5 Children's Environmental Books

5 Children's Environmental Books Frederick W. Stoss Research Associate,Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Environmental Sciences Division,Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P.O. Box 2008 (MS-6335), Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6335 USA, TEL: 615-574-0390 FAX: 5 Children's Environmental Books Lucas, Eileen. Acid Rain. Chicago: Children's Press, 1991. 128 pp. ISBN: 0-516-05503-8. Printed on Evergreen Gloss 50% recycled preconsumer waste with binder of 100% recycled material. Acid rain is a general term referring to acids and other pollutants in rain, snow, clouds, fog, and aerosols. Called acidic deposition or acidic precipitation in technical settings, acid rain motivated a substantial research effort in the United States, Canada, and other industrial countries worldwide. Such research has sought the causes and effects of acidic deposition and options for mitigating its effects, and aims to provide information that will help policy makers evaluate alternative strategies to reduce the threat of acid rain. Since the study of acid rain involves the life, physical, social, and political sciences, the subject is a convenient one for integrating learning in the classroom. Lucas's first chapters discuss sources of air pollutants that contribute to the acidification of precipitation and provide several experiments related to the measurement of pH and the concepts of acid and base chemistry and buffering capacity. The phenomenon of long-range transport of air pollutants is adequately discussed. The effects of acid rain to soils, crops, forests, animals, and materials is discussed in rather general terms, while the last two chapters briefly cover options for reducing air emissions and the levels of action that can be taken to reduce the threat of acid rain. While Acid Rain makes an honest effort to present this topic in a non-biased, neutral fashion, the underlying rhetoric fringes on the activist side of the issue. Words describing dead or dying lakes occur frequently. While the consequences of acidified ecosystems have been well documented over the past twenty years, catastrophic ecological damage attributed solely to acid rain has been perhaps exaggerated by the media. However, Lucas' Acid Rain provides one of the better treatments of the topic. Acid Rain is designed for the advanced upper middle school to the high school student and is amply illustrated with color photographs, line drawings, charts, and graphs. A series of field, laboratory, and classroom activities and exercises are included as sidebars to the text. The book is rounded out with a list of pertinent nongovernmental organizations, a brief glossary, and a rather good index. Acid Rain would serve school and public libraries best; nature centers, natural history museums, and science centers providing science classes in a an informal setting would also find this a useful resource. Russell, F. William. ed. Animal Families of the Wild. New York: Crown Publishers (Random House), 1990. 82 pp. US $12.95 trade ISBN: 0-517-57358-X; library binding, ISBN: 0- 51757359-8. William Russell has selected excerpts from five well- known wildlife/nature authors, including James Michener (Centennial) and Farley Mowat (Never Cry Wolf) to be read aloud to younger children or to be read alone by older children. Each story is accompanied by an introduction to its theme and side bars to