2 . Some scientists say that animals in the oceans are increasingly threatened by noise pollution caused by human beings.

The noise that affects sea creatures comes from a number of human activities. It is caused mainly by industrial underwater explosions, ocean drilling,and ship engines. Such noises are added to natural sounds. These sounds include the breaking of ice fields, underwater earthquakes, and sounds made by animals themselves.

Decibels(分贝) measured in water are different from those measured on land. A noise of one hundred and twenty decibels on land causes pain to human ears. In water, a decibel level of one hundred and ninety-five would have the same effect.

Some scientists have proposed setting a noise limit of one hundred and twenty decibels in oceans. They have observed that noises at that level can frighten and confuse whales.

A team of American and Canadian scientists discovered that louder noises can seriously injure some animals. The research team found that powerful underwater explosions were causing whales in the area to lose their hearing. This seriously affected the whales’ ability to exchange information and find their way. Some of the whales even died. The explosions had caused their ears to bleed and become infected.

Many researchers whose work depends on ocean sounds object to a limit of one hundred and twenty decibels. They say such a limit would mean an end to important industrial and scientific research.

Scientists do not know how much and what kinds of noises are harmful to ocean animals. However, many scientists suspect that noise is a greater danger than they believed. They want to prevent noises from harming creatures in the ocean.

3 . Five years ago, French navy officer Chardon was listening to a radio program about the journey of the bar-tailed godwit (斑尾塍鹬) , a bird that flies 14,000 kilometers between New Zealand and Alaska. Chardon understood how dangerous the journey would be, as heavy storms frequently hit Pacific island communities. Yet, somehow, bar-tailed godwits routinely pass through the area uninjured. Chardon wondered whether learning how godwits navigate (导航) could help coastal communities avoid disasters. Could tracking birds help save lives?

This past January, a team began experiments designed to test Chardon’s idea. Researchers led by Jiguet equipped 56 birds of five species with cutting-edge animal tracking technology. The team were transported to remote islands in French Polynesia, where they attached tags (追踪器). These tags send the birds’ locations to the International Space Station, which sends the data back to scientists on Earth who can then follow the birds — all the while waiting to see how the birds respond to natural disasters.

The project is focusing on birds’ ability to hear infrasound, the low-frequency sound humans cannot hear. Researchers believe it’s the most likely signal birds would use to sense storms and tsunamis. In a 2014 study, scientists tracking golden-winged warblers in the central and southeastern US founded the birds flew up to 1,500 kilometers to escape from the outbreak of tornadoes that killed 35 people. This showed they’d heard the storm system in advance.

The team plan on tagging more birds across the Pacific to prepare for a potential tsunami. “I think if there’s one wave that spreads across islands, we should get data from different species at different locations,” says Jiguet. “That’d definitely show it’s worth continuing to tag birds and to develop local systems to better analyze this.”

Even if the attempt to develop a bird-based tsunami early warning system fails, the project will still help scientists protect birds. In that sense, the research will have already gained results by that time. Jiguet says their first season’s tracking data shows Hawaii is an important stepping stone for the birds they tagged — a useful clue to the protection of these species above rising seas.

5 . To improve road safety and raise awareness among Russia’s notoriously (臭名昭著地) careless drivers, Russian police have tried to get drivers to slow down at zebra (斑马) crossings by having painted horses as zebras walk across on the busiest streets in some of the big cities.

The light grey horses, painted with black stripes (条纹), carried signs on their backs reading: “Careful, children are on their way to school.” The police sent the “zebras” to several different locations in the Russian capital, where officials in orange vests walked them over zebra crossings and handed out leaflets (传单) to passing drivers.

Some held up rainbow-coloured umbrellas over the painted animals to protect them from the rain. Russian roads are notoriously dangerous and drivers still rarely take steps to avoid pedestrians (行人). Nearly half of all traffic accidents in the country’s big cities are caused by cars hitting pedestrians, and a third of those occur on crossings, according to traffic police figures published last month.

In the first six months of this year, 378 people were killed and more than 6, 600 injured on pedestrian crossings in Russia, according to police. In Moscow alone, 43 people were killed, including two children.

Though police officials said that only safe paint would be used on the animals, animal rights activists still disagreed with the idea, accusing the police of “treating animals like garbage”.

“Children understand that paints are bad for animals,” the Interfax news agency quoted (引用) president of Vita animal rights group Irina Novozhilova as saying.

Let’s hope this part of the campaign is over and animals are left out of future attempts to raise pedestrians’ awareness.