2 . Tropical ( 热带的) rainforests are disappearing at an alarming rate, and according to a new report by Rainforest Foundation Norway, humans are to blame. The world’s dependence on coal, farming, beans, palm oil and mining has resulted in two-thirds of Earth’s tropical rainforests being completely destroyed, and the remaining ecosystems being put closer to a tipping point.

Tropical rainforests once covered 14.5 million square kilometers of Earth’s surface, but now, just one-third of that remains undamaged. Of the original area tropical rainforests once occupied, 34% is completely gone and 30% is suffering from damage. All that remains is roughly 9.5 million square kilometers, and 45% of that is in a degraded (恶化) state, the report says.

Researchers blame human consumption for the loss. While agriculture has always been a driving factor of rainforest loss, the report said that energy consumption, international trade and the production of beans and palm oil, logging and mining have been the largest threats (威胁) over the past century. A significant number of US products rely on resources from tropical rainforests. The country heavily relies on palm oil, rubber and cocoa, all of which come from forests around the world. Often, these resources are harvested from illegally destroyed lands.

Tropical rainforests are home to more than half of the Earth’s biodiversity and have more carbon in living organisms than any other ecosystem. In addition to supporting significant animal life, tropical rainforests are also necessary for slowing down global warming. “These unique ecosystems are suffering from constant abuse, through our bottomless appetite for land and resources,” said Anders Krogh, the author of the report. “We expect that upcoming UN climate and biodiversity summits provide specific targets and measures to protect tropical rainforests.”

The researchers also believe that the loss of tropical rainforests puts the whole world at the risk of future diseases. “Huge deforestation (毁林) is violating nature’s natural virus protection systems,” Krogh said. “The outbreak of COVID-19 should bring rainforest protection to the top of the agenda of all policy makers and world leaders concerned about preventing the outbreak of new diseases.”

4 . It was an afternoon in August. I was just short of turning 18. I stood in front of a six story, red brick building. It was to be my new home for the next several years. It was my first day of college, and I was very excited. I had two suitcases and a bag with me. Everything I thought I would need was packed in them. I carried them up the five flights of stairs to my dorm and wondered what life had in store for me –a young girl.

It was another afternoon in August. I was just short of turning 42. My daughter was 18, and we were standing in front of the same building at the same college that I had gone to years before. I smiled as I helped her carry her things up to her room, but I also noticed that we were making more than one trip. All the students seemed to have much more stuff (东西) than I did all those years ago. Yet, it didn't seem to make things any better for them. In fact, they looked more stressed. As I threw down another box of my daughter's stuff, I wondered what life had in store for her.

Last night I had a dream that I'd had many times before. I was back in that same dorm with my belongings piled on my bed searching for my course book and wondering what classes I would take. I often wondered what this dream meant, but when I woke up this morning, it became crystal clear to me. We are sometimes teachers in this life, but we are always students in it. We are here to learn to love ourselves and everyone as ourselves. It takes a lifetime. The stuff we carry with us through this life doesn't matter at all. It is the stuff we carry inside of us when we leave this life that counts.

6 . Every superhero, no matter how small, needs a cape. That was Robyn Rosenberger’s motivation when she started sewing superhero capes for kids with cancer, heart defects, and other serious diseases. It all began when she was making a cape as a birthday present for her nephew. Rosenberger heard of a girl named Brenna who was battling a potentially deadly skin condition called harlequin ichthyosis. Anyone suffering from what she was going through had to be tough. “I had an aha moment (顿悟),” Rosenberger says. “Brenna was a superhero! She needed a cape.” So Rosenberger sent her one, and Brenna’s mother was delighted.

Rosenberger found ten more kids online and sent out ten more capes. Before long, she quit her job at a software company to dedicate herself full time to tinysuperheroes.com, a website where people can buy hand-made capes for brave kids facing illness and disability.

Since 2013, Rosenberger and her small paid staff have sent more than 12,000 handmade capes to kids in all 50 states and 15 other countries. The capes come in pink, blue, purple, or red and can be decorated with the child’s initials or specialized patches, including a heart, a rocket, or a lightning bolt. One recipient was eight-month-old Gabe, who was born with a cleft palate (腭裂), which causes distinct facial features. Rosenberger sent him a red cape with a bright yellow G in the center. It was a hit.

Gabe is now a fixture on the company’s social media posts. “The Tiny Superhero community has been a wonderful connection to have,” says Gabe’s mom, Kate Glocke. In fact, two years later, “We still bring Gabe’s cape with us to every hospital appointment.”

8 . Last year, I went through every high school senior’s nightmare: I was refused from all the colleges I applied to. It’s not that I was a bad student. I had a narrow vision, applying only to some key schools. So when I got refused, I got into a panic. I thought there was only one path to success, and I wasn’t on it. While all my friends were picking out twin extra-long sheets, I was left wondering what kind of future I could have.

When my panic faded, I signed in the community college. I wasn’t excited. I imagined community college classrooms with incompetent teachers that taught their students to sleep. I was so wrong. My art history professor was so poetic, and her lectures felt spoken word. My classmates were intelligent and came from all walks of life — still figuring things out like me.

I decided to give myself a year of experiment. Aside from general education, I took a range of classes. I know it seems like a random kind of classes, but it allowed me to know what I like and don’t like. I used to have this idea that I had to rush in order to achieve a certain level of success by a certain age, but a year of community college has taught me to slow down, and to recognize that things take time to adjust. I still hope to transfer to a four-year university next year, but I’ll be going about it as a more mature person.

Being around students from all walks of life has made me realize that I’m not late in the game at all. There’s more than one way to get where you want to be.

9 . Although vaccines are required for entry into school in most places in the United States, the government does allow for exceptions, like religious reasons.

In the last few years, the rates of vaccine-preventable illness have been on the rise. In most cases, these outbreaks began with children who were unvaccinated. To deal with this threat, some schools in New York have been refusing to allow unvaccinated children to attend school. Several parents thought this was unfair and filed lawsuits. Just recently, though, a court ruled in favor of the city schools.

The court made the right decision. Vaccine policy depends not only on the added protection that vaccines provide for those who get shots, but also on the decreased likelihood that anyone will come into contact with the disease. This is known as community immunity. It refers to the fact that when enough people are immunized, then there really can’t be an outbreak. And if there can’t be an outbreak, then everyone is protected.

This is important, because there are people who cannot be given immunizations for various reasons. For example, small babies can’t be given all vaccines.

In 1995, the chicken pox vaccine was introduced in the United States. Over time, more and more children received it. In 2011, a study looked at how the program affected the number of children who died from the disease.

The first thing noted in the paper was that death from chicken pox went down considerably after the vaccine was introduced. From 2001 through 2007, the rates of death remained much lower, with just a few children dying from chicken pox nationally each year.

What’s more from 2004 through 2007, not one child less than 1 year of age died in the United States from chicken pox. This is important, because we cannot give the chicken pox vaccine to babies. In other words, all those babies were saved not because we vaccinated them against this illness, but because older children were.

Therefore, people who refuse to vaccinate their children aren’t just putting themselves at risk — they’re putting everyone else in danger, too.

10 . Today we know Antarctica as an extreme environment containing ice and snow. But new research provides evidence that the area had a rainforest in the past.

The researchers collected a piece of Earth sediment from under the seafloor off the coast of Antarctica. In the sediment, they discovered forest material that was estimated to be about 90 million years old. This would have been in the Cretaceous Period, when dinosaurs were the main land animals. The sediment was removed by scientists on the research icebreaker RV Polarstern in the Amundsen Sea near Pine Island Glacier.

Johann Klages is a geologist with the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research in Germany. He was the lead writer of a study on the findings, published in the journal Nature. He said the sediment was collected from a depth of about 30 meters below the ocean floor. Klages said an examination showed that the material didn't form in the ocean.

The researchers estimate that the area — about 900 kilometers from the South Pole — had average yearly temperatures of about 12 to 13 degrees Celsius. During the warmest summer months, average temperatures likely reached between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius. The soil included fine dirt particles and hard clay, as well as substances linked to at least 65 different kinds of plants, the study found. Klages added that the plants included trees, ferns and flowering plants. While no animal remains were found, Klages said there were likely dinosaurs, flying reptiles and many insects in the environment.

The research represents new evidence of the major climate changes Earth has experienced in the past — and is currently undergoing today. The soil in the sediment dates back to the planet’s warmest period of the past 140 million years, with sea level about 170 meters higher than today. The researchers said that the rainforest environment in Antarctica was especially surprising because each year, the area experiences a four-month polar night when there is no sunlight to fuel plant life. Klages said no ice sheets were present during the time, but seasonal snowfall was likely.