Florida is the southernmost state on the US mainland. It is a peninsula that borders on Georgia and Alabama in the north, the Atlantic Ocean in the east and the Gulf of Mexico in the west. The state has a land area of about 140,000 square kilometres and more than 10,000 square kilometres of water surface. Florida got its name from the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce […]
South Africa lies at the southern end of the African continent, where the Atlantic and Indian oceans come together. For a long time in the past centuries South Africa was governed by whites, although about 80 % of the population are blacks. In the 1990s the election of the first black president , Nelson Mandela opened a newchapter of South African history. Size and […]
An earthquake is one of the worst natural disasters on our earth. We think that the ground we stand on is very stable, but it isn’t. It moves quite a lot. In the last fewdecades scientists have been able to find out why earthquakes happen. Earthquakes happen when there is a sudden vibration in the earth’s crust. It’s like a large lorry that travels […]
When a volcano erupts hot gases and liquid rock come up to the surface from inside the earth. The material sometimes slides down mountains as lava or ishurled into the air as ash or small rocks. Volcanoes often destroy the land around them completely. Gases from eruptions can keep sunlight from reaching the earth and darken the sky for years. Volcanoes also build up new islands and […]
Hurricanes are gigantic tropical storms that can be hundreds of kilometres wide . They bring along very strong winds and a lot of rainfall. They often cause floodingnear the coasts and sea levels rise . Hurricanes occur in many parts of the world. In the Pacific Ocean they are called typhoons and in Australia they are willy-willies. In the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea they are […]
Developed countries use up about 80 % of the world’s energy. Today, the United States has about 5% of the world’s population but consumes one fourth of the world’s energy. A person in a developing country uses only about a fifteenth as much energy as someone in the industrialized world. Country % of Energy Consumed % of Energy Produced United States 25 […]
Turn lights off if you don’t need them. When possible, use energy saving light bulbs (or fluorescent lamps) Don’t overheat you house. Set the thermostat to about 21 ° C and use a fan instead of air conditioning to cool down rooms during the summer. Make sure that windows and doors are closed. Newly built buildings and houses should […]
As the most common and popular forms of energy are being used up quickly, the search to find new sources of energy is underway. These sources of energy must be renewable and not cause the pollution that fossil fuels do . Solar energy The sun can provide us with all the energy we need, for free ! The main problem is to collect and store this energy in an economicalway. Today, we can capture energy from the sun with plates or cells. […]
Water power Water power supplies us with about 6 % of global energy. When water falls from higher to lower places it creates the power to turn bigturbines. Generators turn this power into electricity. Water power plays a major role in areas where there are mountains and many rivers, like Austria, Switzerland and Scandinavia. These countries produce most of their energy this […]
Coal Coal supplies us with about 28% of all the energy used. It is burned to make water hot and produce steam. The steam, in turn,generates electric power or operates steam engines. In many countries people use coal to heat their homes. Coal mining has caused many problems in the past. Accidents in coal mines kill workers every year and breathing coal dust can lead to lung diseases. Although many factories have installed cleaning filters, coal emits sulphur oxides that pollute our air […]