2 . A new study says that no matter how much the world cuts back on greenhouse gases, a large and important part of ice of Antarctica (南极洲) is expected to disappear.

Researchers used computer models to expect the future melting (融化) of protective ice around Antarctica’s Amundsen Sea in western Antarctica. They said the melting will take hundreds of years. It will slowly add nearly 1.8 meters to sea levels. And it will be enough to change where and how people live in the future.

The study found that even if future warming was limited to just a few tenths of a degree more, it would have limited power to prevent ocean warming that could lead to the breakdown of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Study lead writer Kaitlin Naughten is an expert on oceans at the British Antarctic Survey. She said their research suggests that Earth is set on the path to a quickly increasing speed of ocean warming and ice shelf melting over the rest of the century.

While past studies have talked about how serious the situation is, Naughten was the first to use computer modeling to study how warm water from below will melt the ice. The study looked at four different cases in how much greenhouse gases the world produces. In each case, ocean warming was just too much for this area of the ice to survive.

Naughten looked at floating areas of ice that hold back glaciers (冰川). Once these areas of ice melt, there is nothing to stop the glaciers behind them from flowing (流) into the sea.

The study also looked at what would happen if future warming was limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius over mid-19th century levels: the international goal. They found the rapid melting process in this case as well.

The world has already warmed about 1.2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times and much of this summer went past the 1.5 degrees mark.

3 . Finding a California condor in the wild would be the most unusual treat. perhaps even more unusual than finding a wolf in Yellowstone National Park. In fact, the wolf was what opened my eyes to the fact that humans could bring an animal back to the place where it had disappeared.

In 1987, there were only 27 California condors left, none of which were in the wild, only in captive breeding programs, It was those breeding programs that contributed to their population rise, enough that by 1991 some of them could be freed into the wild.

Still, the hope of seeing a California condor, which remains an endangered species, is very low, let alone getting a photo of one. California condor population dropped mostly due to human factors, such as poaching and living areas destruction-these are challenges California condors still face today.

Although this is just a bird’s-eye view of the challenges California condors face and there are many others, it is part of why the opportunity to work with the US Fish and Wildlife Service team and their partners helping their recovery is so special to me as a photographer. I am not only able to photograph the birds in their wild living areas, but also understand and record how difficult the work is of those people on the front lines of the protection.

I am grateful for the work of the team, and my hope is that California condor population will continue to rise allowing future generations an opportunity I never had when I first got here-to look to the sky and see one flying around.

5 . When Alex Lin was 11 years old, he read an alarming article in the newspaper about e-waste. The article said that people were throwing away their e-waste in places it should never go. This was dangerous, the article said, because e-waste contains poisonous chemicals and metals like lead. These harmful substances (物质) can leak into the environment, getting into crops, animals, water supplies — and people.

Alex showed the article to a few of his classmates. They were worried too. But what could they do about this problem with e-waste? How would they even start? “The first thing we did,” Alex says, “was to learn more about the problem.” Alex and his friends spent several weeks gathering information about the chemicals in e-waste and their effects on humans. They learned how to dispose (处理) of e-waste properly and how it could be recycled. “Then,” he says, “we had to find out what the situation was in our town. So we sent out a survey.”

What they found shocked them: Of the people who answered the survey, only one in eight even knew what e-waste was, let alone how to properly dispose of it. Alex and his friends went into action. They advertised in the local newspaper and distributed notices to students, asking residents to bring their unwanted electronics to the school parking lot. The drive lasted two days, and they collected over 21,000 pounds of e-waste.

The next step was to set up an e-waste drop-off center for the town and to find a responsible company to recycle the waste. That was when Alex and his friends learned another scary fact about e-waste — some irresponsible recycling companies don’t break down the e-waste and dispose of it safely themselves. Instead, they ship it overseas to countries such as China and Nigeria, where local environmental laws are not applied. “We checked carefully online to make sure the company we chose didn’t do this,” Alex says.

Because of the work of people like Alex and his team, more and more people are getting the message about safe disposal of e-waste. As Alex says, “Today’s technology should not become tomorrow’s poisonous trash.”

8 . How do oceans affect you? If you live far from the coast, you might think they don’t. But life on this planet depends on the ocean. It covers almost three-quarters of the planet and holds 97 percent of Earth’s water. The phytoplankton (浮游植物)that live on the oceans’ surface produce half of the oxygen in the atmosphere. Oceans are a vital source of food and other resources and an economic engine for many communities.

For all the ocean provides us, we haven’t always been so responsible in our administration. “The ocean was thought of as a dumping (倾倒的) ground for so long,” says Caitlyn Toropova of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). “There was a sense that there was no way we could harm it because it is so vast.”

But human activities are having a negative impact on many of the world’s oceans, jeopardizing marine life, habitats, and ecosystems. These threats include overfishing or destructive fishing, coastal development, pollution and runoff, and the introduction of non-native species. Climate change is also having a big effect by causing warming seas and ocean acidification.

The realization that something needs to be done to prevent the damage has led to the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs), Specifics differ around the globe, but the United States defines a marine protected area as “any area of the marine environment that has been preserved to prov d eating protection for part or all of the natural and cultural resources.”

There are approximately 5,000 designated (命名) MPAs around the word but many more that are not officially recognized, says Toropova, the conservation group’s officer for marine protected areas. That may sound like a lot, but less than one percent of the world’s oceans is protected. Countries around the world have committed to protecting 10 percent, Toropova say, But “even though there’s been an increase in the past 10 years, at the current rate it would take 100 years to reach that goal,” she says.

The year 1970 witnessed the establishment of the World Earth Day. Over 50 years later,     1     started as a grassroots movement has exploded into an international day of attention and campaigns     2     (commit) to preserving the environment. According to the Earth Day Network, one of the largest activist organizations holding Earth Day events, many a     3     (participate) across the globe celebrate Earth Day in a different way.

Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring published in 1962 was among a series of critical environmental issues     4     (help) give birth to the environmental movement. The book brought     5     to light that the use of a pesticide called DDT was polluting rivers and destroying the eggs of birds like bald eagles. The number of the latter declined     6     (dramatic). Then, in 1969, a large oil leak near the Santa Barbara County coast     7     (drive) the then Senator Gaylord Nelson to put Earth Day on the national stage.

In the past years since the first Earth Day, there     8     (be) a large number of major environment wins. Protection has been put in place on everything     9     clean water to endangered species.

The theme of Earth Day 2023 is “Earth for All”, the concept of     10     emphasizes human beings must respect nature, follow its ways and protect it.