From School Library Journal
Grade 5–8—This environmental-science primer introduces a range of important concepts necessary to understand climate change and global warming. Topics include the carbon cycle, water cycle, long-range carbon emissions data, biological evidence of climate change, and much more. The authors have an extensive background in science education, and their text exhibits an excellent balance of concept thoroughness with ease of comprehension. Attractive photographs and colorful graphics, including many charts and diagrams, are incorporated throughout. This is a great title for general reading; it may be less useful for research as the table of contents is rather vague and there's no glossary.—Lindsay Cesari, Baldwinsville School District, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“The authors have an extensive background in science education, and their text exhibits an excellent balance of concept thoroughness with ease of comprehension.” —School Library Journal
“The narrative’s tone is less alarmist than most recent looks at global warming, but still threaded with lively language . . . and well stocked with both recent scientific findings and big, clear color photos.” —Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
In 1983, SALLY RIDE became the first American woman to travel into space. She has remained in the limelight as an astronaut, astrophysicist, and advocate for encouraging girls in the sciences.
TAM O'SHAUGHNESSY is a professor of school psychology and children's science. She has co-authored four award-winning books with Sally Ride
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Mission: Planet Earth
MISSION, PLANET EARTH
When I was an astronaut, I spent hours gazing down at the Earth below. Our planet is beautiful. It's home to everything we know and hold dear.
When I looked out the window, I could see winding rivers emptying into blue oceans, mountainsides of a tropical rain forest, and muddy waters of river deltas. I could see city lights twinkle at night and contrails of airplanes crisscross the sky.
More than anything, though, I could see how fragile Earth is. When I looked toward the horizon, I could see a thin, fuzzy blue line outlining the planet. At first, I didn't know what I was seeing. Then I realized it was Earth's atmosphere. It looked so thin and so fragile, like a strong gust of interplanetary wind could blow it all away. And I realized that this air is our planet's spacesuit--it's all that separates every bird, fish, and person on Earth from the blackness of space.
In the last few decades we've started to change that atmosphere. Some of the changes, like the smog hovering over Los Angeles, are even visible to astronauts in space. Others are invisible to the eye but are now easy to measure. The most dangerous--the one that will affect everything on our planet--is the warming that we now know we humans are causing.
Our warming climate is not visible to astronauts, but its effects will be. The next generation of astronauts could look down and see deserts where we now have lakes, meadows where we now have glaciers, and oceans where we now have beaches. Future astronauts may even have to launch into space from a new launch pad--Cape Canaveral could be underwater. They may look down and say, "That's where Washington, D.C., used to be," or "Did you know farmers used to grow wheat in Kansas?"
To a person standing on the ground, our air seems to go on forever. The sky looks so big, and people haven't worried about what they put into the air. From space, though, it's obvious how little air there really is. Nothing vanishes "into thin air." The gases that we're sending into the air are piling up in our atmosphere. And that's changing Earth's life-support system in ways that could change our planet forever.
Copyright © 2009 by Sally Ride and Tam O'Shaughnessy
