Uranium is a powerful resource, but it is also a mixed blessing. Uranium can light a town or power a submarine, but it can also destroy a city. Areas around a nuclear power plant, which uses uranium to create its energy, can become dead zones if the nuclear reaction becomes unstable. And yet nuclear power can also be one of the cleanest sources of energy. The countries of North America have always had plentiful natural resources. But the exploitation...

Copper is one of the most plentiful and useful metals on Earth. Ancient warriors used it to forge weapons with deadly blades, and shipbuilders used it to cover the bottoms of boats. Today, you can find copper in the kitchen and in computers, too. Copper is mixed with other metals to create alloys like brass to make instruments such as the trumpet. It is even in our blood! The countries of North America have always had plentiful natural resources....

Without coal, our lives would be profoundly different. Formed over millions of years, coal provides one-fifth of the energy we use today. But burning coal also produces more pollution and greenhouse gases than other energy sources, which contributes to the growing problem of climate change. In the future, it will be more important than ever to find ways to make coal a "cleaner" form of energy. The countries of North America have always had plentiful...