The good news is that more people bought electric vehicles (EVs) in 2020. The bad news is that sport utility (多用途的) vehicles (SUVs) continued to grow in popularity, too. “The fall in oil consumption due to the first trend was completely canceled out by the second,” said Laura Cozzi, an officer at the International Energy Agency (JEA).

Between 2010 and 2020, global carbon dioxide emissions (排放) from conventional cars fell by nearly 35 billion tons, due to reasons such as fuel efficiency improvements as well as the switch to electric cars. Emissions from SUVs rose by more than 50 billion tons. “While the growth in EVs is encouraging, the boom in SUVs is heart-breaking,” says Peters at the Cicero Climate Research Centre in Norway.

There are many reasons for the growing popularity of SUVs. For example, rising economic boom in many countries means more people are able to afford them. Some people see them as status symbols. Also, SUVs are heavily advertised by car-makers, whose profit is higher on these vehicles. Some countries, including France, have introduced plans under which more taxes are paid on heavier cars. But Peters thinks that people who are rich enough to afford SUVs won’t be deterred by slightly higher taxes. “There are now some electric SUVs available, but I hope one day you will see more electric vehicles brought to the SUV market,” says Peters.

Even if it happens, switching to electric SUVs isn’t a good solution. Due to their size and bigger batteries, it takes more resources to build electric SUVs, and they consume around 15 percent more electricity. That means higher emissions unless the electricity comes entirely from renewable sources, and higher electricity demand makes it harder to green the electricity supply.

On a sunny but bitterly cold February day, a line of small children snaked their way from Dale to Dale Fort on the Haverfordwest estuary. They were the last of more than 2,000 volunteers who over the last year have collected, stored and put seagrass seeds into little bags, ready for planting. These seagrass seeds were soon to join others on the seafloor a few hundred metres off-shore from Dale to recover two hectares of seagrass meadow (草甸). This recovery is the latest attempt to change a century of destruction.

In the UK, we can only estimate the loss but in Denmark, seagrass records dating back to the 1880s give a very serious and accurate picture. At the turn of the last century, fishing was vital to the Danish economy. It was known then that seagrass meadows were a vital habitat for young sea fish and so in 1908 botanist Carl Ostenfeld was asked to study the seagrasses, then found in all the estuaries and entrance of Denmark. That study provided a clear standard against which to measure the loss of seagrass in Denmark, a loss that currently stands at 95 percent.

Why does this matter? Seagrass not only provide a nurturing habitat for fish but also stabilises the shore and absorbs energy, reducing the impact of storms. Boat anchors (船锚) are one cause of damage to seagrass; seashore development another. But the main cause is river water pollution, particularly nutrients from fertiliser and dirty water. These excess nutrients cause algal (藻类) growth that blankets the seagrass, cutting out light, and then later, when it dies off and rots, removes all oxygen.

One of the important messages is, if you stop killing sea life and protect it, then it does come back. We can turn the oceans around and we know it makes sense economically, for human health and, of course, for the environment.

It could be said that the northernmost part of our planet holds the secrets of our past as well as our future.

Through our exploration of the Arctic, scientists have discovered more about the biodiversity (生物多样性) of the area as well as how to preserve Earth’s ecosystems. Yet as one of the most severe but most primitive (原始的) places on Earth, the Arctic has been affected by human activities---research and exploration, booming tourism and above all, global warming---in recent decades.

Jonathan Smith, producer of the BBC documentary Blue Planet II, shared his filming experience in the Arctic. “We were all set and ready to film but we needed two major things---walrus (海象) and ice. I had expected that walrus may be hard to find, but I didn't expect it to be hard to find ice,” he told the BBC. “The crew was all commenting on how surprisingly warm it was.”

They were not mistaken. Scientists have been recording changes in the Arctic. Its sea ice minimum in summer, for example, has reduced by 40 percent in the past 30 years, NASA data showed. These changes have had bad influences on the Arctic and the human, animal and plant life that calls it home.

But the effects of these changes are not limited to the inhabitants of this area alone. In fact, it could be said that the weight of the world relies on this icy region. The Earth’s steady climate depends on the Arctic’s sea ice, which acts as a huge white reflector (反光体) at the top of the planet, bouncing some of the sun’s rays back into space. The more Arctic sea ice melts, the less light is reflected, and the more the dark oceans will absorb the sun’s radiation. The Arctic also helps circulate ocean movement, moving cold and warm water around the globe.

With visible changes in the global climate, the Arctic has given us a wake-up call---what happens “up in the North” doesn’t just stay there. It comes with a high cost to the world at large. It's time for us to pay attention to this chilly region and learn more about what’s happening there, as well as its past and possible future.