Kids News - Environment Articles

When geologists from the University of Toronto discovered water dating back 1.5 billion years at the Kidd Mine in Ontario, Canada, in 2013, they thought they had hit the jackpot. However, digging further inside the world’s deepest base metal mine led to an even bigger discovery — water that has been locked in the earth’s crust for at least 2 billion years!...

New York-based Ecovative has been creating environmentally friendly packaging made from mushrooms and agricultural waste since 2009. Now, the company wants to bring their innovative material into homes and offices with a new line of compostable furnishings that are grown using just three ingredients: mycelium (the vegetative part of mushrooms), hemp, and salt....

Deep below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico lies a salt lake so deadly that researchers are calling it the ‘Jacuzzi of Despair.’ Measuring 100 ft in circumference and 12 ft deep, the brine pool gets its well-deserved reputation due to its warm temperature and high methane and salt content — a fatal combination for many unfortunate sea creatures that wander in....

Hawaii’s Big Island is known for many things — its rich culture, active volcanoes, black sand beaches, green rainforests, and of course year-round warm, humid, weather. This year, the sunny paradise can add snow to this impressive list. Since early December, almost three feet of snow has blanketed the over 13,000-feet high volcano peaks of the Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, and more is expected....

With only about 1,800 specimens left in the wild, all giant pandas are precious. However, Qi Zai, a seven-year-old that resides at the Foping Panda Valley in China’s Shaanxi province, is even more so. That’s because he is amongst a handful of giant pandas known to have brown and white fur and the only such specimen in captivity. However, while the 220-pound Qi Zai is now the superstar of the animal world, life has not always been easy....

Sweden’s ICEHOTEL has been delighting visitors with its extraordinary architecture, glittering ice sculptures, and unique location since 1989. However, those not brave enough to face the Arctic winters are out of luck. That’s because the hotel, located in the village of Jukkasjarvi, 200 km north of the Arctic Circle, is built entirely from ice blocks which melt when summer comes along. But this year, adjacent to the conventional ice structure, sits the equally impressive ICEHOTEL 365. Though also built entirely from ice, it is designed to remain open year-round....

While parrots are usually credited as the avian world’s best mimickers, the title probably belongs to the aptly named superb lyrebirds. Endemic to Australia, the ground birds are extremely shy and difficult to approach. Hence, though researchers have known of their ability to imitate everything, from other birds, to humans, and even car alarms and chainsaws, very little was known about their lifestyle in the wild. Now thanks to a team of researchers led by Dr. Anastasia Dalziell, a Postdoctoral Associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, we finally have some insight into these amazing ancient animals that have been around for millions of years....

While full moons are always a delight to watch, the one scheduled to make an appearance on November 14 will be even more so. That’s because it is no ordinary full moon, but the brightest and biggest “supermoon” since 1948. The next time you will encounter this glorious a sight, will be on November 25, 2034....

The world is finally uniting to save the environment. On October 5, the United Nations announced that the threshold to enforce the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement had been met, paving the way for its implementation starting November 4. On Friday, October 28 came additional good news. After five years of negotiations, representatives of 24 nations and the European Union agreed on a landmark deal to establish the world’s largest marine protected area (MPA) in Antarctica....