【推荐1】Medecins Sans Frontieres

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which means “Doctors Without Borders”, established in 1971, is now one of the largest international, independent, medical humanitarian organizations that delivers emergency aid and medical relief to people affected by armed conflicts, epidemics, pandemics, natural disasters such as earthquakes or floods and excluded from healthcare.     1    In 1999, it won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Each year, about 3,000 people are sent abroad to work in more than 60 different countries worldwide.     2    In most projects, there are about seven local members to every foreigner. Volunteers are paid about $1,400 each month and receive travel expenses. They usually work on a project for six months to a year. Many volunteers go on more than one mission.

One volunteer reports, “Working in politically sensitive areas with limited resources can be frustrating, but there is huge satisfaction in making even a small or temporary difference to people. What better recommendation than to say, ‘I’m about to leave on a third mission!’”

    3    You have to be able to deal with stress, and you need to be able to work independently as well as in a team. You are required to have medical qualifications. Besides medical expertise, MSF needs the skills of technical staff such as building engineers and food experts.

The reaction of volunteers returning from MSF speaks for itself. “One of my biggest challenges was organizing a team to open a new hospital in a town that had had no medical care for three years,” one volunteer said. This volunteer said the project was a success because of the reduction of deaths and the fact that the local people were so thankful. Another volunteer says, “The rewards can be enormous.     4    ”

【推荐2】In 1992, a group of architects(建筑师)and engineers in Seattle had collected hundreds of canned goods for charity. “We wanted to give back to the community,” said Deborah Ashcraft, organizer for the Canstruction project. Volunteers also wanted to have some “creative fun,” so they used the cans to create a huge map of the State of Washington.

Today Canstruction has thousands of volunteers across the United States and Canada, for the purpose of creating a world without hunger. Castruction members build their delicious artwork in shopping areas and museums, and compete for prizes.

In some cities, such as Tampa Bay, Florida, Canstruction artists are made up of school kids, “Our class built a Wurlitzer organ(风琴)out of cans,” said Jasmine Heaggans, a student at Lanier Elementary. “We based ours on the 77-year-old organ at the Tampa Theater.”

Beginning in September, architects Danni Anstett and Danielle Williams visited class weekly. After a field trip to see the real Wurlitzer, the architects showed the class how to draw pictures of the organ from all sides. They instructed students to do a plan view---a bird’s-eye view of the structure. And they helped the young artists count up how many cans would be used.

On October 24, Canstruction workers from Lanier and three other Tampa Bay schools gathered at the local shopping area to build and display their artworks. The students got to stack (堆)cans. With 1,800 cans, Lanier students had nine hours to get the Wurlitzer ready for the judges.

“The cans had to be perfectly stacked,” student Courtney Keenam recalled, “or everything would fall.”

After four hours, the students were feeling pretty good. The organ was taking shape. Then the kids had an “uh-oh” moment. The cans were facing the wrong way. They had to be turned around son the fronts of the labels showed.

“We fixed one side, and then realized that the other side was wrong, too,” said Qiana Francis. “It turned into a long day.”

At last, the Wurlitzer stood shiny and tall, just in time for the judges to name it “most creative.”

【推荐1】The color of the ocean has changed significantly over the last 20 years, for which human-caused climate change may take the responsibility, and more than 56% of the world’s oceans have changed color to an extent that cannot be explained by natural variability, according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. It also mentioned that tropical oceans close to the equator in particular have become greener, reflecting changes in their ecosystems.

The color of the ocean is from the materials found in its upper layers. For example, a deep blue sea will have very little life in it, whereas a green color means there are ecosystems there, based on phytoplankton (浮游植物), plant-like microbes which contain chlorophyll (叶绿素). The phytoplankton form the basis of a food web which supports larger organisms such as fish, seabirds and marine mammals.

It’s not clear exactly how these ecosystems are changing. Ocean ecosystems are finely balanced and any change in the phytoplankton will impact on the whole food chain. “All changes are causing an imbalance in the natural organization of ecosystems. Such imbalance will only get worse over time if our oceans keep heating,” said study co-author Stephanie Dutkiewicz. “It will affect the ocean’s ability to act as a store of carbon, because different phytoplankton absorb different amounts of carbon.”

While the researchers are still working to find out exactly what the changes mean, what is clear is that the changes are being driven by human-caused climate change. The researchers analyzed color variation data from 2002 to 2022 and then used climate change. models to simulate (模拟) what would happen to the oceans both with additional planet-heating pollution and without. The color changes matched almost exactly what Dutkiewicz predicted would happen if greenhouse gases were added to the atmosphere—that around 50% of our oceans would change color.