Children Raised in Greener Areas Have Higher IQ

Growing up in a greener urban environment boosts children’s intelligence and lowers levels of difficult behaviour, a study has found.

The analysis of more than 600 children aged 10 to 15 showed that a 3% increase in the greenness of their neighborhood raised their IQ score     1     an average of 2.6 points. The effect was seen in both richer and poorer areas.

There is already significant evidence for green spaces’ effects on improving various aspects of children’s cognitive development but this is the first research     2     (examine) IQ. The cause is uncertain but may     3     (link) to lower stress levels, more play and social contact or a quieter environment.

The increase in IQ points was particularly significant for those children at the lower end of the spectrum,     4     small increases could make a big difference, the researchers said.

“Evidence has built up over time     5     green surroundings are associated with improved cognitive functioning, such as memory skills and attention,” said Tim Nawrot, a professor of environmental epidemiology at Hasselt University in Belgium, where the study was conducted.

“    6     this study adds by including IQ is a more rigorous, well-established clinical measure. It is really of value to create an optimal environment for children to develop their full potential,     7     is why I think city builders or urban planners should prioritize investment in green spaces.”

The study, published in the journal Plos Medicine, used satellite images to measure the level of greenness in neighborhoods, including parks, gardens, street trees and all other vegetation.

The average IQ score was 105 but the scientists found 4% of children in areas with low levels of greenery scored below 80,     8     no children scored below 80 in areas with more greenery.

The benefits of more greenery     9     (record) in urban areas were not replicated in suburban or rural areas. Nawrot suggested this might be because those places had enough greenness for all children living there to benefit.

Behavioral difficulties such as poor attention and aggressiveness were also measured in the children     10     (use) a standard rating scale, and the average score was 46. In this case, a 3% rise in greenery resulted in a two-point reduction in behavioral problems, in line with previous studies.

Lovely Team Members

I fell in love with rhinos when I worked in a zoo in the 80s, and spent much of the next 20 years as the keeper of the largest captive (圈养的) group of rare black rhinos.

Being aggressive and stupid is     1     impresses urban residents about rhinos, but I discovered a group of sensitive, affectionate animals.     2     (weigh) over a ton, black rhinos are unexpectedly alert and have an unpredictable nature. However,     3     care and reassurance (安慰), they can be very trusting.

In the past few years, the number of rhinos has dropped dramatically, during     4     time I have helped look after rhinos being moved to reserves. Last year, I helped on a project to fly five black rhinos to the Serengeti National Park, where they had to be kept captive for a few weeks before     5     (release) into the wild. They lived in “bomas” wooden enclosures with “bedrooms”.

A couple of weeks before their planned release, the sky was filled with smoke and the flames were blowing over it.     6     (make) sure everything was fine, we rushed toward the bomas. I was terrified that the rhinos     7     (catch) fire, so my initial response was to release them. But I couldn’t, because they     8     (not fit) with transmitters (发射器). If I let them out, we would have great difficulty tracking them down. So I dashed back to the bomas and called the rhinos to their “bedrooms”. To my surprise, they moved without hesitation and were     9     (panicky) than I had thought. After half an hour, the wind changed direction and the fire began to die down.

That we and the rhinos had escaped unscathed (未受伤的) was a miracle. The relationship we had built with those lovely animals proved crucial.     10     it, all our work would have been for nothing. The teamwork of everybody there played a large part too and the rhinos were very much part of that team.

Japan Releases Nuclear Wastewater into the Pacific. How Worried Should We Be?

Japan has started releasing wastewater into the ocean. But this isn’t the kind of wastewater     1     flows from city streets into stormwater drains. It’s treated nuclear wastewater used to cool damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant,     2     (strike) by an earthquake over a decade ago.

Since the accident, over 1.3 million tons of nuclear wastewater     3     (collect), treated, and stored in a tank farm at the plant. That storage space is about to run out, the Japanese government says, leaving no choice other than     4     (begin) dumping the wastewater into the Pacific.

Japan’s discharge plan involves incrementally (递增地) releasing it over the next three decades, although some experts say it could take longer, given the amount still     5     (produce). Some of Japan’s neighbors are criticizing the plan as unilateral and dangerous. On May 15, South Korea’s opposition leader ridiculed Japanese leaders’ claims that the water is safe enough to drink: “    6     it is safe enough to drink, they should use it as drinking water.”

Now, American scientists are raising concerns that marine life and ocean currents could carry harmful radioactive isotopes (同位素) —also called radionuclides—    7     the entire Pacific Ocean.

“It’s a trans-boundary and trans-generational event,” says Robert Richmond, director of the Kewalo Marine Laboratory at the University of Hawaii. “    8     released into the ocean off of Fukushima is not going to stay in one place.”

The radionuclides could be carried by ocean currents, especially the cross-Pacific Kuroshio current. Marine animals that migrate great distances could spread them too. No     9    (worrying) as carriers, Richmond says, are phytoplankton—free-floating organisms that are the basis of the food chain for all marine life and can capture radionuclides from the Fukushima cooling water. When swallowed, those isotopes may “accumulate in a variety of fish, marine mammals, and humans.”

Richmond and Buesseler say that     10     they’ve been allowed access to much of the same data as the IAEA, they remain suspicious. “The root of this problem is that they are moving already with a plan that has not yet shown that it will work,” Buesseler says. “They’re saying, ‘We can make it work. We’ll treat it as many times as it takes.’ If you want to put a nickname on this plan, it’s ‘trust us; we’ll take care of it.’”