 Did you know that the giant panda habitat used to spread through central, southern and eastern China, but it has reduced dramatically by the growth in people’s logging and farming practices. Another crazy thing is the pandas used to be endangered because of people cutting down bamboo forests for towns and farming. Now they are almost extinct! According to Chinahighlights.com giant pandas live in large bamboo forests on humid and kind of high mountains that are about 1,200 to 3,100 meters above the sea level.
Currently, about 1,600 giant pandas live in over 20,000 square kilometers of habitat! Another place pandas live is the Gin mountains. Except it's a different type of panda called a qinling pandas. there are about 270 qinling pandas in the qin mountains. According to theguardian.com half of the world's 1,200 bamboo species face extinction because of forest destruction. About 250 bamboo species have less than 2,000 square kilometers. that's almost the size of London remaining within their ranges which is not that much compared to how it used to be. According to worldwildlife.org a newborn panda is about the size of a stick of butter but can grow up to be 330 pounds as an adult! According to sciencing.com some things you could do to prevent pandas from going extinct are you could use less paper because pandas live in rare bamboo forests that are getting chopped down to be made into paper! Another thing that you could do to help protect pandas is to donate to charity. The last way to help pandas is to use fewer greenhouse gases. Some ways to do this are to walk as often as you can instead of driving and pick airlines with higher occupancy rates. According to pandasinternational.org the purpose of panda reserves are to protect the panda's major food source which is bamboo and provide migrations between habitat areas. Story by Kale Kettner  Notre Dame, a church in Paris, France that has been around for 850 years caught fire on April 15th 2019. The blaze destroyed the roof and most of the upper walls. In April, the French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced that their will be a worldwide competition to find a new design for the church. Many of the new designs are innovative and eco-friendly. They will also support the local population. The designs must be under 1 billion euros in cost. The restoration is estimated to require 20 years or more.
Palingenesis, which is a Greek concept of rebirth is what Vincent Callebaut project is called. Vincent Callebaut is a Belgian architect who has designed over 50 buildings and is well known for his eco-friendly designs. He has proposed a new roof made of oak, carbon and glass. So the cathedral’s choir will be bathed in natural light. Beneath the glass their will be a fruit and vegetable garden that is run by volunteers and charities. It is estimated that 21 tons of fruit and vegetables will be harvested each year to feed homeless Parisians. Also a farmers market will be held every week in front of Notre Dame. The roof will provide electricity and heat. The glass roof will also provide solar power. Stockholm-based Ulf Mejergren Architects (UMA) have proposed to take away the roof and spire completely and replacing it with a giant cross-shaped swimming pool. To create “a new meditative public space”. The pool would have to be closed in the winter because temperatures can get down to -2 degrees. All in all there are some cool and crazy ideas for rebuilding the iconic cathedral. The competition will end on June 30th and the results will be announced in July 2019. Story by Maddy Peeples Sources: https://www.cnn.com/style/article/france-notre-dame-green-scli-intl/index.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-Dame_de_Paris_fire https://weather.com/news/news/2019-05-16-swimming-pool-notre-dame-cathedral Nbcnews.com  This is the victim's police force photo. On Sunday, March 10, 2019, in Paris France, a woman was shot. The woman was a police officer. She was 27 and the person that killed her was a male 28-year-old. He was her colleague. Neither of their names has been released yet. There were three people there at the time of the shooting, the victim and two colleagues, one of whom shot her. How she got shot is a very interesting story.
The victim and her colleague were guarding a building at the time the shooting occurred. The building was a new police headquarters. Its name was the Direction Régionale de Police Judiciaire de Paris. The victim and her colleague were playing a gun-drawing game. The game included pulling out their guns as fast as they could. This was to see if that in the event of someone trying to break in or attack them, who would be the quicker one to draw their gun. The shot was accidentally fired hitting the victim in her head and killing her. As a result, the “Paris prosecutor's office has launched an involuntary homicide investigation.” says CNN. Along with that, the colleague was put in a detention center directly after the accident. The French daily newspaper has reported that the colleagues were ‘playing’ with their weapons. "There are regulations as to the handling of a firearm when the chamber is loaded and these were not followed," Crepin (The head of the police offices) told CNN,” says CNN. Also, this is not said to be the first time has had a police incident. Now many may mistake this case for a different one that happened in January in which a police-woman that was also shot by one of her colleagues during a Russian-roulette style game. As for the current case no names have been released and no charges have been pressed. Story by Hadley Wallace SOURCE FOR PICTURE: https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/11/europe/france-police-officer-shot-scli-intl/index.html  The Czech Republic, or Czechia, is a small mountain and landlocked country Located in central Europe it is one of the safest country in the world and the population of Czech is 10,177,300.
History As said on Ducksters In the early history of the Czech Republic, many different tribes settled the land starting with the Celtics, then the Germanic tribes, and later the Slavic peoples. The Holy Roman Empire ruled over the land for many years until the 1800s when the Austrians and the Habsburg Empire took control. After WWI, the country of Czechoslovakia was formed from the Czech and Slovak lands of the Austrian Empire. Money In the Czech Republic, money is called Korunas. One American dollar is 22.56 Czech Korunas The Czech Republic planned on adopting the euro in 2010, but the government decided not to in 2005. Even though the country is very able to adopt the euro, there is considerable resistance from most of the population. Religions & Differences As said on thefactfile The Czech Republic ranks as one of the least religious populations in the world, with only 19 percent of them claiming to believe in God. Even though there are not many people that believe in God, many people still celebrate Easter. In Czech people are much more open and closer and it seems like everyone knows each other. Story by Sophia Planicka Image from Britannica.com  Image from CNN.com Once again President Trump and Kim Jong-un the ruler of North Korea meet for the second time. They are going to meet in Hanoi Vietnam. To discuss this round of nuclear negotiations. They had their first meeting in June of last year in Singapore, as said by The New York Times. MSNBC says that Kim Jong-un is a master negotiator just like his father and grandfather. It was his idea for Trump to come to North Korea. His grandfather, Father, and now he wants to put the reunification of the Korean Peninsula under the control of his government Pyongyang. President Trump said that the talks they had were ¨very productive¨ but none of the agreements were worth signing.
North Korea has warheads and ballistic missiles and they have been proved to the full. Kim Jong-un ordered testing nuclear weapons to stop and to start mass production. North Koreas economy is very dependent on imported goods. They also depend on foreign subsidies. If they kept using those resources their defense industry would also suffer The meeting ended suddenly on Thursday, February 28, 2019. There was a singing performance and a working lunch that was canceled according to CNN. In conclusion, Trump and Kim Jong-un met for the second time and it abruptly ended the meeting was to discuss nuclear weapons. Story by Rowen Dollar-Raynolds  Norway has recently taken an interest in building a floating tunnel. Now they are in the race to build one. A floating tunnel is a submerged tube is a proposed idea for a tunnel that floats under the surface of the water. They plan for it to be deep enough to avoid boats other water traffic but not so deep they have to worry about water pressure. According to The Telegraph the tunnel that will be built in Norway will be “100 feet below the surface.” This will allow ships and boats to pass above easily but still room for submarines and water pressure safety. The tunnel will resemble two giant drinking straws.
Because of multiple breaks at seven fjords drivers have to put their car on a ferry to travel across water. The whole trip takes 21 hours, 21 hours is a long time. This is why they are now building a floating tunnel. The tunnel will allow the trip to be much faster and definitely more interesting. This construction takes a lot of work and a lot of time, this means that the tunnel won’t be ready anytime soon. Early February, 2019 it was reported at 10% done. It is said that by 2025 only about 33% of the tunnel will be done. It is expected to be completely finished around 2050. Believe it or not but the idea of a floating tunnel has been around for a while. There have been more than 100 tunnels built immersed under water. That being said a floating tunnel is different, and this would be one of the firsts to be built. The idea has been available and out in the open for a while but nobody has actually built it before. The tunnel will be built well enough and strong enough to survive through natural disasters common in water. These disasters include wave currents, earthquakes, ice growth, and marine growth. The tunnel will also be held by bottom anchoring to make sure it can survive disasters. Story by Ariella Valdiviezo Sources http://www.railsystem.net/submerged-floating-tunnel/ https://www.cnn.com/style/article/norway-underwater-floating-tunnel-intl/index.html https://abcnews.go.com/beta-story-container/International/crossing-norways-fjords-easier-worlds-submerged-floating-tunnel/story?id=60812122 Photo Sources https://www.eniday.com/en/technology_en/norways-floating-tunnel/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/07/norway-could-build-the-worlds-first-floating-tunnel  This a passage about the children at the border and how they are getting taken from their parents. Children separation has been going on for a while like in slavery. The revelation that more than 2,300 children were separated from adults at the U.S. border with Mexico in just five weeks quickly led to a firestorm of condemnation, it states this in the passage by cbs. On cnn it states under that controversial policy, more than 2,000 children were separated from the parents at the border from April 19 to May 31. A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said Tuesday that 2,342 children were separated from 2,206 adults from May 5 to June 9. Previously, the Department of Homeland Security said 1,995 minors were separated from 1,940 adults from April 19 to May 31. When a parent arrives at the border with a child, whether they are apprehended by the Border Patrol or seek asylum at the port of entry, the administration separates the parent from the child and takes both into custody.
HOW THEY CAN'T FIND THEIR PARENTS Parents whose children are taken from them at the border are not told how to find them, communicate with them or reunify with them. Law enforcement does not track the whereabouts of separated children in any systemic manner. Parents can eventually call a hotline — after they serve any criminal sentence and are transferred from DOJ to ICE custody. That hotline might be able to tell them where their child is being detained or to whom they have been released, and may be able to facilitate a phone call, but that hinges on the cooperation of detention center officials. Communication is rare and often insufficient even when it does occur (it’s hard for toddlers to talk on the phone). Both the parents and their children face deportation, but the children are left to fend for themselves, without an adult who knows anything about them and their situation. Some children are too young to speak, much less explain the social and political basis of their asylum claim. THE SITUATION THEY ARE IN The kids at the border are sleeping on a cold concrete floor. They are freezing cold and don't have blankets. Their are diseases being spread one of the kids died on Christmas eve from freezing and getting a disease. Story by Lilly West SOURCE FOR PICTURE: google  Image from NASA Global warming and Climate change are real, and the sad fact is if we don't do something soon there could be possibly devastating effects on our planet and the human race. According to NASA our climates and the warming of our planet is based mainly around the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is where the heat that gets radiated off earth gets trapped in our atmosphere and the heat bounces back. According to National Geographic the temperature has risen 1.6 degrees on average since 1906. Because of this rising temperature and the earth getting hotter ice is melting worldwide, mainly at our planets north and south poles. The ice is melting at Antartica and Greenland. The most notable sign of ice melting is the fact that Montana’s Glacier National Park the number of glaciers has dropped to 30 from the 150 in 1910. Because of this and many other effects like how hot water expands and takes up more space leads to the rise of sea level rise. According to National Geographic “Sea levels are expected to rise between 10 and 32 inches (26 and 82 centimeters) or higher by the end of the century.” This could cause many effects one of which that's expected with sea level rise is major flooding. There have been prediction maps made about “The great floods” that estimate that some major cities like New York and depending on how much the sea rises maybe San Francisco will be under water. Because of these floodings, some people would have to pack their bags and move.
The effects of global warming are not just the sea level will rise or the planet will get hotter, some of the less talked about effects are the animals and the effects on their habitats. For example, the Adélie Penguins that live in Antarctica. Their habitat is melting and their population is decreasing. Many animal species are migrating to cooler areas. For example, some foxes and butterflies are moving north to cooler more sustainable areas. Precipitation has increased across the world. Though some places are experiencing severe drought. Because of this, the chances of wildfires is higher in those areas, the increased risk of crop and plant loss and loss of drinking water can devastate those areas. Predictions of possible “megadroughts” lasting years to decades become more plausible in the upcoming future. Because of these things species like mosquitoes, jellyfish, ticks and crop pests are thriving. This list only continues and lots of these effects we can see today and in the near future. If we don't find ways out of these bad habits we’ve adopted it will only continue to get worse. Here are some of my ideas on how to slow down and prevent these effects. Try to find a way to get more electric cars on the road and make them easier to afford. Try to get more solar panels on the roofs of our houses and buildings. At this point, it's no secret we need a technological breakthrough to prevent some of these things. But truly as these effects are emerging it needs to serve more as a wake-up call. These things are happening. What can you do to help? Story by Aidan McCloud  Many countries around the world have tried to grow seeds of various veggies and plants in space in hopes of a scientific breakthrough. The results have not been as pleasing as people have hoped for, with many issues of not enough sunlight and freezing temperatures those conditions don't always make the best environment for plants. China recently sent a new spacecraft chang´e 4 into space on December 12, 2018, to the far side of the moon in hopes of developing cotton plants.
This is not the first time a country has tried to grow and develop plants in outer space, NASA has tried to grow plants and various types of vegetables on the moon in a space garden, this experiment is called Lada Validating Vegetable Production Unit. The development of plants in space is a very crucial experiment to science this is important because when astronauts are sent to space they bring food for the whole time they are in space this can be up to 3 months worth of food and water. Plant research in space has been being developed and studied for over 40 years according to the Australian Academy of Science, NASA is not the only space agency that has grown plants, China is not far behind in the competition and recently had a short success in growing cotton plants on the far side of the moon. The analysis of growing plants is an ongoing experiment that many scientists are testing every day and are working hard to continue finding a solution to growing plants in space. Although top scientists have been studying the process of growing plants in outer space it has been a subject of trial and error, NASA has been working very hard to find the best solution. There are various places that scientist have tried growing plants such as International space station, the far side of the moon, and on different space crafts. Many solutions have been created to cope with the low-gravity, extreme temperature changes and the difficulty of watering the plants such as using recycled water for the plants and using electric lighting to help them grow when the sun is scarce. It is not ideal to bring thousands of gallons of water into space because of lack of space and weight of water so scientists have come up with the idea of recycling water that is already on the spacecraft, and when they say any type of water they mean it, sweat, collected breath, and even urine could all be recycled and made into water that is suitable for watering the plants. It is very important to quickly find a way to grow these plants because scientists have high hopes of being able to bring plants on the mission to Mars. Scientists will continue to work on developing ways to grow plants in space to help future missions to space be as sustainable as possible. Growing plants in space doesn't just save space on flights but it also allows astronauts to have a healthier diet while in space and have some sort of nature with them that reminds them of home. Studies will continue on this process and in the future, we hope to see not only see astronauts but maybe even plants as well. Story by Barret Bryson Carrot Image  Weather is often affected by climate change. It can be affected in more ways than you may expect. Throughout time weather and climate have been changing and adjusting which has caused some major weather events and unfortunately, will continue to. For example over the past couple of months, we have seen heat waves, hurricanes, massive floods, wildfires and snow storms. We can expect to see rising sea levels and drought and more weather like these. But what's causing it all and how can it be stopped?
The greenhouse gas effect is a natural process and without it, we wouldn't be able to survive here on earth. What makes it worse is the activity that humans do to contribute to this process. This is called the “enhanced greenhouse effect” or “anthropogenic climate change”. It can be caused by the burning of fossil fuels, cutting down forests, increasing livestock farming, fertilizers containing nitrogen and fluorinated gases which contribute a lot to climate change. These things heat the environment by letting the heat release process much harder for the atmosphere by trapping in the suns heat. Climate change is a real issue that is affecting our weather every day. To stop it may almost be impossible but to reduce the speed that climate change is happening is the mission, what you can do to reduce your contribution to climate change is something everyone should do in their day to day life. You can green your commute, try to reduce the amount of pollution you create and also try and reduce the amount of waste you create, even in your own home! All of these things can help to reduce the amount of heat energy which is being trapped in the atmosphere which can cause many catastrophic weather events and raised sea levels. Story by Brooke Darby Sources: https://climatechange.environment.nsw.gov.au/About-climate-change-in-NSW/Causes-of-climate-change https://ec.europa.eu/clima/change/causes_en Photo: nasa.gov |
