As Al Gore sweeps the nation with An Inconvenient Truth , his book and film dramatizing the issue of global warming, and oil and gas prices soar as the summer season heats up, environmental issues are on the public mind. Oil consumption is only the beginning of the environmental troubles we're facing. Our cars have been releasing harmful emissions into our air for years; agricultural land is facing extinction due to overdevelopment; and the freshwater supply is drying up in some parts of the world and too polluted to use in other regions. Polar ice caps are melting and the sea surface is warming, leading to intensified hurricanes.
In short, the natural resources to which we've grown so accustomed are changing and disappearing. And it will be up to the next generation to figure out how to run the world without them.
Read what IU researchers have to say about the current state of our world's natural resources and what the future may bring.
