【推荐1】Ai-Petri Bridges, Crimea

The views of the Crimean coast from the top of 1,234-metre high Ai-Petri Mount are amazing. The hanging bridges built in recent years can reach the top of the mount. If just walking across the bridges is not dangerous enough, it also happens to be one of the windiest places in the world. It is said that the bridges blow from side to side as wind speeds reach 170 kilometres per hour for 125 days of the year: It's also very foggy, so you may not be able to see clearly.

U Bein Bridge, Myanmar

This five-metre-high, 1.2-kilometre wooden footbridge does not look as dangerous as the others, but do not be fooled. it was built in the 1850s and it's certainly feeling is age! Some of the old wood is not as strong as it used to be. It is easy to lose your footing. Although there is no handrail(栏杆), large numbers of tourists cross it every day. When the tourists arrive in the evening to watch the beautiful sunset, this bridge could become the most dangerous of them all!

The Hussaini Hanging Bridge, Pakistan

In the mountainous area of Northern Pakistan, the Hussaini Hanging Bridge helps travelers cross the Borit Lake. However, you will not feel too confident when you get close to this bridge. It's one of the oldest bridges in Pakistan and many locals use it every day to travel to work and school—imagine losing your homework over the side of this bridge! It's made from rope, with a few pieces of wood that have large gaps(空隙) between them. Step carefully!

【推荐2】The Boundary Waters area of northeastern Minnesota is the ancestral homeland of the Ojibwe people. With no electricity or Wi-Fi, and offering only the slimmest chance of getting a cell signal, the million- plus acres of wild land and water that parents and kids can explore there today is little changed from the 1400s, when the Ojibwe first traveled these waterways in canoes.

For kids addicted to smartphones and other electronic devices(设备), such a trip may mark the first time they've really experienced true quiet. Although adventure seekers treasure it for its scores of tracks, primitive camping sites, and more than 1,500 miles of canoe routes, it's the peace of nature and hearing their own breathing and heartbeats, maybe for the first time, that can make this place so magical and meaningful for children.

"This place changes people," says local shop owner Steve Nelson. "It's a phenomenal experience to share. The wilderness calls you. It really does." When Nelson takes families into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness(BWCAW), he tells the kids to get up early and silently, take a cup of hot chocolate, and then sit on the shore to watch the plants and animals of the Boundary Waters wake up.

"When the parents and children sit there, they are going to hear birds making long high sounds in the distance and singing nearby," he says. "They might see fish come up and catch insects sitting on the surface, and turtles resting on the rocks. They are watching, listening, hearing, and appreciating their surroundings in a way that isn't possible in a city."

"There was a family with three boys who would go out into the wilderness for 20 days at a time," Nelson says. "When I asked the dad why he took the trip year after year, he said, "Number one, it is one of the most inexpensive vacations. Number two, and more important, is who my kids are going to talk to out here? It's just my wife and me, so they have to talk to us."

【推荐1】Brazilian scientists think they might have found a way to undo the damage caused by the cutting down of trees and turn farmland back into forest. The secret lies in ancient local knowledge of soil.

Amazonian Dark Earth (ADE) is a thick, black soil found deep in the Amazon rainforest, and it could help restore forests around the world. ADE is a kind of compost (soil made from dead plants and animals). Various kinds of compost are sold in gardening centers around the world, but ADE is unique. It was created by indigenous people from the Amazon between 2,000 and 2,500 years ago. The Amazonian people, today known as Amerindians, created ADE using charcoal from fires, animal bones, food waste and poo. It contains microbes (微生物) that help to turn chemicals in the soil into useful nutrients that feed plants and trees.

Vast areas of the Amazon have been cut down, mostly to make way for grassland for raising cattle. Scientists are looking for a way to turn grassland back into rainforest and revive forest ecosystems. These support thousands of animal and plant species, many of which are unique to the area. Forests also absorb lots of carbon dioxide.

To see if the Amazon’s special soil could help, the scientists grew grasses and trees in ADE, regular earth and a mixture of both. Trees grown in ADE were up to six times taller than those in regular soil. ADE takes hundreds of years to create, so the scientists can’t simply make more. Team member, Dr Siu Mui Tsai, said that instead they want to try and “copy its characteristics”, especially its helpful microbes, and see if it could help to restore natural habitats.

【推荐2】Most New Yorkers wouldn’t dream of eating a fish from New York Harbor. But it hasn’t always been that way. When Henry Hudson entered New York Harbor in 1609, he had to sail the Half Moon around 220,000 acres of oyster reefs（生蚝礁）, which had fed the local Lenape people for generations. But all that changed due to overharvesting and a flood of pollution in the water. The oyster reefs disappeared, and the harbor became a no-go zone in New Yorkers’ minds.

But today, a team of high school students, scientists and volunteers are working to change that. “Through the work of restoring（使恢复）a billion oysters, we hope to reintroduce the harbor into the awareness of New Yorkers,” says Pete Malinowski, director of the Billion Oyster Project, which aims to re-establish oyster reefs in the harbor.

Much of the pollution in the harbor today comes from sewage overflows（污水溢出）, which occur when heavy rains destroy the city’s combined sewage system, leaving wastewater flowing into the harbor. Sewage contains a lot of nitrogen（氮）, an important nutrient（滋养物）for plants and animals. But too much nitrogen brings too much seaweed, which draws oxygen out of the water to create so-called dead zones.

Oysters are more than just a popular food. They also help clean the water. They can remove nitrogen and absorb it into their shells and tissue. Near oyster reefs, the water is often clearer.

The goal of the Billion Oyster Project is to have 1 billion oysters in the harbor by 2035. They still probably won’t be safe to eat. But the project is using this effort to educate the next generation of New Yorkers about the harbor and to encourage interest in restoring and protecting it.

【推荐3】How to Help Kids Save Our Oceans and Be Environmental Heroes

The world’s oceans benefit us in many different ways.     1     We need clean and healthy oceans to protect our own health and to support future generations. Here are some simple ways to encourage children to protect our oceans.

●Do a local clean-up

Beach, lake or river clean-ups are a great way to get children involved in keeping our environment free from rubbish. Even a local park will benefit from a clean-up. Less trash in the environment in general is less trash that could get washed away in our bodies of water. Gather the family to pick up rubbish together.     2    .

●Reuse disposed (废弃的) items

A great way to get kids involved in recycling is to encourage them to find other uses for old items. Instead of throwing something away, help them turn it into art!

    3    . The children took a trip to the local beach and were encouraged to pick up different types of rubbish that could be turned into artwork. “Trash isn’t just trash, because you can create loads of things with it. It ends up not being trash anymore, but a beautiful piece of art,” one of the children said.

●    4    

More than 70 percent of the plastic we use does not get recycled, and a lot of this plastic waste is swept into our oceans. Cutting down on plastic use is important if we are to protect our oceans.

Often, pre-packaged fruits and vegetables at supermarkets are a big source of single-use plastic. Getting kids interested in growing their own food is a fun and educational way to cut down on plastic use and shorten supply chains of foods. Besides, educate kids to use as little plastic as possible.

●Eat sustainably sourced fish

    5    . Unsustainable fishing practices threaten the food security of these communities, both by taking away these marine (海洋的) resources but also by harming their life. You can help by eating fish that are rich in the sea.

【推荐1】Backpacks are convenient. They can hold your books, your lunch, and a change of clothes, leaving your hands free to do other things. Someday, if you don't mind carrying a heavy load, your backpack might also power your MP3 player, keep your cell phone running, and maybe even light your way home.

Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and the. Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. , have invented a backpack that makes electricity from energy produced while its wearer walks.

The backpack's electricity-creating powers depend on springs used to hang a cloth pack from its metal frame. The frame sits against the wearer's back, and the whole pack moves up and down as the person walks. A mechanism with gears(传动装置)collects energy from this motion and transfers it to an electrical generator.

Surprisingly, the researchers found, people walk differently when they wear the springy packs. As a result, wearers use less energy than when carrying regular backpacks. Also, the way the new packs ride on wearers' backs makes them more comfortable than standard packs.

The backpack could be especially useful for soldiers, scientists, mountaineers, and emergency workers who typically carry heavy backpacks. These people often rely on global positioning system(GPS)receivers, night-vision goggles(夜视镜), and other battery-powered devices to get around and do their work. Because the pack can make its own electricity, users don't need to give up space in their packs to lots of extra batteries.

For the rest of us, power-generating backpacks could make it possible to walk, play video games, watch TV, and listen to music, all at the same time. Electricity-generating packs aren't on the market yet, but if you do get one eventually, just make sure to look both ways before crossing the street!

【推荐2】Too much TV-watching can harm children’s ability to learn and even reduce their chances of getting a college degree, new studies suggest in the latest effort to examine the effects of television on children.

One of the studies looked at nearly 400 northern California third-graders. Those with TVs in their bedrooms scored about eight points lower on math and language arts tests than children without bedroom TVs.

A second study, looking at nearly 1000 grown-ups in New Zealand, found lower education levels among 26-year-olds who had watched lots of TV during childhood. But the results don’t prove that TV is the cause and don’t ride out that already poorly motivated youngsters (年轻人)may watch lots of TV.

Their study measured the TV habits of 26-year-olds between ages 5 and 15. These with college degrees had watch an average of less than two hours of TV per week night during childhood, compared with an average of more than 2.5 hours for those who had no education beyond high school.

In the California study, children with TVs in their rooms but no computer at home scored the lowest while those with no bedroom TV but who had home computers scored the highest.

While this study does not prove that bedroom TV sets caused the lower scores, it adds to increasing findings that children shouldn’t have TVs in their bedrooms.