【推荐1】A start-up company backed by tech giants IBM and Microsoft plans to build thousands of artificial reefs across the globe to fight climate change by restoring coral reef (珊瑚礁) ecosystems.

The Reef Company plans to have its first reefs in the water by December 2022, and is encouraging more companies to fund reefs to offset (抵消) their carbon footprint. “We’ve calculated we need to build 2,500 reefs, each measuring 4 square kilometers, over the next 10 years to absorb the extra carbon we have on the planet at the moment,” says Jeroen van de Waal, founder of The Reef Company.

Coral reefs are home to 25% of all marine life. They provide a source of income for millions of people through fishing and tourism and protect coastal communities by reducing the power of waves before they reach the shore. Yet they’re under threat from global warming and 90% of all coral reefs could be lost by 2050 if nothing is done to protect them.

As well as improving biodiversity and storing carbon, The Reef Company, which is based in Portugal, hopes to give a boost to local economies and collect real-time data for researchers.

The artificial reefs are constructed from eco-friendly concrete made from recycled industrial waste and will feature consoles (控制台) filled with sensors that can measure how salty, warm and acid the ocean is. “The reefs will provide a continuously expanding set of connected sensors to gather and analyze data, generating insights in real time,” says Andrés Ortolá, managing director of Microsoft Portugal.

To act as a sink for carbon dioxide, the artificial reefs will need to support plants such as seagrass and mangroves alongside coral. While coral reefs use carbon to grow, the process also lowers the pH in the water, which results in the release of CO₂. Benjamin Horton at the Earth Observatory of Singapore says artificial reefs will need to be well maintained to prove successful. “If the ecosystems are damaged, their carbon sink capacity will be affected, and the carbon stored will be released.”

【推荐2】For centuries, fishers in Narrangansett have fished in the waters of the northwestern Atlantic for herrings (鲱鱼). But as climate change warms the world’s seas, the herrings are disappearing at the southern end of their range and turning up more often at its northern edges. A study shows that concentrations of marine (海洋的) species populations have been shifting away from the equator (赤道) and toward the poles during the course of the past century. These movements could wreak havoc on food webs and endanger the livelihoods (生计) of fishers.

The tropical (热带的) water at the equator is well-known for having the richest diversity of marine life on Earth. The number of marine species naturally decreases gradually as you head towards the poles. Ecologists have assumed this global pattern has remained stable over recent centuries until now. Our recent study found the ocean around the equator has already become too hot for many species to survive, and that global warming is responsible. And as species flee to cooler water towards the poles, it’s likely to have deep impacts on marine ecosystems.

Losing species in tropical ecosystems means ecological adaptation to environmental changes is reduced, potentially damage ecosystem persistence. In subtropical ecosystems, species richness is increasing. This means there’ll be species invaders, and new competitive relationships. This could result in ecosystem collapse in which species go extinct and ecosystem services (such as food supplies) are permanently changed.

One way is to reduce our emissions aggressively. Other opportunities could also help safeguard biodiversity and hopefully minimize the worst impacts of it shifting away from the equator. Designing climate-smart reserves could further protect biodiversity from future changes. For example, reserves for marine life could be placed where the climate will be stable over the foreseeable future. We should take action without delay.

【推荐2】Oil and gas have made Qatar (卡塔尔) the richest country in the world-rich enough to be ready to spend $200 billion for the 2022 World Cup. But has limitless wealth brought the country happiness?

“We have become urban,” says Dr Kaltham Al Ghanim a professor at Qatar University. “Our social and economic life has changed-families have become separated; consumption culture has taken over.”

From desperate poverty less than a century ago, this, after all, has become the richest nation in the world. What’s less well understood is the influence of such rapid change on Qatari society itself. You can feel the pressure in Doha, the capital city of Qatar. The city is a building site, with whole districts either under construction or being destroyed for redevelopment. The local media report that 40% of Qatari marriages now end in divorce. More than two-thirds of Qataris, adults and children, are overweight.

Qataris benefit from free education, free healthcare, job guarantees, even free water and electricity, but abundance has created its own problems.“It’s confusing for graduates to be faced with 20 job offers,” one academic at an American university campus in Qatar says.“People feel huge pressure to make the right decision.”

In a society where Qataris are outnumbered roughly seven-to-one by foreigners, long-term residents (居民) speak of a growing frustration among graduates that the most satisfying jobs go to foreigners.

The sense is deepening that, in the rush for development, something important has been lost. Qatari family life is atomising. With children almost universally being raised by nannies (保姆) from the Philippines, Nepal or Indonesia, differences in culture and opinions are widening between the generations.

The 2022 football World Cup was held in Qatar. Mariam Dahrouj, a journalism graduate, speaks of a sense of threat. “People in Qatar are afraid,” she says. “Suddenly all the world wants to see us. We are a closed community, and they want to come and bring their differences. How can we express our values?”

【推荐2】Alaska’s Mendenhall glacier (冰川) is about 20 minutes by car from Juneau, the state capital. It is one of the area’s most popular sites for tourists. But climate change has caused the ice to melt and the glacier to retreat (消退). That means it is losing more snow and ice than it gains. Researchers say the Mendenhall glacier retreated about 800 meters between 2007 and 2021.

Mendenhall pours down from rocky land between mountains and into a lake filled with icebergs. Special signs mark the glacier’s retreat, showing where the ice once stood. Experts estimate that by 2050, people will not be able to see the Mendenhall glacier from the visitor centre that was built for it. That is already the case at some other glacier visitor centres in Alaska.

The melting glacier leads to questions for the Alaskan tourism industry. How can tourism leaders help protect the glaciers for visitors to enjoy? And should there be limits on the number of tourists to the area?

Tourism is an important part of Juneau’s economy. About 1.6 million cruise ship (游轮) passengers are expected to stop in Juneau. On especially busy days, 20,000 people arrive each day to a city that has only 30,000 full-time residents.

Manoj Pillai is a cruise ship worker from India. He recently got off his ship and went to see the Mendenhall glacier. “The glacier is so beautiful now,” he said. But he wondered what it must have looked like 10 or 20 years ago and what it would look like in the following days.

People have many reasons to want to visit Alaska, and all the visitors help the state’s economy. But in Juneau, tourism officials are questioning whether the city and surrounding areas can deal with so many visitors each year. City leaders and major cruise lines have agreed to a daily five-ship limit for next year. But critics worry that may not do much to reduce tourist numbers because the ships themselves keep getting bigger. Some Juneau residents say they would like one day a week without ships.

【推荐3】If you’re a parent, you’re well aware of just how many challenges virtual schooling presents. It’s incredibly stressful to get your kids to pay attention in their “classrooms”. Well, now there’s another thing you need to worry about: hackers. As more school districts rely on remote learning, they’re increasingly becoming targets for cybercriminals.

Believe it or not, your email address is actually a hacker’s primary method of attaining your families’ personal information. That’s why you need to be on the lookout for phishing emails. These emails appear to be from a legal company you’re familiar with—like your bank, credit card company, an online store, or, yes, a school—but are actually from a hacker.

However, there are a few tricks to decode if an email is fake or not. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), these emails often “tell a story to trick you into clicking on a link or opening an attachment.” If you receive an email asking you to update your account, change your password, or make a payment, do a little digging first and contact the company directly to ensure that it is indeed legal.

There are indeed some alarming things a hacker can do when they steal your children’s information. According to FTC, “a child’s Social Security number can be used by identity thieves to apply for government benefits, open bank and credit card accounts or apply for a loan, which may go unnoticed for years—usually until they’re adults and attempt to open a credit card.” To make matters worse, a criminal doesn’t even need the child’s complete information to cook up a new identity. “Known as ‘synthetic identity theft’, the thief grabs a Social Security number and combines it with a fake name, address, phone number, and more,” explains the Identity Theft Resource Center, “That makes it a little harder for victims and law enforcement to notice the problem in the first place or take action after the fact.”