Bee protection is a big issue these days in America, with people planting native pollinator gardens, setting up bee houses, and taking part in scientific activities to monitor local bee populations. And this is for good reason — in North America, a quarter of native bee species are at risk of extinction. Bees pollinate 35percent of our global food supply and many of the wild plants our ecosystems depend on.

No Mow May, a movement that began in the U. K., is now rapidly spreading throughout the U. S. Its popularity lies in its being simple: Just give bees a little help during the crucial springtime by removing a chore from your list and letting your lawn grow for the month of May. This lets “lawn flowers” such as dandelions grow at a time when bee food is rare.

Dandelions, despite being pretty and useful, are non-native. Then why do we promote a movement that encourages their growth? Here’s the basic answer — don’t let “perfect” be the enemy of “good”. Sure, it would be great to turn your entire neighborhood into a bee kingdom of native plants, but that can take lots of time and money.

While dandelions have become the poster child for No Mow May, other plants, including native species, may also appear in your lawn. “Besides dandelions, there are many other plants that are going to be there,” says Dr. Claudio Gratton at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In Massachusetts, scientists found 63 species of plants in lawns, 30 percent of which were native to the state. Most Americans probably loved dandelions as children but have tended to hate them as adults because of American lawn culture, which allows no flowers. “No Mow May forces us to think about our relationship with nature. We should reflect on the way we have made nature suit our needs, and realize flowers play really important roles,” says Dr. Claudio Gratton.

A group of wild elephants have become an overnight Internet focus in China and global. The group first caught the attention of the locals in March 2020, after they suddenly left their home in the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve.

While the original group was made of 16, two of which decided to return home after a week. The rest have continued their journey northward, stopping only for a short break in November 2020 to allow a newly born baby elephant and its mother to rest.

Since leaving the reserve, the elephants have walked over 310 miles. Along the way, they have got into farms for food and water, walked through urban streets, and even paid a visit to a car shop and a retirement home. Thanks to the alarming eye of the government officials no animals or people have been hurt. However, they have destroyed more than $1 million worth.

Researchers are not sure why the elephants decided to leave or where they are headed. While elephants are known to leave their habitats (栖息地) in search of food, this is the longest moving of wild elephants recorded in China. Because of the extreme distance traveled, some doubt that the elephants may be lost. However, other scientists think the elephants were forced to move due to deforestation. Successful protection efforts have almost doubled the elephant population in the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve and the surrounding regions. However, their natural habitat has been continuously reduced to make room for agricultural development.

We’ve seen elephants expanding their range for decades now, as their populations increase, and they search for more food for the growing group, Becky Shu Chen, a scientist at the Zoological Society of London, told The Washington Post.

The wandering elephants, search for a suitable home has not gone unnoticed by the millions of locals that eagerly follow their daily movements on social media Adam Chang, assigned to deliver food to the elephants, says, “Before this meeting, I just felt curious about animals. Now, I think I would volunteer in animal rights groups to preserve those giant creatures.”

Norway aims to discover new resources beneath the sea, but its push into mining has raised environmental concerms.

Norway could license companies for deep-sea mining as early as 2023. That could place it among the first countries to harvest seabed metals. Copper, zinc and other metals are in high demand for electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines and solar energy centers. However, that could also place Norway on the front line of controversies over the environmental risks of mining the world’s unexplored seabeds.

Norway recently announced it was carrying out an environmental study needed to start mineral exploration and mining. Once that is completed, the govemment plans to have public comments on its environmental study and on a proposal to open areas for exploration and production by the end of 2022.

The demand for minerals is being driven by what are often called “clean” technologies. But the process of getting those minerals from the seabed could cause environmental problems.

Environmentalists including Britain’s David Attenborough have called for a temporary (暂时的) stop to deepseabed mining until more is known about how it affects sea life. The environmental group Greenpeace called for a total ban in a recent report. In another report, the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, known as the Ocean Panel, also called for greater knowledge about the effects of deep-sea mining. The Ocean Panel is cochaired by Norway and has 14 member states that want to shape policy on the world’s oceans.

Norway is known as a major oil producer. But, the country of 5. 4 million people wants to find something to replace its top industry that is better for the environment and can grow in the future.

The move toward deep-sea mining follows three years of expeditions(探险). The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, which carried out the work, said it found copper, zinc, cobalt, gold and silver. The expeditions also discovered large armounts of lithium and the rare earth metal scandium used in electronics and metal mixtures.