1 . A tiny Alaska village has experienced a boom in tourism in recent years as polar bears spend more time on land than on Arctic sea ice.

More than 2,000 people visited the northern Alaska village of Kaktovik in 2018 to see polar bears in the wild. The far north community lies in an area where increasingly higher temperature has sped up the movement of sea ice, the primary habitat (栖息地) of polar bears. As ice has gradually moved to deep water beyond the continental shelf, more bears are remaining on land to look for food.

Polar bears have always been a common sight on sea ice near Kaktovik, but villagers started noticing a change in the mid­1990s. More bears seemed to stay on land, and researchers began taking note of more female bears making homes in the snow on land instead of on the ice to raise their babies. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists began hearing reports of the increasing number of polar bears in the area in the early 2000s. As more attention was given to the plight (困境) of polar bears about a decade ago, more tourists started heading to Kaktovik.

The village had fewer than 50 visitors annually before 2011, said Jennifer Reed, of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. “Today we’re talking about hundreds and hundreds of visitors, many from around the world each year,” Reed said. Most tourists visit in the fall, when bears are forced toward land because sea ice is farthest away from the shore. Bruce Inglangasak, a local hunter who sometimes offers wildlife­ viewing tours, said he's been offering polar bear tours since 2004. Most of his clients (客户) are from China and Europe, as well as from the lower 48 U. S. states. Many tourists stay several days in the village, which has two small hotels. The villagers have benefited a lot from that. In turn, they provide more effective protection for polar bears with financial support from tourism development.

2 . Off the coast of Formentera, an island, lives seagrass that stretches 15 kilometres. The seagrass, covering several hectares, is made up of a single organism. The grasses are also long-lived, for tens or hundreds of thousands of years. Along with two other kinds of coastal ecosystems—mangrove swamps（红树沼泽）and tidal marshes, seagrass meadows are particularly good at taking carbon dioxide from the air.

This role was highlighted in a report, which was published on March 2nd by UNESCO, on blue carbon—the carbon taken in by Earth's oceanic and coastal ecosystems. In total around 33 billion tons of carbon dioxide, about three-quarters of the world's emissions（排放）in 2019, are locked away in the planet's blue carbon sinks（碳汇）. Research by Carlos Duarte, the report's author and a marine ecologist, has shown that one hectare of seagrass can suck as much carbon dioxide each year as 15 hectares of rainforest.

One reason that blue—carbon ecosystems make such effective sinks is that underwater forests are thicker than the land-based woods. They can also trap floating pieces and organic matter, which settles on the sea floor and can double the amount of carbon stored away. They have another advantage, too. Climate change is leading to more wildfires around the world. As forests burn, their carbon stocks are released back into the atmosphere. Unlike forests on land, blue-carbon ecosystems do not burn.

Blue-carbon ecosystems may not be fired, but they remain affected to other sorts of disasters. In May 2020 hurricane Amphan destroyed 1,200 square kilometres of mangrove forest. A marine（海洋的）heatwave in Australian waters in 2010 and 2011 damaged around one third of the world's largest seagrass meadow in Shark Bay. “Mangrove forests can weaken or control waves and provide natural barriers to storm surges. Protecting and expanding them, then, appears to be a must,” said a marine biologist.

5 . Masks that helped save lives are proving a deadly danger to wildlife, with birds and sea creatures trapped in the shocking number of thrown-away facial coverings. Single-use masks have been found around pavements, waterways and beaches worldwide. Worn once, the thin protective materials can take hundreds of years to decompose. “Face masks aren’t going away any time soon — but when we throw them away, these items can harm the environment and the animals,” Ashley Fruno of animal rights group PETA said.

In Britain, a gull was rescued by the RSPCA after its legs became tangled in the straps of a mask for up to a week. The animal welfare charity took it to a wildlife hospital for treatment before its release.

The biggest effect may be in the water. More than 1.5 billion masks made their way into the world’s oceans last year, accounting for around 6,200 extra tonnes of ocean plastic pollution, according to environmental group Oceans Asia.

Conservationists in Brazil found one mask inside the stomach of a penguin after its body was washed up on a beach, while a dead puffer fish was discovered caught inside another off the coast of Miami. French campaigners found a dead crab trapped in a mask near the Mediterranean.

Masks and gloves are “particularly problematic” for sea creatures, says George Leonard, chief scientist from NGO Ocean Conservancy. “When those plastics break down in the environment, they then enter the food chain and impact the entire ecosystems,” he added.

There has been a shift towards greater use of reusable cloth masks as the pandemic has worn on, but many are still using the lighter single-use varieties. Campaigners have urged people to bin them properly and cut the straps to reduce the risk of animals becoming trapped. Oceans Asia has also called on governments to increase fines for littering and encourage the use of washable masks.

6 . A young Dutch inventor is widening his effort to cleanup floating (浮动的) plastic from the Pacific Ocean. He has developed a floating device (设备) to trap plastic waste moving into rivers before it reaches the oceans.

Boyan Slat was just 18 years old when he invented a system for catching waste in the ocean. He also founded an environmental group called “The Ocean Cleanup”. Its purpose is to develop the system. Last year, Slat showed the next step: a floating device which is called Interceptor. It removes plastic out of rivers. The device is powered by energy from the sun. “The 1,000 rivers are responsible for about 80% of plastic going into the world’s oceans,” said Slat. Three of the machines have already been used. Each machine costs about $775, 660, but the cost might drop as production increases.

Since they were used, the machines have been doing very well, collecting the plastic bottles and all the rubbish in the rivers. According to Slat, it is necessary to close “the tap”, which means preventing more plastic from reaching the ocean in the first place. He wanted to clean them all in the next five years. “This is not going to be easy, but if we do get this done, we could truly make our oceans again, ”said Slat.

The device is designed to be safe in rivers. Its nose is shaped to change directions to keep it away from larger floating things. It works by guiding plastic waste into an opening in the front of the device. The waste is then carried inside the machine where it is dropped into containers. The devices ends a text message to local operators that can come and empty it when it is full.

9 . Scientists say baby sharks are at risk of being born smaller and without the energy they need to survive because of warming oceans from climate change.

Scientists studied epaulette sharks, which live off Australia and New Guinea. They found that warmer conditions sped up the sharks’ growing process. That meant the sharks were born earlier and very tired. The findings could be used in the study of other sharks, including those that give birth to live young.

The scientists studied 27 sharks. Some were raised in average summer water temperatures, about 27 degrees Celsius. Others were raised in higher temperatures around 29 degrees Celsius and 31 degrees Celsius. They found that the sharks raised in the warmest temperatures weighed much less than those raised in average temperatures. They also showed reduced energy levels.

Epaulette sharks can grow to a length of about one meter. Their name comes from large spots on their bodies that look like decorations on some military clothing.

One study this year found that worldwide numbers of oceanie sharks and rays dropped more than 70 percent between 1970 and 2018. Overfishing is a main concern, while climate change and pollution also threaten shark.

Carolyn Wheeler is a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts Boston and with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University in Australia. She was the lead author of the epaulette shark study. She said that while all the sharks survived, those raised in warmer temperatures were not strong enough to survive for long in the wild.

She added that if the sharks are born smaller than usual “they are probably going to have to start looking for food sooner—and they’re going to have less time to adjust to their surroundings.” The study should serve as a warning to ocean governing agencies that careful management is needed to prevent the loss of more sharks.

The Amazon rainforest has been destroyed over the past 50 years and losses recently have been on the rise.Brazil has asked its army     1     (prevent) woodcutters from cutting down trees in the Amazon rainforest.The Brazilian government is worried that woodcutters will be cutting more trees down in the world's largest rainforest in the next six months.The year has already started     2     (bad) for the trees and our environment.    3     (compare) with the same month in 2019, more trees were cut down in the Amazon rainforest this January.The Amazon rainforest,     4     is called “the lungs” of the planet, plays an important role in stabilizing (稳定) the     5    (earth) climate.

For hundreds of years,     6    (look) after reindeer was a way of life for the Sami. Today, most Sami have houses in villages near Sarek and live a modern life just     7    their neighbours and enjoy their     8    (traditional) as before.

After breakfast, I pack my bag and set out again.Being in such a     9     (beauty) and wild place makes me feel     10     (bless) to be alive.