1 . Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, beginning in the 1970s, pioneered a method of planting young native species close together to quickly create tiny forests on urban wasteland. He found that protected areas around temples in Japan contained a huge variety of native plants that co-existed to produce adaptable and diverse ecosystems. The forests were layered together from four categories of native plantings: main tree species, sub-species, bushes, and ground-covering herbs. Using this four-category system, along with his explorations of the vegetation in Japan, Miyawaki designed his own system for planting forests.

Miyawaki forests can grow into mature ecosystems in just 20 years-about 10 times the growth speed of a traditional forest, explained Kazue Fujiwara who worked with Miyawaki. According to Fujiwara, the planting should center on the primary trees of the location. Native species require no maintenance (养护) after the first two years and are more likely to survive and grow well in the local environmental conditions. What's more, they provide an ideal home for endangered species.

When Shubhendu Sharma learned about Miyawaki's forest creation technique in 2009, the botanist created a forest at the Toyota factory in India where Sharma worked as an engineer. Shortly, he started a company to create similar forests, researching the method and trying it in his own backyard. He described his work in a 2014 TED Talk, and released his version of the instructions so anyone could learn how to create their own small native forest. Since then, Sharma's company, Afforestt, has helped plant forests in 44 cities.

Now, Miyawaki-style urban forests have been springing up across Europe. Cities in Asia are embracing the idea, with Pakistani minister announcing plans for 50 Miyawaki forests in Lahore, and Indian officials setting a target to plant 1,000 in Chennai.

It is reported that at present a city in Japan has a problem with graffiti(涂鸦). However, it is not the usual type of graffiti with paint from spray cans     1    (use) to write on walls. It is graffiti in sand.

Officials in the city of Tottori are asking tourists to give up     2     (write) messages and drawing pictures in the sand of its giant sand dunes (沙丘). The officials say the graffiti causes damage to the dunes,     3     destroys the pleasure others get in looking at the sand.

More than 3,300 cases of "sand graffiti"     4     (occur) at the tourist spot in the past decade. In January, two overseas tourists were ordered     5     (erase) a 25-meter-long message that read "Happy Birthday Natalie".

The Tottori Sand Dunes are famous throughout Japan     6     their natural beauty. They are the largest and longest sand dunes in the country and form part of     7     scenic coastal park on the sea of Japan coast. The biggest dune is 50 meters high.

The local government wants to improve tourists' understanding of the     8     (important) of the dunes. It will set up much     9     (many) signs in English, Chinese and Korean asking people to respect the dunes. A spokesman said, "We are concerned about whether the rules are     10     (complete) understood, and we want to continue to protect views of the beautiful sand dunes."

4 . During the recent elections，the Inuit Ataqatigiit, a left-wing Greenland party，has won against the incumbent (现任的) center-left Siumut party. The Inuit Atagatigiit heavily campaigned against the construction of a rare earth metal mine，a project whose development has been contested for years.

The project would give the mine the “potential to become the most significant Western world producer of rare earths” according to the Australian company behind the project, Greenland Minerals. However, it comes at the expense of poisonous waste products that could damage the area’s fragile ecosystem.

Rare earth metals are found everywhere. From cellphones to magnets and even DVDs, rare earth metals are used for making many electronic products. For years, international mining companies have had their sights on Greenland. The country is known for its abundant deposits of untapped rare earth minerals.

The main mining project that became the center of the recent election is in an area south of Greenland known as Kvanefjeld. It has deposits of rare earths and uranium, and has been in development for years. But it has never been officially approved by the government due to heavy opposition for the radioactive waste it would produce.

On the other side of the coin, supporters of the project argue for the economic benefits it would provide such as creating thousands of jobs. Greenland’s economy, is mainly dependent on fishing and financial support from Denmark, the country that owns it. Many rare earth metals are also important for developing renewable sources of energy that can address climate change.

Immediately after the victory of the Inuit Ataqatigiit party was announced, the leader of it announced that the Kvanefjeld mining project, would not proceed.

The party state that although they are not directly opposed to mining, they are “opposed to dirty mining”. They aim to implement (实施) strict standards for mining companies to reduce environmental influence to the lowest possible level.

However, the new government plans to go on with caution as foreign interest in Greenland’s resources continues to grow.

5 . Satellite imagery like Google Earth makes it easy for ecologists halfway around the world to check up on tropical forests—see illegal roads and logging (伐木), for example. But the information is limited.

“Satellite data often tells you what happens after it's happened.” Rhett Butler said, the founder of Mongabay. com, an environmental science news website. In a perspective piece in the journal Science, he and his colleagues write that sound recordings can supplement satellite data as another conservation tool.

You can actually set up alerts. So you can hear things like chainsaws (电锯) or gunshots in real time. So you can get put ahead of potential deforestation before it occurs. Small audio recorders, some of which are solar-powered and connecteded to cellphone grids for data upload, also give ecologists the ability to listen secretly on a jungle's biodiversity over time.

If you're in a primary forest, you'll tend to see all the frequencies of the soundscape occupied by different species. These are insects, birds, calling mammals, frogs things like that.”

As a comparison, here is a forest plot after selective logging---meaning some trees were cut, others left standing. “As you move into a more disturbed ecosystem, you'd start to see more gapsacross the frequencies of that soundscape.”

Certain insects dominate. And the diversity of calls declines as disturbance increases. While the human ear is perceptive (感知的), algorithms (运算法则) are a much more powerful tool to comb through thousands of hours of data, to get a richer picture of changing tropical biodiversity.

Nowadays, many industries---like cattle farming, palm oil, soybean and paper production are committing to zero deforestation goals, which can be hard to measure. But by coupling satellite data and camera traps with audio recordings, ecologists can keep their eyes-and ears-on what's going on in the jungle.

6 . Japanese officials say they are pleased with the quality of the asteroid (小行星) material collected by a spacecraft and returned to Earth.

Last week, officials from Japan described the samples (样品), which were collected from the Ryugu asteroid in July 2019. Ryugu sits more than 300 million kilometers from Earth. Japan’s unpiloted Hayabusa2 spacecraft removed the material after making a hole into the asteroid.

The space agency said the July 2019 mission (任务) aimed to collect samples from below the surface of Ryugu. During an earlier operation in February 2019, Hayabusa2 collected material from a different part of the asteroid. The second collection effort resulted in sample pieces as big as 1 centimeter. The black material looked similar to charcoal and was very hard. It did not break apart when picked up or poured into another container.

Earlier this month, space officials described the samples Hayabusa2 removed on its first mission as smaller, sandy pieces. They were collected from the surface of Ryugu. Hayabusa2 was launched in December 2014 and arived near Ryugu in June 2018. The Japanese space mission aims to use the samples to learn more about how our solar system formed.

To get the second set of samples in July, Hayabusa2 used an impactor to knock the asteroid’s surface. The aim was to collect material unaffected by space radiation or other environmental conditions. The size differences suggest different hardness of the bedrock of the asteroid. One possibility is that the place of the second touchdown was a hard bedrock and larger particles broke and entered the container.

Hayabusa2 is now on another mission to a smaller asteroid, called 1998KY26. The Japanese government expects the aircraft to take 11 years to reach that asteroid. Hayabusa2’s new mission aims to study possible ways to prevent large meteorites (陨石) from hitting Earth.