【推荐1】A tiny Alaska village has experienced a boom in tourism in recent years as polar bears spend more time on land than on Arctic sea ice.

More than 2,000 people visited the northern Alaska village of Kaktovik in 2018 to see polar bears in the wild. The far north community lies in an area where increasingly higher temperature has sped up the movement of sea ice, the primary habitat (栖息地) of polar bears. As ice has gradually moved to deep water beyond the continental shelf, more bears are remaining on land to look for food.

Polar bears have always been a common sight on sea ice near Kaktovik, but villagers started noticing a change in the mid­1990s. More bears seemed to stay on land, and researchers began taking note of more female bears making homes in the snow on land instead of on the ice to raise their babies. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists began hearing reports of the increasing number of polar bears in the area in the early 2000s. As more attention was given to the plight (困境) of polar bears about a decade ago, more tourists started heading to Kaktovik.

The village had fewer than 50 visitors annually before 2011, said Jennifer Reed, of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. “Today we’re talking about hundreds and hundreds of visitors, many from around the world each year,” Reed said. Most tourists visit in the fall, when bears are forced toward land because sea ice is farthest away from the shore. Bruce Inglangasak, a local hunter who sometimes offers wildlife­ viewing tours, said he's been offering polar bear tours since 2004. Most of his clients (客户) are from China and Europe, as well as from the lower 48 U. S. states. Many tourists stay several days in the village, which has two small hotels. The villagers have benefited a lot from that. In turn, they provide more effective protection for polar bears with financial support from tourism development.

【推荐2】Life finds me on the Isle of Islay, Queen of the Hebrides. I am the warden (管理员) of The Oa Reserve, a 2, 100-hectare nature reserve and working farm owned by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

It was always a dream of mine to live in Scotland. The friendly nature of the island communities, the landscape, beautiful coastlines and — above all — the wildlife. The amazing wildlife. So, here I am: living and working on the west coast of Scotland in a dream job. But, things weren’t always this way.

My school life never really amounted to much. I didn’t go on to higher education and my early working life was sloppy (马虎的), at best. Much of this was due to my disinterest in the work I was doing. I worked in factories, shops, warehouses and even a castle. I was always unsettled and uninspired. I never knew how to channel my interest and passion for nature into a paying job. Wildlife and nature had been part of my life since my youth. I remember my childhood with great fondness: I would read bird books, doodle fact files for each species and get lost in the natural world.

In 2014, the opportunity I so desperately needed finally appeared — a paid traineeship with Durham Wildlife Trust. I was given all the basic skills and training for habitat control, wildlife surveys and ground management works. In October 2015, I became the reserve warden for the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), where I stayed for just under half a decade. As happy as I was, new opportunities dared me to dream even bigger. The time had come to take my next step, to continue to grow within my career.

So, this is where I am now: living in the middle of a nature reserve, with golden eagles, red deer and hen harriers as neighbors. I feel as if I’m the luckiest man alive.

【推荐3】Jarrett Little was road testing his mountain bike outside of Columbus, Georgia, when his riding partner, Chris Dixon, stopped suddenly. Something in the distance moving among the trees had caught her attention. It turned out to be a sandy-colored five-month-old dog.

“He was really thin, ribs showing and a broken leg,” Little told CBS News. The cyclists fed the friendly pup and shared their water. “We couldn’t leave him,” Little said. “Out there next to the Oxbow Meadows, he was going to end up as alligator (短吻鳄) food.”

Little, a 31-year-old businessman, had an idea. He carefully picked up his new friend and slipped the 38-pound dog’s hind legs into the back pockets of his cycling shirt. Then he draped (使……搭在……上) the dog’s front paws over his shoulders.

The 30-minute ride into town ended at a bike store, where they got more water and food for the dog. That was when Andrea Shaw, a lawyer from Maine in town on business, happened by. The dog made a beeline for her, licking and loving her. Shaw was smitten and, after learning what had happened, declared her intention: “I am keeping this dog.”

Shaw called him Columbo after the town where they’d met and scheduled an operation on his leg. Today, Columbo is living the high life on a farm with a horse, a goat, a six-year-old boy, and two dogs to keep him company. As Dixon said, “He is literally the luckiest dog alive.”

【推荐2】Two hours from the tall buildings of Philadelphia live some of the world's largest bears. They are in northern Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, a home they share with an abundance（丰富）of other wildlife.

The streams, lakes, grasslands, mountain and forests that make the Poconos an ideal place for black bears have also attracted more people to the region. Open spaces are threatened by plans for housing estates and important habitats are endangered by highway construction. To protect the Pocono's natural beauty from irresponsible development, the Nature Conservancy named the area one of America's "Last Great Places".

Operating out of a century-old schoolhouse in the village of Long Pond, Bud Cook, the president of the Conservancy, is working with local people and business leaders to balance economic growth with environmental protection. By forming partnerships with people like Francis Altemose, the Conservancy has been able to protect more than 14,000 acres of environmentally important land in the area.

Altemose's family has farmed in the Pocono area for generations. Two year ago, Francis worked with the local branch of the Nature Conservancy to include his farm in a county farmland protection program. As a result, his family's land can be protected from development and the Altemoses will be better able to provide a secure financial future for their 7-year-old grandson.

Cook attributes the Conservancy's success in the Poconos to having a local presence and a commitment to working with local residents.

"The key to protecting these remarkable lands is connecting with the local community," Cook said. "The people who live here respect the land. They value quiet forests, clear streams and abundant wildlife. They are eager to help with conservation efforts."

For more information on how you can help the Nature Conservancy protect the Poconos and the world's other "Last Great Places," please call 1-888-564 6864 or visit us on the World Wide Web at www.tnc.org.

【推荐3】Well, to pick up where we left off last time, I believe all of you know now how plastics developed. But a piece of sad news, every year about 8 million metric tons of plastic is thrown into our oceans. That's as much as a truckload of plastic waste every minute. As you may know, plastic waste chokes and hooks turtles and seabirds. Worse still, plastic pieces are often mistaken for food by marine (海洋的)animals. Tiny pieces of plastic are even blocking the stomachs of marine creatures and fish.

According to Plastic Oceans, packaging accounts for just over 40% of total plastic usage. Annually approximately 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide. More than 1 million bags are used every minute. 14% of all litter comes from beverage containers (plastic bottles). Sadly, a plastic bag has an average “working life” of 15 minutes. Over the last 10 years we have produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century. Plastic takes 500 years to break down. Once it enters our environment, it stays there.

This is why it is important to stop using plastic items that we use for about 15 minutes before we dispose of it. Hopefully, we can help put an end to plastic pollution by choosing not to use single use plastic items, such as plastic bags and straws. And this July, people around the world will take a pledge(请愿)to live a plastic free life. You can either give up the top four ——straws, bottles, bags and coffee cups or you can refuse as much single use plastic as you can every day. Another way to help reduce the problem is to take part in beach clean-ups. On the first Saturday of every month Clean C, an initiative that gets volunteers to clean up our beaches, hosts beach clean-ups on beaches across Cape Town. You can find details of upcoming events on their website.

【推荐1】Giorgio Morandi was one of the greatest artists in the history of Italy. He was the eldest of five children born into a middle-class family in Bologna, Italy. His early love of art upset his father, who wanted his son to work with him in his export business. Morandi attempted the business unsuccessfully in 1906.

After that, Morandi entered the Bologna Academy of Fine Arts in 1907. He continued his study with the support of his friends when his father suddenly passed away in 1908, forcing him to support his mother and younger sisters. During that time, he was introduced to Cubism and Futurism, which influenced his early work.

After he graduated from the Bologna Academy of Fine Arts in 1913, Morandi continued his study by traveling around Italy, especially to the Venice Biennale. Those tours would finally prove important, as much of Morandi’s exposure (接触) to painters came from published art works on the journey. He was particularly interested in the work of Impressionists like Claude Monet, as well as following greats such as Georges Seurat and Paul Cézanne.

After Morandi finished his traveling, he returned home and lived with his family. For many years, Morandi kept a peaceful daily routine. And he did most of his work in his workshop, a small room in a flat he shared with his mother and sisters.

Life wasn’t easy for him at first, but he quickly established himself as an important modern artist. His mastery of a skill of color, light and arrangement began to gain notice, shining in the face of present painting in the manner of abstraction (抽象). And he was named “one of the greatest painters living” by Roberto Longhi in 1934.

【推荐2】I spent all of my 30 s saying yes. Saying yes to things I wanted to do, but a lot of the time saying yes to things I didn’t like. This was a people-pleasing skill. I thought it would speed people’s opinion of me: the woman who could do it all.

At the time, I thought I was doing it perfectly. I was making new friends and developing new interests. I joined the board (委员会) of my children’s school and packed my days with around 20 other activities to do. And then several events changed everything: pandemic restrictions (疫情限制), serious medical problems and losing my job. All these helped me see how tired out I was.

All at once, I realized how good it felt not to be busy every second of every day. For the first time, I could carefully choose how I spent my days. Having to say no turned into the beauty of choosing to say no. Looking back, the pressure to say yes and smile was my choice. I felt it my duty to say yes, from driving people to the airport to exchanging a carpool (拼车) day, from attending charity (慈善) events to seeing family every Friday night. I always wanted to solve everyone’s problems and offered good solutions. I was everyone’s cheerleader, but forgot how to cheer for myself along the way.

But saying no is being my own cheerleader. And it’s not saying no to caring for family and friends, or helping someone out when they’re in trouble. Instead, it’s a small change in mindset (思维模式), taking a pause before agreeing. I take a breath, and check my energy and ability before jumping in.

Most importantly, I tell my kids there’s nothing wrong with saying no. To help others is important but to save yourself is important, too.