The Human Body & the Environment

If someone dropped you on the moon without an astronaut's equipment, what would happen? You'd die, of course. The human body depends on its environment. This engaging four-volume set, written at the sixth- through eighth-grade reading level, examines our bodies' inseparable relationship with the environment. Each volume presents the parts of a particular body system and how they work, things that go wrong and how they're treated, how the environment affects the particular body system and impacts our health, controversial environmental issues (where applicable), and changes individuals and groups are making to fix environmental problems and restore health.



Healthy food digested by our bodies provides vitamins, minerals, and vital nutrients that give us energy and foster our immunities to illness. Any wastes the body cannot use are disposed of through the kidneys and other organs of the urinary system. But when vegetables are grown in polluted soil or animals are raised in unhealthy conditions, these systems suffer, and so does our health. This volume covers how these dynamic systems work properly, how the environment impacts their operation, and how doctors and therapists work to maintain and treat them.