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Up in the Air
Our air is a very precious resource. People, animals, plants and birds all depend on clean air to live. Choices we make every day can make a positive difference to our air quality, both indoors and out.
Clean Air Tips
Use the car less.
Cars are one of the major sources of air pollution. Walk or ride your bike, take a bus, carpool to school, combine trips.
Avoid spray products.
Aerosol spray products put harmful chemicals in the air. Such products include hairspray, furniture polish, cooking sprays, bathroom cleaners, air fresheners, antiperspirants, insecticides, and craft sprays. When choosing products, consider air spray pumps, solids, sticks, and gels instead. These are more environmentally friendly choices, and can work just as well.
Choose water-based paints.
Oil-based paints and varnishes contain chemicals that evaporate into the air. Water-based latex paints are less toxic and less polluting and easier to wash off of your hands and brushes.
Plant native trees and plants at home and in your community.
Trees and plants absorb chemicals from the air and give oxygen back into the air. Native trees and plants require less water. Trees and plants also provide habitat for birds and wildlife!
Bring the outdoors indoors with houseplants.
Indoor plants help clean the air by absorbing harmful chemicals and giving back oxygen, just like plants outdoors. One potted plant per 100 square feet will clean the air in an average home. Bamboo Palm, Dracaena, English Ivy, and Snake Plant are a few good air cleaners.
For the Birds!
- No one knows for sure how many birds in total there are in the world. Scientists figure there are about 10, 000 different kinds or species.
- Over 1200 of those species are facing extinction.
- The bee hummingbird is the world’s smallest bird. It weighs less than a penny.
- The largest bird is the ostrich, but it can only run, not fly.
- The bird with the largest wingspan is the wandering albatross. Its wings can spread more than 10 feet or 3 metres wide – that’s greater than the height of a regulation basketball net from floor to rim!
- The Black-capped Chickadee has an incredible memory. It can remember where it stored seeds for almost a month at a time.
Cool Links about Clean Air
EPA Kids
Breathing clean air helps us stay healthy. At the Environmental Kids Club - Air page, you can learn about things that cause air pollution and what you can do to keep the air clean.
On the Trail of the Missing Ozone
The Causes, Effects, and Solutions to Ozone Depletion, in an illustrated booklet by the EPA.
Kids 4 Clean Air
Here you will find a series of information sheets for ages 5 to 11, to help learn about our planet's air and mankind's impact upon it. There are also a series of games and puzzles to help you learn and have some fun...
Clean Air Activities
From the Maryland Department of the Environment
More Cool Links to Check Out
Click, Print and Color the Birds
Home Sweet Home (animation)
Did You Know...?
- All of Earth's oxygen is produced by photosynthesis, the process plants use to combine water and carbon dioxide to create glucose (their own food) and oxygen.
- An average tree absorbs ten pounds of pollutants from the air each year, including four pounds of ozone and three pounds of particulates.
(Source: Friends of Trees)
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