Located in Ordos, North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Kubuqi Desert (库布齐沙漠) is the closest desert to China’s capital Beijing. It was once known as the “sea of death”. However, in the past 30 years, the government, social organizations and local farmers     1     (work) together to control desertification (沙漠化) in Kubuqi Desert.

Historically, Kubuqi was a rich city filled with water and grass. But due     2     climate change and over-exploitation from humans, the farmlands gradually turned to desert. Controlling desertification was the only way out for people still living in Kubuqi. With the first highway going through the desert     3     (build) here, people started planting trees in     4     whole desert. It was common for planted trees to die. But the next year, people just continued to plant more trees.     5     (ultimate), their hard work inspired the term “Kubuqi spirit”, encouraging local people     6     (devote) themselves to the desert greatly. Over three decades, tree planting technology saw further     7     (improve) in Kubuqi. Now workers can plant a tree in just ten     8     (second), and the survival rate of trees is over 80 percent.

The 102,000 residents in the desert have enjoyed the benefits of managing with desertification. Meng Keda,     9     family has lived deep in Kubuqi Desert for generations, began a tourism business in 2006     10     earned about 300,000 yuan last year.

3 . Marcelo Toledo usually creates works of art out of metal. Now the Argentine artist is working with a new material: waste masks from the COVID-19 pandemic (流行病) to create an exhibition exploring the painful impact of the virus.

Toledo, who has made decorations for the musical “Evita” on Broadway, was among the first in Argentina to be infected by COVID-19, which left him hospitalized for eight days. The experience led to a series of artworks, including a 14-meter mask with the Argentine flag that he placed on the famous Obelisk in Buenos Aires to raise awareness about organ donation during the pandemic.

For his new exhibition, the “Museum of the After,” Toledo is collecting recycled coronavirus waste sent by hospitals, laboratories and random people, including old medical parts and newspapers about the pandemic.

“I am excited to be able to transform pain into beauty and this. exhibition is just recording everything that is happening to us as a society,” Toledo said. The artworks, which will go on show from September in a public space in downtown Buenos Aires, will all be made from waste materials or garbage that people send him. “It is the first time that I have done an exhibition in which I do not have to buy any of the elements,” he said.

In the exhibition there will be a real ship that will symbolically cross a “storm” and recycling islands to raise awareness about the importance of caring for the environment. “The exhibition will tell the story of this ship that went on sailing after the storm, which is a great metaphor (隐喻) for what is happening to us. This pandemic is a great global storm,” Toledo said.

As with the huge mask, which was replicated (复制) in countries such as the United States and Japan, the artist dreams of replicating the new exhibition in other cities around the world.

6 . Over the last two days, much of Spain has been coated with dust (灰尘) , and the skies have turned bright orange. A huge cloud of dust from the Sahara Desert is causing the strange weather. The dust cloud is expected to spread to other parts of Europe.

Across much of Spain on Tuesday morning, a thin layer (层) of red dust coated everything outside. From streets to sidewalks to balconies, everything was covered with a layer of dust. As the sun rose, the dust in the air turned the skies in some cities a strange orange. The cause of the dust and unusual sky colour wasn’t a forest fire, but dust from the Sahara Desert.

Every year, a large cloud of dust rises from the Sahara Desert. It’s called the Saharan Air Layer. Usually, it crosses the Atlantic Ocean as part of a natural cycle that helps develop farmland and beaches in Central and South America.

But sometimes, depending on the weather, the layer of dust gets forced to the north. Large sandstorms in northern Africa lift sand and dust into the air, where it gets blown towards Spain. Though the particles (微粒) in the air come from sand, they’re much more like dust than sand at a beach.

These kinds of storms aren’t unknown in Spain. In fact, it has a special name. It’s called a “calima”. This calima is so large that it can be seen from space. A NASA scientist who studies weather in the atmosphere says it’s like a river of dust in the air. That river of dust has met with a river of wet air driven by strong winds.

Spain’s weather service described the dust storm as being “very intense (强烈) ”. At one point on Tuesday, the air quality in Madrid was the worst in the world. Government health experts warned people not to go outside without a mask, and to keep their windows and doors closed at home.

It’s     1     little hard to believe that Iceland has experienced 18,000 earthquakes in a week. Most of them have been too small to feel. The seismic (地震的) activity suggests that a volcano in the southwest of Iceland,     2     hasn’t been active for over 800 years, may be about     3     (erupt). Iceland is a volcanic island and is used to the occasional earthquake. However, quakes have unsettled     4     (resident) in the capital city Reykjavik. Scientists say despite the large number     5     quakes, there has been very little damage.

Iceland     6     (lie) on top of the meeting of tectonic plates. Tectonic plates are pieces of Earth’s crust (地壳) around 100km thick on which Earth’s landmass sits. The plates below Iceland are     7     (constant) pushing North America and Eurasia away from each other at an extremely slow rate. Living on a tectonic plate means earthquakes can’t     8     (avoid). One Reykjavik resident spoke about his anxiety     9     (cause) by the 18,000 recent quakes. He said, “It is very     10     (usual) to feel the Earth shake 24 hours a day for a whole week. It makes you feel very small and powerless against nature.”

8 . This summer we witnessed interview teams at the North Pole wearing short sleeve shirts due to the warm weather. A study published on Aug 29 revealed more concerning issues in the supposedly coldest area of the world. Zombie ice from a massive Greenland ice sheet was confirmed to be melting, which would eventually raise global sea levels by at least 10 inches (27 centimeters) on its own, reported Associated Press (AP).

Zombie ice is the kind of ice that is still attached to thicker areas of ice, but is no longer getting fed by larger glaciers. Since glaciers are getting less snow to make up for the amount of ice melted, once the zombie ice is melted, it cannot be re-formed.

Scientists decided to look at the balance of the ice. In perfect equilibrium (平衡),snow in the mountains of Greenland flows down and thickens the sides of glaciers, balancing out what’s melting on the edges, according to AP. But in the last few decades, there is less refill and more melting, creating an imbalance.

Study co-author William Colgan at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland told AP that 3. 3 percent of Greenland’s total ice volume will melt eventually. “Starving would be a good phrase” for what’s happening to the ice, Colgan added.

With a great number of natural resources buried under the earth, areas of melted ice revealed treasures that attracted the world’s richest men. According to CNN, in early August, there was a “treasure hunt” in Greenland. Billionaires, including Bill Gates and others, financially backed KoBold Metals, a US-based mineral exploration company, to explore the rare metals under the glaciers in Greenland. The company told CNN that since there were enough minerals to power hundreds of millions of electric vehicles, the critical resource is capable of powering the green energy transition (过渡).

While investors are taking advantage of global warming, experts express their concerns that the mineral exploration is likely to worsen the local environment, running out of the world’s resources at a faster rate.

10 . As a young girl growing up in France, Sarah Toumi dreamed of becoming a leader who could make the world a better place. Her passion to help others was awakened when, from the age of nine, she accompanied her Tunisian father to his birthplace in the east of the country during holidays. There she organized homework clubs and activities for children.

Toumi witnessed first-hand the destructive effect of desertification (沙漠化). “Within 10 years rich farmers became worse off, and in 10 years from now they will be poor. I wanted to stop the Sahara Desert in its tracks.” A decrease in average rainfall and an increase in the severity of droughts have led to an estimated 75 percent of Tunisia’s agricultural lands being threatened by desertification.

Toumi recognized that farming practices needed to change. She is confident that small land areas can bring large returns if farmers are able to adapt by planting sustainable crops, using new technologies for water treatment and focusing on natural products and fertilizers rather than chemicals.

In 2012, Toumi consolidated (巩固) her dream of fighting the desert. She moved to Tunisia, and set up a programme named Acacias for All to put her sustainable farming philosophy (理念) into action. “I want to show young people in rural areas that they can create opportunities where they are. Nobody is better able to understand the impact of desertification and climate change than somebody who is living with no access to water.”

By September 2016, more than 130, 000 acacia trees had been planted on 20 pilot farms, with farmers recording a 60 percent survival rate. Toumi estimates that some 3 million acacia trees are needed to protect Tunisia’s farmland. She expects to plant 1 million trees by 2018. In the next couple of years, Toumi hopes to extend the programme to Algeria and Morocco.