, we damage whole ecosystems that sustain thousands of species of plants and animals.
• Before we started to build cities, our planet was 60% forest. Now there’s around 10% left and we might lose them all in 100 years.

• Trees help absorb the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
• Each year, human activities release around 37 billion tons of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.
• There is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now than in the last 800, 000 years
• Due to the high amount of carbon dioxide, our planet is getting warmer. Temperatures have risen by 1.4 degrees F or 0.8 degrees Celsius in the last 100 years. If the planet warms up a couple of degrees more, the polar ice caps and sea ice will melt
• When all the frozen ice melts, the sea levels will rise and flood all the cities near the ocean…. And that’s most of our major cities.

These are just some examples. There are lots more.

Check out our other articles about the environment and find out what you can do in your own little way.