Le Le arrived at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport from Singapore on Tuesday evening, becoming the first overseas-born giant panda     1     (come) to China this year. According to an agreement     2     (reach) by China and Singapore, Le Le was required to be sent to China this month. Singapore Airlines stated that to ensure Le Le’s safe journey,     3     Boeing 747-400F plane was used for the flight,     4     experts accompanying the panda.

During the flight, the cabin temperature     5     (keep) at 12 to 16 degrees Celsius, and efforts were made to avoid turbulence (气流), offering and     6     (ensure) a slow takeoff and landing to prevent any discomfort for Le Le. In addition, the aircraft carried 50 kilograms of fresh bamboo, bamboo shoots, carrots, apples     7     other food to meet Le Le’s dietary needs during a four-and-a-half-hour trip.

Unlike other overseas-born giant pandas which have been sent to China, Le Le won’t undergo quarantine (检疫) at the bases in Ya’an or Wolong. The China Giant Panda Conservation and Research Center said that the center’s     8     (facility) (设施) are not sufficient for the recent     9     (arrive) of overseas-born giant pandas coming into the country, so Le Le will use the quarantine equipment at the Huaying Mountain base.     10     (current), Le Le is in good health.

3 . In the rich countries of the West, the electric vehicle revolution is well occurring. Climate-conscious consumers drive Teslas or Polestars for reasons of morality (道德) and fashion. Poorer countries are also experiencing a wave of electrified trend. In Bangladesh, electric three-wheeler taxis, known as tuk-tuks, are rapidly replacing gas-powered ones on the streets. Such electric vehicles are climate friendly, cost effective, and help reduce air pollution.

Yet a glance under the hood (引擎盖) of these vehicles shows a poisonous secret: each tuk-tuk runs on five massive lead-acid batteries (铅酸电池), containing almost 300 pounds of lead (铅) in total. Every year and a half or so, when those batteries need to be replaced and recycled, about 60 pounds of lead leaks into the environment. Battery recycling, often at small-scale unregulated factories, is a highly profitable (高利润的) but deadly business.

Lead is dangerous, and any exposure to it is harmful to human health. Lead that has entered the environment hurts people on an unexpected scale. The numerous ways lead enters air, water, soil, and homes across the developing world and the enormous damage it does to human health, wealth, and welfare cause one of the biggest environmental problems in the world yet receives little attention.

The World Bank estimates that lead kills 5.5 million people per year, making it a bigger global killer than AIDS, malaria, diabetes, and road traffic deaths combined. On top of the shocking deaths, the social burden of lead poisoning is heavy, as is its contribution to global inequality — our research on the cognitive (认知的) effects of lead poisoning suggests that it may explain about one-fifth of the educational achievement gap between rich and poor countries.

But unlike many challenges faced by developing countries, lead poisoning is a problem that can be resolved through financial investment (财政投入). Better monitoring, research, and rules can help protect children all over the world from the unpleasant effects of lead poisoning and reduce the massive global costs it brings.

Researchers have been applying artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor biodiversity and enhance efforts to protect some species from     1     (threaten). Unlike conventional methods, AI has the capacity     2     (analyze) massive amounts of data effectively.

Species are disappearing     3     a rate much faster than that millions of years ago, with up to one million species on the edge of     4     (extinct). In response, the United Nations set a goal in 2020 to safeguard at least 30% of Earth’s land and oceans. “AI is imperfect     5     could promote important discoveries,” says Nicolas Miailhe, paris-based founder of the Future Society, an international non-profit organization     6     aims to better govern AI. “We badly need human practitioners to design models and interpret data.”

Besides     7     (monitor) biodiversity in real time, AI can also be used to model the impacts of human activities on an ecosystem. Although it     8     (document) that human activities have resulted in biodiversity loss, little is known about which environmental factors have the largest impact.

“Long-term statistics will play     9     essential role in connecting changes in biodiversity with environmental changes,” says Luisa Orsini, who     10     (study) evolutionary bio-systems at the University of Birmingham, UK.

8 . Sharks and their relatives are some of the most threatened vertebrates (脊椎动物) on Earth. Coral reefs (珊瑚礁) provide homes for countless fish species that are vital for fisheries and are therefore an especially important ecosystem for humans — and one where the decline of shark populations seems to be especially sharp.

The study by Simpfendorfer with his team is the result of an act of worldwide cooperation called the Global FinPrint Project. The data analyzed include more than 20,000 hours of standardized underwater video taken at nearly 400 reefs in 67 countries around the world. It reveals declines of 60 to 73% of once-abundant coral reef shark species at reefs around the world. The global conservation status of sharks and rays (鳐鱼) is worse than a decade ago and is even more concerning for some groups of sharks.

However, the findings of Simpfendorfer with his team include signs of hope and a clear path forward. Their result s show that although shark populations in many reefs had declined, some health y reef shark populations remained. The reefs with healthier shark population s had some important similarities: they tended to be in the waters of high-income countries with stronger natural resource management laws and rules. Unfortunately, such countries were relatively rare, and lower-income countries tended to have fewer resources for eco-friendly management.

The most unexpected result of the study is that a decline or complete loss of shark species in one reef was not always associated with similar changes in nearby reefs. They found that one reef could be overfished so badly that a once-common reef shark species was totally gone, but another reef a short distance away could have healthy populations of that same species.

The problem is clear -animals that provide ecosystem services that are vital for human food security and livelihoods are disappearing at an alarming rate. The loss of sharks and the ecosystem services they provide represents an ecological disaster that can cause substantial harm to humans.