These aerial photography and satellite images show in detail the results of laying waste to vast areas of forest and the harm done by poisons that humans have put into the water and air during the century and a half since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The site shows the thinning in the earth's protective covering of atmospheric ozone that appears over the Antarctic along with toxic hazes ... Full description.

For the past 100 million years, redeposited sediment has gradually increased the size of the Mississippi River Delta. But over the past several decades, the coast of southern Louisiana has been losing rather than gaining land. This interactive feature illustrates how river management practices and severe weather events, including Hurricane Katrina, dramatically changed the size and shape of the Louisiana ... Full description.

In just 30 years, the Aral Sea has lost more than 60 percent of its water. Barring change, it may disappear entirely by 2020. In this visualization, satellite images dating from 1973 to 2000 show how water diverted from this inland lake for agriculture has caused it to shrink considerably over a short period of time. The feature can be run as an animation or as a series of slides. A background essay ... Full description.

This activity is an encapsulated method for teaching population dynamics, conservation, and the effects of overpopulation on planet resources. It provides an introduction to the Malthusian hypothesis of arithmetic food production growth and exponential human population growth. Discussion and essay ideas, a film, a song, and a game are incorprated into the activity. Full description.

Coastlines serve as both physical and biological frontiers between land and sea. They are highly vulnerable to pollution from contaminated rivers as well as from urban waste and industrial products that are discharged at sea and wash up on shore. This video segment gives an account of one of the largest oil spills in history: the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound, the costliest ... Full description.

NASA EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle schools) enables students, teachers, and the public to learn about Earth via photographs taken from space. This growing collection of Earth images come from middle school students around the world who used the Internet to target areas of Earth to be photographed with a digital camera onboard the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. These ... Full description.

Mission Geography uses existing NASA data and images where possible to engage students in active, hands-on inquiry, modeling the scientific method and developing students' understanding of environment-society relations and earth science. This module includes three investigations dealing with agricultural systems and related environmental problems and opportunities, including their capacities for sustaining ... Full description.

This activity will allow students to develop a model of the mathematical nature of population growth. The investigation provides an excellent opportunity for consideration of the population growth of plant and animal species and the resultant stresses that contribute to natural selection. Students will discover that populations grow or decline through the combined effects of births and deaths and ... Full description.

Humans depend on freshwater for drinking as well as for domestic, agricultural, and industrial uses. Careless and wasteful use of this renewable but high-demand natural resource contributes to water depletion. This video segment provides a look at a house in Tuscon, Arizona that is equipped with water conservation devices that cut its household water consumption in half. There is also discussion of ... Full description.

Earth is a complex, evolving body characterized by ceaseless change. To understand Earth on a global scale means using a scientific approach to consider how Earth's component parts and their interactions have evolved, how they function, and how they may be expected to further evolve over time. This video points out the complex interactions between Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and land, and helps explain ... Full description.