Product Description

The earth is getting hotter, and not just in the summer.

The climate of your own hometown is changing.

But why is this happening, and can we stop it?

Read and find out!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #751492 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-07
• Released on: 2006-11-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .16" h x 9.92" w x 7.94" l, .35 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 40 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780060546717
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

From Booklist
The prolific Rockwell takes on the controversial subject of global warming in this effective entry in the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out series. The book begins by introducing Earth as a remarkable place that may be the only spot where conditions are right for life.^B She goes on to explain in simple language the greenhouse effect, the sources of global warming, what the effects of warming have been so far and what they might be in the future. Some solutions are also offered, good ideas like planting trees, riding bikes instead of driving, and buying foods that aren't prepackaged. Global warming criticism gets about a half page of rebuttal, but Rockwell notes, even if the critics are right, it is still a good idea to try to stop the increase of greenhouse gasses. The ink-and-watercolor art, brimming with action, has a lightness the subject belies, but it adds child appeal. A final two-page spread offers some activities to extend the text. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Anne and Lizzy Rockwell have collaborated on all the Mrs. Madoff books and Who Lives in an Alligator Hole? Anne is the author of Brendan and Belinda and the Slam Dunk!; Why Are the Ice Caps Melting?; and Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth. Lizzy is the author-illustrator of Good Enough to Eat; The Busy Body Book; and Hello Baby! Both Anne and Lizzy live in Connecticut.

Customer Reviews

A great, current book for children
I used this book for a unit I taught recently on natural resources and conservation, and my second graders loved it! One of the few books on the subject geared toward younger children, this book does a great job of presenting global warming in simple, kid-friendly terms without distortion. The fun and accessible illustrations are very engaging; my students spent several minutes just examining the page with plankton and other sea life. They came away from the book with both a sense of urgency about the topic and the conviction that they can do something to help.

Excellent Science Resource for Young Readers...
Global warming is a scary topic for a children's book, but one that children need to know about. In WHY ARE THE ICE CAPS MELTING, author Anne Rockwell writes about this topic in a voice that children can understand. Ms. Rockwell explains why the ice caps are melting, what global warming is, what the greenhouse effect is, and most important of all, she tells children what they can do to help stop this from happening.

Written in a friendly, mentoring style, WHY ARE THE ICE CAPS MELTING will inform children while fostering a good attitude towards conservation and our environment. Illustrated with cute, but educational, pictures from talented artist Paul Meisel, WHY ARE THE ICE CAPS MELTING takes children on a journey that will affect them the rest of their lives. After all, we all share this planet, and will for the rest of our lives.

Kudos to Ms. Rockwell for tackling such a tough subject and breaking it down to make it easily understandable to our most important audience! This book is an excellent resource, one that can easily be used to teach children basic science concepts about global warming.

Climate Indoctrination
Teaching children from the earliest age that they can alter their environment is a noble cause. But because of the extreme difficulty of unlearning wrong information in order to replace it with accurate information, writers of non-fiction for children must be exceptionally careful. In this case, the author was not. For starters, the title assumes facts not in evidence. The Arctic icecap re-formed very well in late 2007 and is no danger of disappearing permanently (http://iup.physik.uni-bremen.de:8084/amsr/amsre.html). Antarctic sea ice has grown in extent from before 1987 to at least 2002 (Michaels, PJ, Shattered Consensus, 2004, p75.). This is contrary to the alarms on p12. Children are shown in fear about sea level rise on p13.

On p4 the claim is made that "...our planet is growing warmer--too warm, in fact." Is that why Americans continue to move south into the Sunbelt? Is a week longer farm growing season a reason for distress? When the planet was warmer than now from 1000-1450 AD there were farms in Greenland until the Little Ice Age caused them to be abandoned. The message is repeated that some unstated cooler period in the past was ideal (p7), but no evidence was given, nor was any period named, nor is there any evidence. On p9 sources are given for every "greenhouse gas" mentioned on p6 except the main one: water vapor. This is misleading at best. (Kauffman JM (2004), Water in the Atmosphere, Journal of Chemical Education, B81(8), 1229-30.)

On p10 the bald claim is made "...every year the earth grows warmer and warmer." The fact is that every year since 1998 has been cooler. From 1940-1970 the earth cooled. And from the medieval prosperity-making warmth, there was serious cooling from 1500-1800 called the Little Ice Age. See: (Soon, W., Baliunas, S. (2003), Proxy climatic and environmental changes of the past 1000 years, Climate Research, 23, 89-110). The 48 US states were warmer in the 1930s than in the 1990s (http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata/GLB.Ts.txt).

On p14 tides are claimed to be higher, which I had never seen anywhere else. Does this mean that moon gravity is increasing? I doubt it. On p15 the claimed spread of birds in wider areas is implied to be a negative. On p16 droughts are predicted from global warming. How does this follow? Will there really be less rain? I doubt it, and some evidence claims there is more rain than 100 years ago because of human activity in adding water vapor to the air.

On p17 is the classic: "The vast majority of them [scientists] believe that people cause global warming..." In the last large survey made, 20,000 did not believe it (www.oism.org, see petition project). And most do not think our prospect is scary as on p26.

At least, as in p20, there is no harm in planting trees.
On p25 there is a scare on loss of plankton from increasing fresh water in the oceans from ice melt. This effect would have been seen off the mouths of large rivers, and I have never run across it. On p27 there are exhortations to do things that use less energy. This is fine for economic reasons and to ward off shortages. Why not emphasize that? Same for recycling. But then, there is the instruction to write Congress, telling them [sic] that global warming matters. Residents of cold countries, Vladimir Putin for one, said that many there in Russia would like it warmer. That was before he realized that Russia could make $billions on carbon credit trading.

And the psychological warfare on the last pages show penguins crowded together on shrinking ice floes. No evidence that this is widespread, either.

Teaching children to conserve, plant trees and recycle does not need the false information on carbon dioxide and global warming. Actual chemical assays of carbon dioxide showed that the levels were as high or higher than now several times since the assays began in 1812 until 1965. No runaway heating was ever seen (Beck, E.-G. (2007), 180 Years of Atmospheric CO2 Gas Analysis by Chemical Methods, Energy & Environment, 18(2), 259-282).

This book is a menace to the mental well-being of children. It gives them false reasons to be fearful based on unproven claims.