How to Survive a Tsunami on the Beach

The word tsunami is from Japanese. It describes a series of waves that can reach over 100 feet tall and travel at speeds up to 600 miles per hour across the sea. A single wave in a tsunami can be quite long, as much as 60 miles, causing great damage.【小题1】

Your best chance for surviving a tsunami on a beach is to pay attention to the warning signs, stay away from the shore after an earthquake, and get to high land. Then wait for information from disaster response groups.

【小题2】With your family, discuss how you’ll reach the evacuation area (紧急疏散区) as soon as possible.

The sooner you know a tsunami is coming the better your chance of making it to higher ground.【小题3】

·Head for high ground, get at least 100 feet above sea level.

·【小题4】

·Don’t swim against the current.

As you learn how to survive a tsunami, remember the first wave in a series of waves is the smallest and weakest.【小题5】 If you’re in a boat at the beach, head out into the ocean. You’ll stand a better chance away of survival away from the shoreline.

Record fires sweeping across the Amazon this month have been grabbing global headlines as scientists and environmental groups are worried that they will aggravate climate change crisis and threaten biodiversity (生物多样性).

As the largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon is often called "the lungs of the world". It is also home to about 3 million species of plants and animals, and 1 million local people. The vast rainforest plays an important role in the world's ecosystem because they absorb heat instead of it being reflected back into the atmosphere. They also store carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, ensuring that less carbon is released, mitigating the effects of climate change.

"Any forest destroyed is a threat to biodiversity and the people who use that biodiversity," Thomas Lovejoy, an ecologist at George Mason University told National Geographic. "The overwhelming threat is that a lot of carbon goes into the atmosphere," he stressed. "In the midst of the global climate crisis, we cannot afford more damage to a major source of oxygen and biodiversity. The Amazon mu:st be protected/⁵ U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.

Data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) show that the number of forest fires in Brazil quickly increased by 82 percent from January to August this year from a year ago. A total of 71,497 forest fires were registered in the country in the first eight months of 2019, up from 39,194 in the same period in 2018, INPE said. "We estimate that the forest areas in the Brazilian Amazon have decreased something between 20 and 30 percent compared to the last 12 months," Carlos Nobre, a researcher at the University of Sao Paulo, told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

Brazil owns about 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest, whose degradation could have severe consequences for global climate and rainfall. The extent of the area ruined by fires has yet to be determined, but the emergency has transcended (超出)Brazil's borders, reaching Peruvian, Paraguayan and Bolivian regions.

EARTH WEEK—A Diary of the Planet

Week ending Friday, December 16 2022

Several more rounds of fierce storms, tornadoes and floods struck many parts of the American Midwest and Northeast as bad weather continued across the US for a second month. It was reported that people living in the disaster-stricken areas were forced to leave their houses and seek shelter in nearby towns.

A south-west monsoon has caused great damage in parts of Sri Lanka. Government meteorologists said that unexpected monsoonal winds blew directly across the country from the southern part of the earth at about 100km/h, producing several rounds of stormy weather. Nearly 250 houses in the capital Colombo were damaged.

Sicily Mount Etna volcano erupted shortly after midnight on July 1, shooting “bombs” of lava (岩浆) on the eastern side of the mountain. The 30-minute eruption could be seen for several miles but did not threaten any nearby villages.

Hurricane Blas lost its power as it moved over cooler waters in the Pacific Ocean to the west of Mexico. Blas formed off southwest Mexico during the last week, but the outer part of the storm swept western Michoacan State, killing four people when their wood and cardboard home fell down.

After years of unsuccessful attempts to keep crop-eating monkeys out of Japanese fields, a Tokyo research team believes that it may have finally found a way to prevent the damage caused by the monkeys. Animal ruin of crops was successfully prevented by shooting chili powder into the air, irritating the eyes and noses of monkeys that passed in front of carefully placed warning. “We’ve tried all kinds of preventive measures, but the monkeys are bright enough to outsmart the tricks,” said Toshiaki Wada, Director of the Tokyo Forestry Experiment Station in western Tokyo.