Venice (威尼斯)is famous     1     its beautiful buildings and waterways, but the 1,600-year-old city is in danger because of rising sea level. In the past 20 years, Venice has experienced 163 big floods. Strong underwater walls and gates     2     (build) to protect the city since 2009. However, for people     3     live in Venice, there are still floods and this blocks business. A shop owner there said in an interview, “Venice lives thanks to its tourism and it is our duty     4     ( save) it.”

5 . Of all the weird and wonderful creatures living under the sea, perhaps the strangest are jellyfish—those rubbery, cone-shaped creatures found floating in the water, their long tentacles trailing behind.

Some jellyfish species have a bad reputation for scaring away tourists, clogging up fishing nets, and even blocking power station pipes. But with more and more plastic rubbish ending up in the sea, these days you’re as likely to swim into a plastic bag as a jellyfish. Now scientific research is discovering that these rubbery sea creatures might provide an answer—a sticky solution to the problem of plastic pollution.

In recent years, tiny pieces of plastic called microplastic have been a significant problem for the world’s seas and oceans. These plastics are not visible to the eye and aren’t caught by seawater treatment plants due to their small size, so they enter our system and harm our health. They’ve been found in many places—in Arctic ice, at the bottom of the sea and even inside animals. Slovenian scientist, Dr Ana Rotter, heads GoJelly, a European research team of jellyfish ecologists looking into the problem.

Microplastics, plastics in general, are becoming an increasing problem. Dr Ana Rotter says when she was a child, people were more environmentally friendly—not harmful to the environment or having the least possible impact on it. At that time, there were very few single-use plastics—plastic items, like spoons and forks, designed to be used just once, then thrown away. The situation since then has changed dramatically. In fact, there’s been such an increase in microplastics that today the UN lists plastic pollution as one of the world’s top environmental threats.

But how do jellyfish fit into the story? Well, it’s the ‘jelly’ part of jellyfish, and specifically their sticky, jelly-like mucus that is key. Jellyfish produce a thick, sticky liquid called mucus. Dr Ana Rotter has discovered that this mucus has strong absorptive capabilities—it can absorb, take in liquids and other substances. One of the substances jellyfish mucus absorbs are the particles that make up microplastics.

Dr Rotter’s research is still in the early stages, but it’s hoped that jellyfish mucus could hold the key to a future free of microplastic polluted oceans. Scientists are hoping that the mucus’s absorptive properties—its abilities to absorb liquids and other substances and hold them, will allow it to trap particles of plastic floating in the sea. By trapping these, the mucus acts like a magnet—an object that attracts certain materials, like metal, but in this case, microplastic waste.

6 . Saihanba is a green miracle passed on from generation to generation.

The Saihanba Forest Farm is the world’s largest manmade forest, a 750-square-kilometer barrier (屏障), 300 kilometers north of Beijing, planted to save the Chinese capital from desertification (the gradual change of habitable land into desert, which is usually caused by climate change or by destructive use of the land).

Today, overlooking the sea of green, it would be hard to imagine that a half century ago, the area was wasteland.

The big change began 59 years ago with the effort of a group of foresters and engineers who were determined to turn the area into a forest. In 1962, the Ministry of Forestry Saihanba Mechanical Forest Farm was formally established. Some 369 young people from different parts of the country went all the way north to Saihanba.

Food and shelter was in short supply, so the group grew their own potatoes and corn and set up simple shelters and tents, sometimes using only brunches and straw that gave little shelter from the freezing wind.

In the beginning, planting trees on the very cold highland was an impossible task due to the high winds. Over 90 percent of the young seedlings planted in the first two years died and the forest farm was nearly shut down. After trying different ways of planting trees, the survival rate of the newly planted young trees topped 90 percent in 1964.

Planting trees is not enough. Carefully protecting the woods and managing well the whole forest farm is even harder. That is what later generations will do.

During fire prevention periods in spring and autumn, they check the vast expanse of forest every 15 minutes during the day, and once an hour at night.

Now as third-generation tree planters in Saihanba, they need to solve even more difficult problems in the never-ending effort of planting more trees. Since there is much less flat land left for planting trees, they have to work on the rocky mountain slopes (斜坡) where the topsoil is only 10 centimeters thick. But before giving the young trees a home, they need to dig holes about 40 centimeters deep.

Three generations of hard work have turned Saihanba from a nascent (新生的) stand of trees into a million acres of forest, from a desert into an oasis.

Saving nature is at the very heart of what we do as WWF. We protect wildlife     1     many reasons. It is a source of inspiration. It boosts a sense of wonder. It is fundamental to the balance of nature. In our work, WWF focuses on saving populations of the most     2     (importance) species in the wild. Finally, by protecting species, we save this beautiful and irreplaceable planet     3     is called home.

8 . Alarming reports that the Antarctic ice sheet is becoming smaller misrepresent the facts. The ice sheet holds about 26.5 million gigatons(十亿吨)of water. If it were to melt(融化)completely, sea levels would rise 190 feet. Such a change is an issue for the far future, if it comes at all.

Much more modest ice loss is normal in Antarctica. Each year, some 2,200 gigatons of the ice is discharged(消融), while snowfall adds almost the same amount. The difference between the discharge and addition each year is the annual loss. That figure has been increasing, from 40 gigatons a year in the 1980s to 250 gigatons a year in the 2010s. But the increase is just a slight change in a complex process. If it continued at that rate, the sea level would be raised by 3 inches over 100 years.

Many fear that a warming globe could increase discharge and cause more rapid sea-level rise. Two recent studies focus on this issue. Researchers in the study of Thwaites Glacier(冰川)—an unusually broad and fast Antarctic glacier—infer that in the past it became smaller for half a year at more than twice the fastest rate ever observed. The cause of this specific event remains unknown, partly because the time of the rapid melting hasn’t yet been determined. But the media goes with this angle: “A ‘doomsday(末日)glacier’, the size of Florida, is breaking faster than thought.”

A second study tested the idea that the melted freshwater could be carried by currents to speed up the discharge of nearby glaciers. Researchers constructed a special model to prove their idea. If ocean currents can connect the discharges of distant glaciers, that would add to the complexity in the Antarctic ice sheet. To emphasize their idea, researchers used human influences almost three times larger. Even though that fact is stated in the paper, reporters rarely catch such nuance, and the media goes with headlines such as “a massive tsunami would drown New York City, killing millions.” A more accurate headline would read: “Ocean currents connecting Antarctic glaciers might quicken their melting.”

These two studies were conducted with clever methods to infer past conditions and advanced computer modeling to show possible situations. These papers describe the science with appropriate precision and caution, but it is a shame that the media misrepresents the research to raise alarm. That denies the public the right to make informed decisions about “climate action,” as well as the opportunity to be amazed at the science itself.

9 . The bald eagle was once a dying species in the United States. This is because the bird wasn’t always held with respect. At the National Book Festival, author Jack E. Davis detailed the bald eagle’s “great conservation success story”.

The bald eagle has faced extinction twice. The first occurred in the late 19th century. “It was then that a bald eagle seen was one to be shot,” he said. He explained that the bird had been regarded as a dangerous animal, and considered a threat. But such threat tended to be overstated. Throughout the early 20th century, thousands of bald eagles were shot down. Things began to change for the bird in 1940, when the government passed its legal protection — the Bald Eagle Protection Act.

However, only five years later, the bird faced its second near extinction when DDT, an environmentally harmful insecticide (杀虫剂), was introduced at the end of World War Ⅱ. In 1963, the bald eagle hit its lowest number — totaling less than 500 nesting pairs across the U.S. “At that time, only about one-third of the nation’s water was safe for swimming and fishing,” Davis said. “That was eagle habitat, but also our habitat.” “We stepped up.” He mentioned that this situation led a nonprofit organization, Fish and Wildlife, to launch “hugely successful” eagle protection projects.

By 2007, the bald eagle was removed from the list as the species regained its health, reaching nearly 11,000 nesting pairs nationwide, and today’s number is somewhere around 500,000.

For those looking to assist in the ongoing comeback of the bald eagle and other endangered animals, Davis said, almost every state has a center that accepts donations and welcomes visitors and volunteers.

10 . Most environmental pollution comes from humans and their inventions. The electric bulbs are thought to be one of the greatest human inventions of all time. However, too much of a good thing has started to negatively impact the environment. Light pollution, the extreme or inappropriate use of outdoor artificial light, is affecting human health and wildlife behavior. There is a global movement to reduce light pollution, and everyone can help.

Light pollution is a global issue. This became particularly obvious when the World Atlas (地图册)of Night Sky Brightness, a computer-generated map based on thousands of satellite photos, was published in 2016. Vast areas of North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia are glowing with light, while only Siberia, the Sahara, and the Amazon are in total darkness.

Artificial light can wreak havoc on natural body rhythms in both humans and animals. It interrupts sleep and confuses the circadian rhythm(生理节奏)一the internal, twenty-four-hour clock that guides day and night activities and affects physiological processes in nearly all living organisms. One of these processes is the production of the hormone melatonin(褪黑素), which is released when it is dark and is prevented when there is light. An increased amount of light at night lowers melatonin production, which results in lack of sleep, headaches, stress, anxiety, and other health problems. Blue light, in particular, has been shown to reduce levels of melatonin in humans. It is found in cell phones and other computer devices, as well as in light-emitting diodes (LEDs), the kinds of bulbs that have become popular at home and in industrial and city lighting due to their low cost and energy efficiency.

Studies show that light pollution is also impacting animal behaviors, such as migration (迁徙)patterns and habitat formation. Because of light pollution, sea turtles guided by moonlight during migration get confused, lose their way, and often die. Large numbers of insects, a primary food source for birds and other animals, are drawn to artificial light and are instantly killed upon contact with light sources. Even animals living under the deep sea may be affected by underwater artificial lighting. One study looked at how animals in sea responded to brightly lit panels put under water off the coast of Wales. Fewer filter feeding animals(滤食性动物), such as the sea squirt(海鞘), made their homes near the lighted panels. This could mean that the artificial light is altering ocean ecosystems.

The good news is that light pollution, unlike many other forms of pollution, is reversible(可逆的)and each one of us can make a difference! Now, many people are taking action to reduce light pollution and bring back the natural night sky. Individuals are urged to use outdoor lighting only when and where it is needed, to make sure outdoor lights are properly shielded (遮挡)and direct light down instead of up into the sky, and to close window blinds, shades, and curtains at night to keep light inside.