Recently, more than 100 Asian elephants made their way across The Mall in front of London’s Buckingham Palace. However, they weren’t live animals. These life—sized elephant sculptures were handmade by native community members from the jungles of Tamil Nadu in South India.

The environmental art exhibition is called CoExistence. It was headed by Elephant Family and The Real Elephant Collective, a British charity and non—profit socio—environmental enterprise aimed at raising awareness(意识)for the Indian elephant. Meant as a response to the increasing conflict between humans and animals, the exhibition’s goal is to start a movement of global empathy(同情)for members of the animal kingdom who, like the powerful elephant,   have found themselves sharing natural habitats(栖息地)with fast—growing human populations.

The sculptures are made with an invasive weed called Iantana, whose removal benefits the wildlife in protected areas, and pleasant smells transport people to the Nilgiri Hills of Southern India where the elephants begin their migration(迁徙). Flying alongside the elephants are sculpted groups of bird species that have been declared extinct or endangered in the UK, such as the nightingale, curlew, dalmatian pelican and turtle dove.

The project helps display this unique time in history when the worldwide reduction in human activity from COVID—19 has had an overall positive effect on certain areas of wildlife species around the planet.

“Today marks the first significant step on the animals’ 13,000—mile migration around the world. Over the past three years, many countries have gone through lockdown,” said Ruth Ganesh, a co—founder of The Real Elephant Collective. “Brought about by worrying situations, this great pause is providing key guidance on how to best share space with animals on our crowded planet. The elephants are here to tell their story about the inspiring ways we can coexist(共处)with all the other living beings that make our world magical—from monkeys to tigers”.

Pandas in the Qinling Mountains might face a new threat(威胁): the loss of their food, bamboo, which makes up 99% of their meals.

Adult pandas spend most of the time eating bamboo and have to take in at least 40 pounds a day to stay healthy. However, a new study warned that they might soon find their food gone because most of the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains might disappear by the end of the century as a result of rising temperature worldwide.

A team made up of researchers has studied the effects of climate change on the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains. They have found that bamboo is very sensitive to climate change. “80% to 100% of the bamboo will be gone if the average temperature increases 3.5 degrees Centigrade worldwide by the end of the century,” said Liu Jianguo, one of the report’s authors. He added, “This is how much the temperature will rise by 2100 even if all countries keep their promises in the Paris Agreement. But you know what is happening around the world.”

In recent years, China has been trying its best to protect pandas by setting up more and bigger natural reserves(保护区).

“But it is far from being enough and pandas need cooperation from the rest of the world, because their future is not just in the hands of the Chinese,” said Shirley Martin from World Wildlife Fund but not a member of the team.

The Qinling Mountains are home to about 345 pandas. That is about 18% of the China’s wild panda population. In addition, about 375 are living in research centers and zoos in China.

A large, self-sustaining, floating research lab, as big as an island, could be the next big project in ocean cleanup.

The 8th Continent, as it’s called, has won the Grand Prix Award for Architecture and Innovation of the Sea, and is designed to allow the operators to live, work, eat, sleep, and study full-time there. The 8th Continent is a water lily-like ocean station that’s tied to the bottom of the sea but designed to float in the ocean current.

The chief designer said, “It is shaped into a living organism that is fully self-sustainable and held to host some activities along with its chief mission of cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch covers a 900, 000-square-mile area, given a typical feature by high-density of plastic waste, and is being cleaned by large nets that use the ocean currents to help collect plastic waste.

“I look into marine species, animals and plants. And I study how they really interact with the water environment, how they can obtain energy and how they work with nutrition,” said Senior Designer Lenka Petrakova at Zaha Hadid Architects in London.

The three long legs of the station collect the passing plastic waste and tidal(潮汐的) energy to change them into electricity. Sitting on top are three research and education centers under three tall greenhouses including gardens and a water desalination(海水淡化) plant. There are the living and working areas, where collected waste is sorted and recycled, while the underwater draft spire(尖塔) will contain a viewing platform. At the moment, it’s a big dream, but the design is still charming and beautiful to see.