Kids News - Environment Articles

On April 22, 2026, more than a billion people around the world will celebrate Earth Day. The environmental movement was started by US Senator Gaylord Nelson. On April 22, 1970, he urged Americans to take to the streets and call for stronger environmental protections. The first Earth Day drew twenty million people from across the country. This was about 10 percent of the US population....

The beautiful islands of Hawaii are reeling from their worst flooding in more than two decades. From early to mid-March, powerful rainstorms swept across the islands, drenching communities with record rainfall and causing flash floods. The brunt of the storms was felt on Maui and Oahu, though impacts were reported across all five islands....

Wind is an important source of clean electricity. Today, most of it is captured by ground-based turbines. These tall structures use spinning blades to convert moving air into power. However, winds closer to the surface can be unpredictable. Mountains, buildings, and trees can block or slow airflow. A Chinese start-up hopes to overcome these limitations by sending turbines high into the sky....

A reticulated python in the tropical forests of Sulawesi, Indonesia, has broken the Guinness World Record for the longest wild snake ever measured. Nicknamed Ibu Baron, or “The Baroness,” the massive reptile stretches an astounding 23 ft. 8 in (7.22 m) long. The title was officially confirmed on January 18, 2026. It had previously belonged to a 22 ft. 10 in (6.95 m) reticulated python. That snake was found in Malaysia in 1999....

From February 22 through February 23, 2026, the northeastern United States was hit by a historic winter storm. Meteorologists say it began as a regular nor’easter but quickly intensified into a bomb cyclone. This occurs when warm air from the Atlantic Ocean meets the freezing Arctic air. The warm air rises rapidly, causing the storm to spin faster and grow much stronger....

Two marine predators once thought to simply share the same waters may actually be hunting partners. In a rare example of teamwork between species, northern resident killer whales (orcas) and Pacific white-sided dolphins have been seen hunting together off the coast of British Columbia, Canada....

In the early 1990s, five unusually large shark vertebrae were unearthed along the rugged coastline near Darwin, Australia. At the time, they were thought to be the remains of a great white shark, the largest living predatory fish. The bones were placed in a local museum collection and soon forgotten. As it turned out, the fossils were not from a great white at all. Instead, they belonged to a previously unknown species of an extinct giant shark that ruled the oceans millions of years ago....

Yosemite National Park in California is famous for its giant sequoia trees and towering rock formations, such as El Capitan and Half Dome. But in mid-to-late February, the spotlight turns to El Capitan's Horsetail Fall. During this brief period, the seasonal waterfall can glow a bright orange. It looks like lava is pouring down the rock surface. This striking sight is called the "firefall."...

The Kawah Ijen volcano on Java, Indonesia, is famous for its electric-blue "lava." But as you may have guessed, this is not actual lava. The striking glow is the result of a chemical reaction triggered by the high concentration of sulfur-rich gases trapped in the volcano....