There was no escape from the storm of November 13,1970. It hit the island of East Pakistan(东巴基斯坦) with terrible force. There were winds of more than 150 miles an hour. The storm whipped up the water around the islands. Waves as high as 25 feet flooded the land.

The people who live on the flat islands in the Bay of Bengal(孟加拉湾) must always worry about the weather. Their land is rich; it is perfect for growing rice. But there is no protection from the storms that blow up from the Indian Ocean. When the sea rises up, there is no place to go. The islands have no hills or tall buildings.

The storm of 1970 killed more than half a million people. It destroyed a lot of rice. The troubles did not end after the storm. Those people who were still alive were left without food or clean water. Thousands died of sickness or starved to death.

In 1970, East Pakistan was part of the country of Pakistan. The government was in West Pakistan, on the other side of India. Very little was done to help people after the storm. Today, East Pakistan is a country itself. The people hope they will get more help the next time the sea rises up.

The endangered pandas in Qinling Mountains might face a new threat: the loss of their food—bamboo, which makes up 99% of their meals.

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

A team made up of researchers from Michigan State University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences has studied the effects of climate change on the bamboo in Qinling Mountains. They have found that bamboo is very sensitive to climate changes. “80% to 100% of the bamboo would be gone if the average temperature increases 3.5 degrees worldwide by the end of the century.” said Liu Jianguo, one of the report’s authors. He added, “This is how much the temperature would rise by 2100 even if all countries will 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 the endangered pandas by setting up more and bigger natural reserves.

“But it is far from being enough and the endangered 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, in the southwest of China, are home to about 260 pandas. That is about 13% of the Chinas wild panda population. In addition, about 375 are living in research centers and zoos in China.

On April 14th, 2010, my entire life changed in an instant. One moment I was joyfully riding through the sunshine. The next moment, metal, flesh and bone were spreading against the pavement in a thunderous crash. Another cyclist, biking carelessly, had cut me off and sent me supermanning toward oncoming traffic.

As if to symbolize the accident that had hit my life, another disaster also occurred on April 14th, 2010. It cost the airline industry＄l.7 billion. Ten million travelers were stuck for days. Economies all over the world were disturbed. This was the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull, one of Iceland's many volcanoes.

However, volcanoes are not all bad. In fact, they are necessary. They are responsible for the birth of new earth, and for the creation of rich soil. This eruption gave off 0.15 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere daily. But cancelling 48% of the world’s flight travel saved about 2.8 million tons of CO₂ from entering the atmosphere, temporarily decreasing our carbon footprint.

Similarly, the accident had badly affected my emotion but it also allowed me to look more closely inside myself and discover things about myself I never would have realized. I learned how not to judge myself for my new limitations.

In 1973, another Icelandic volcano, Eldfell, broke out. Icelanders decided to bomb it with cold water until it froze and chose a different path. After their plan worked, they used the geothermal （地热） energy for the next 15years to heat their homes. A good example of life bringing lemons, and making lemonade! One must move on from misfortunes, focusing only on the present moment and being hopeful for the future.

I ran from April 14th, 2010, to every kind of escape. Eventually I ended up in university for a new-found love in Earth sciences.