Bald eagles are a breathtaking sight, no matter where you see them. Bald eagles are making headlines again, as proven by NPR’s story about the birds’ amazing recovery in Chesapeake Bay.

“Forty years ago, we probably would not have seen a single bald eagle here,” says Bryan Watts, a conservation biologist. This is a familiar story across a nation where pollution and pesticides(杀虫剂) nearly wiped out the species in the United States. The bald eagle was on the endangered species list for decades, and considerable recovery efforts were put into place to bring the national symbol back.

It was delisted in 2007, and stories of its recovery have continued to be a source of celebration from Glenwood, Iowa to Chicago to Sandy Island Eagle Sanctuary in Missouri. The fascination with watching this species come back with vigor(活力) has been equally as wonderful as witnessing the recovery itself. Some efforts to help endangered species recover can be controversial, but the recovery of the bald eagle has been a story everyone can get behind. A bald eagle nest in Decorah, Iowa brings in millions of viewers every season as the parents hatch their chicks. It’s not often a livestream angled on a bird’s nest gets that kind of viewership!

The conservation effort has not been easy and in some areas, such as the Channel Islands off the California coast, it is really tough to carry out. Bald eagles once called these islands home but disappeared with the emergence of the pesticide DDT. In addition, humans changed the ecosystem there by introducing invasive species. Restoration efforts have included removing the alien species and helping native species. A program for reintroducing bald eagles starting in 2002 has been a success, with 2010 seeing a record-setting 15 wild chicks hatched.

At present, while there are many dangers that still face the bald eagle, the incredibly successful recovery over the last several decades is a conservation story to champion - and one to feed hope for other endangered species whose recovery is still underway.

No rainforest is exactly the same—yet most rainforests are now in the small land area 23.26 degrees north and 23.26 degrees south of the Equator (赤道), between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer. You can find tropical (热带的) rainforests in South America and Indonesia. Other rainforests grow well further from the Equator, in Thailand and Sri Lanka.

Despite covering a relatively small area, rainforests have a big role to play in supporting the world. Tropical rainforests are home to a rich variety of plants, food, birds and animals. Can you believe that a single bush in the Amazon may have more species of ants than the whole of Britain? Four hundred and eighty varieties of trees may be found in just one hectare of rainforest.

Rainforests are the lungs of the planet—storing huge quantities of CO₂ and producing a large amount of the world’s oxygen. Rainforests have their own perfect system for ensuring their own survival.

Amazingly, the trees grow in such a way that their leaves and branches, although close together, never actually touch those of another tree. Scientists think this is a deliberate (故意的) way to prevent the spread of any tree diseases and make life more difficult for leaf-eating insects such as caterpillars.

To survive in the forest, animals must climb, jump or fly. The ground floor of the forest is not all tangled (缠结的) leaves and bushes, as in films, but is actually fairly clear. It is where leaves are destroyed slowly and turned into food for the trees and other forest life.

Worryingly, rainforests around the world are disappearing at an alarming rate, thanks to deforestation, river pollution and soil erosion (流失) as land is being lost for agriculture and trees are cut down for wood. A few thousand years ago, tropical rainforests covered as much as 12 per cent of the land surface on Earth, but today this has fallen to less than 7 per cent.

We can only hope that the world governments work together to preserve the rainforests—beautiful and important for our existence.

Would you sail over 12,900 kilometres across the Pacific Ocean in a boat made from plastic bottles?

In 2010, a crew of six people did. They sailed on the Plastiki, an 18.3-metre boat made from recycled materials. Everything about the Plastiki was environmentally friendly. The sails were produced from recycled plastic and the masts that held them from used aluminum pipes. Organic materials, such as glue made from nuts and sugar, were used to keep the bottles in place. To power the boat, solar panels and wind turbines were used.

During the journey, crew members lived in a plastic cabin. Their daily routine consisted of sleeping, eating and doing chores. For food, they mainly survived on fresh vegetables grown in a hanging garden as well as canned and dried food. They also ate fresh fish, but were surprised to discover that they found more plastic than fish. “From above, the oceans still look beautiful and untouched,” David said, “but just below the surface is this toxic stew that could quickly end up on our dinner plates.”

The leader, David, organised the voyage in order to draw people’s attention to the environmental dangers our oceans face and the need to recycle plastic. He planned to visit damaged coral reefs and islands in danger from rising sea levels. However, his most important objective was to see the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a huge mass of plastic particles floating in the North Pacific. David hoped that, by sailing through the Patch, he could show the world how serious plastic pollution had become.

Unfortunately, the Plastiki was more difficult to control than expected. Therefore, the boat missed its main destination. However, the crew did make stops at islands in the mid-Pacific, where they picked up supplies and talked to local students. Along the way, they battled fierce ocean storms, torn sails and temperatures that reached up to 38°C.

When the Plastiki finally sailed into Sydney’s harbour, the crew were greeted by cheers. The Plastiki’s journey had shown that if we understand how to use waste materials efficiently, they can be transformed into valuable resources. It had also revealed that it was more important than ever to deliver a serious message: our oceans are filling up with plastic faster than we thought.