Environment Facts

An environment is a place where any animal, person, or plant lives or works. Environments change depending on the conditions. It can change with chemical, biotic or physical changes. Environments that are natural mean that nothing in the environment is artificial, and this means that most of the environment of the Earth is natural.

Your environment includes things such as animals, water, plants, soil, air, weather, nutrients, and more!

Environment Facts for Kids:

• 100 billion plastic bags are used by Americans each year
• 200,000 acres of rainforest are cut down every day
• A glass bottle can take up to 4000 years to decompose
• Non-renewable energy is things like coal and oil.
• An average American family uses 182 gallons of soda each year.
• On average, in the US, a family throws away 13,000 separate pieces of paper every year.
• If all newspapers were recycled, we would protect about 250,000,000 trees each year
• 2.5 million plastic bottles are used every single hour in the US, and most of these are thrown away.
• In America, we throw out about 1,200 pounds of organic garbage every year. Most of this can be composted.
• We have about 2 million different species on our planet. Between 200 and 2,000 extinctions occur every year
• Different types of renewable energy help the environment.
• Renewable energy uses things such as the sun and other parts of the environment to work.
• Renewable energy sources are never used up because the sun and wind will always be available.
• There were more than 200 million tons of trash that were made in the United States in 2014.
• Water pollution happens when air pollution flows into water sources.
• The ozone layer helps to protect us from UV rays from the sun.

Recycling

We know recycling is important and that pollution is bad. We have to take care of the planet if we want to continue living on it.

Recycling is important, we would have lots more problems if we didn’t do it.

We have listed below some facts and tips about green living and ecology for kids.

We hope these give you a good perspective of our beautiful planet and exactly what you need to do for good environmental practices.

Earth’s Environment

The environment that we live in is full of different nutrients.

The nutrients in the Earth come about because living organisms recycle the nutrients that are a part of the environment.

There are different cycles that we see in the Earth such as the water cycle, oxygen cycle, the food chain, the nitrogen cycle, and the carbon cycle.

Water Cycle

The water cycle is when water moves around the earth.

When water is evaporated from lakes or oceans, the water fills the clouds.

When the clouds are full, the water then comes out of the cloud in some form of precipitation such as rain or snow.

Oxygen Cycle

The oxygen cycle is when oxygen is used on Earth.  Plants produce oxygen by using photosynthesis and at the same time, they are collecting carbon dioxide.

The Earth then moves the oxygen so that animals and people have oxygen to breathe.  This is a continuous cycle.

Food Chain

The food chain is when animals eat each other such as a bug will eat the grass and then an animal will eat the bug, then a bigger animal will eat that animal and eventually humans will eat the animals.

There are producers which are the plants and consumers which are the animals.  There are also decomposers and the decomposers eat plants and animals that are dead.

Each part of the food chain is important.

Nitrogen Cycle

The nitrogen cycle happens when nitrogen moves through animals, plants, bacteria, and the atmosphere.

Nitrogen is used to help people and animals to have important nutrients such as proteins, amino acids, and other things that help with our DNA.

Carbon Cycle

The carbon cycle happens because carbon is always moving around.  It is usually a part of the oxygen cycle.

The carbon cycle uses photosynthesis, the ocean, decay, and breathing.

The Science of Environment

Scientists that study the environment are called environmental scientists.

Environmental scientists find and fix pollution and other environmental concerns. They look at things like water quality, landfills, soil, contamination, and other environmental issues.

They also give advice on waste management, how to clean the environment, drinking water quality, sewage, and handling hazardous material.

If they come across someone polluting, they would advise environmental protection agency on the environmental health issues and help clean up

They help reduce the environmental impact with clean air and clean water.

They study geology, ecology, oceans, animal and human habitats, and the atmosphere.

Environmental Problems

People cause a lot of environmental problems with pollution.

Pollution causes the environment to be contaminated.

There are different kinds of pollution such as

• Air pollution
• Water pollution
• Groundwater pollution
• Land pollution

Greenhouse Gases

Greenhouse gases cause environmental and health effects.

They cause climate change by trapping heat and contributing to global warming. If we can reduce hazardous fossil fuels like coal-burning, we can reduce smog and improve air quality.

What Did You Learn?

• What is the environment?  The environment is everything that surrounds us.
• What are some different cycles that are part of the environment?  The water cycle, oxygen cycle, food chain, nitrogen cycle, and carbon cycle are all part of the environment.
• What are some problems that our environment faces?  Our environment faces problems with pollution.
• What are some different types of pollution?  Some of the pollution that we see on our Earth is water pollution, air pollution, land pollution and more.
• What kind of energy uses the environment?  Renewable energy is used from the environment such as wind, water, and solar energy.

• Back to –Earth Science