D

Old Problem ， New Approaches

        While clean energy is increasingly used in our daily life，global warning will continue for some decades after CO₂ emissions（排放）peak. So even if emission were to begin decrease today，we would still face the challenge of adapting to climate. Here I will stress some smarter and more creative examples of climate adaptation.

     When it comes to adaptation，it is important to understand that climate change is a process. We are therefore not talking about adapting to a new standard，but to a constantly shifting set of conditions. This is why in part at least，the US National Climate Assessment says that:”there is no ‘one-size fit all' adaptation.” Nevertheless，there are some actions that offer much and carry little risk or cost.

      Around the world people are adapting in surprising ways，especially in some poor countries，Floods have some more damaging in Bangladesh in recent decades. Mohammed Rezwan saw opportunity where others saw only disaster. His not-for-profit organization runs 100 river boats that server as floating libraries，schools，and health clinics，and are equipment with solar panels and other communication facilities. Rezwan is creating floating connectivity（连接） to replace flooded roads and highways. But he is also working at a far more fundamental level：his staff people how to make floating gardens fish ponds prevent starvation during the wet season.

       Elsewhere in Asia even more astonishing actions are being taken. Chewang Nophel lives in a mountainous region in India, where he is known as the Ice Man. The loss of glaciers(冰川) there due to global warming represents an enormous threat to agriculture. Without the glaciers, water will arrive in the rivers at times when it can damage crops. Norphel's inspiration come from seeing the waste of water over winter, when it was not needed. He directed the wasted water into shallow basins where it froze, and was stored until the spring. His fields of ice supply perfectly timed irrigation(灌溉) water. Having created nine such ice reserves. Nophel calculates that he has stored about 200, 000m³  of water. Climate change is a continuing process, so Norhel's ice reserves will not last forever. Warming will overtake them. But he is providing a few years during which the farmers will, perhaps, be able to find other means of adapting.

    Increasing Earth's reflectiveness can cool the planet. In southern Spain the sudden increase of greenhouses (which reflect light back to space) has changed the warming trend locally, and actually cooled the region. While Spain as a whole is heating up quickly, temperatures near the greenhouses have decreased. This example should act as an inspiration for all cities. By painting buildings white, cities may slow down the warming process.

    In Peru, local farmers around a mountain with a glacier that has already fallen victim to climate change have begun painting the entire mountain peak white in the hope that the added reflectiveness will restore the life-giving ice. The outcome is still far from clear, But the World Bank has included the project on its of ‘100 ideas to save the planet”.

    More ordinary forms of adaptation are happening everywhere. A friend of mine owns an area of land in western Victoria. Over five generations the land has been too wet for cropping. But during the past decade declining rainfall has allows him to plant highly profitable crops. Farmers in many countries are also adapting like this—either by growing new produce, or by growing the same things differently. This is common sense, But some suggestions for adapting are not. When the polluting industries argue that we've lost the battle to control carbon pollution and have no choice but to adapt, it's a nonsense designed to make the case for business as usual.

    Human beings will continue to adapt to the changing climate in both ordinary and astonishing ways. But the most sensible form of adaptation is surely to adapt our energy systems to emit less carbon pollution. After all, if we adapt in the way, we may avoid the need to change in so many others.

    I was always blamed for watching too much cartoons. As I have said goodbye to my teenage, I shift to watching more movies to prove that I was a grown-up. Surprisingly, I found that movies have something in common with cartoons. They are unrealistic.

    Sometimes movies give people hope, including the hope of justice, the hope of tomorrow and almost everything else. A great number of people were once touched by certain movies. From time to time, movies try to deliver some decisive ideas to the audience. In this way, movies do cheer up many people to go on with their lives.

    It seems that there is a set formula in movies. We usually see the hero or heroine in the movies suffer a lot in the opening. Gradually and likely, the destination of them always comes to a turning point. So they have to struggle or make some important choices. Then the movie ends up with a happy finale. Or at least the hero finally manages to face his poor life with great courage somehow. However, when audience watch movies in the cinema, most of them just follow the story. Few of them may ask, “Will it happen in the real life？”

    Movies are also imitating the real life. Thus a movie, just like a novel, can never be the same as the real life. The setting of a movie is so ideal that we could hardly find it out in reality. The moviemakers just try their best to persuade the audience to believe the story is true. In a word, it is all just make-believe.

    For quite a long time, I think that the adults' world is realistic in the opposite way of the children's cartoon. However, the movies from the adult world turn out to be a made-up thing. At the very moment, I suddenly realize that movies are somewhat of the adult's fairy tales or cartoons.

    To sum up, other than false comfort such as movies and tales, we are more in need of the maturity of mind, so that we can face our lives bravely and correctly.

    It's such a happy-looking library, painted yellow, decorated with palm-tree stickers and sheltered from the Florida sun by its own roof. About the size of a microwave oven, it's pedestrian-friendly, too, waiting for book lovers next to a sidewalk in Palm Beach country Estates, along the northern boundary of Palm Beach Gardens.

    It's a library built with love.

  A year ago, shortly after Janey Henriksen saw a Brian Williams report about the Little Free Library organization, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit that aims to promote literacy and build a sense of community in a neighborhood by making books freely available, she announced to her family of four, “That's what we're going to do for our spring break!”

    Son Austin, now a 10th-grader, didn't see the point of building a library that resembles a mailbox. But Janey insisted, and husband Peter unwillingly got to work. The 51-year-old owner of a ship supply company modified a small wooden house that he'd built years earlier for daughter Abbie's toy horses, and made a door of glass.

    After adding the library's final touches (装点), the family hung a signboard on the front, instructing users to “take a book, return a book,” and making the Henriksen library, now one of several hundred like it nationwide and among more than 2,500 in the world, the only Little Free Library in Palm Beach County.

    They stocked it with 20 or so books they'd already read, a mix of science fiction, reference titles, novels and kids' favorites. “I told them, keep in mind that you might not see it again,” said Janey, a stay-at-home mom.

    Since then, the collection keeps replenishing (补充) itself, thanks to ongoing donations from borrowers. The library now gets an average of five visits a day.

    The project's best payoff, says Peter, are the thank-you notes left behind. “We had no idea in the beginning that it would be so popular.”  (317 words)

    Jessica Tandy probably is best known for winning an Academy Award in 1989 for the movie Driving Miss Daisy. She was the oldest person to have won the award. But for many years, she had received praise for her great performances.

    Jessica Tandy was born in London in 1909. After her father died, her mother taught and took other jobs at night to make extra money to raise her, three children. Jessica's older brothers showed an interest in the theater and often put on shows at home. Jessica said later that she was terrible in all of them. But she said taking part in those plays as a child created a desire in her to be someone else.

    Jessica loved going to the theater. This love led her to attend an acting school in 1924. She performed in her first play called The Manderson Girls at 18. But few people watched this play. In 1932, she married the famous actor Jack Hawkins. Their wedding pictures were on the front page of many British newspapers. In the same year, critics in London recognized her great acting skill in her performance in the play Children in Uniform.

    In 1940, Jessica ended her first marriage and moved to the USA. In New York, she met actor Hume Cronyn. Two years later, they married and moved to Hollywood.

    Her turning point came in 1947 when she played the lead part in Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire. Tandy won the first of her four Tony awards for best actress in it. After that Hollywood producers began to choose her to be in the movie.

    Jessica Tandy said she hated seeing herself in the movies. She was surprised when she won the Academy Award for Driving Miss Daisy. She said that the wonderful part she had made up for her lack of experience in movies.

    People in South Korea who feel they can no longer bear the stress of everyday life now can choose to stay in a prison to relax and think deeply.

    In a society where pressure to do well in school and find highly-paid jobs is intense, a former lawyer came up with an extreme relaxation idea. Kwon Yong-seok created the "Prison Inside Me" —a stress-reduction center with a punishment theme. People come here to cut themselves off from the outside world and pay to be kept in 60-square-foot (5.6-square-meter) cells (囚室).

    Located on the outskirts of Hongcheon, about 58 miles (93 km) northeast of Seoul," Prison Inside Me" came to life after Mr. Kwon voluntarily asked to spend time behind bars for" healing reasons," but his request was turned down." I didn't know how to stop working back then," he said." I felt like I was being swept away against my will, and it seemed I couldn't control my own life." So, Kwon and his wife Roh Ji-hyang decided to take matters into their own hands, and designed and built a prison-like spiritual center. The construction was completed in June last year and cost about 2 billion won ($19 million).

    The facility includes 28 cells, furnished with only a toilet, a sink and a small table, where guests can spend time alone, thinking about life and enjoying private thinking periods. Moreover, guests can also join group thinking periods in the hall, where they are given instructions on how to free themselves from what Mr. Kwon calls the "inner prison" to find inner peace.

    According to the Wall Street Journal, hundreds of stressed South Koreans are checking in at the stress-reduction facility to think about their lives and regain control of it. A two-night stay at" Prison Inside Me" costs 150,000 won ($146).

    Mr. Kwon and his wife explained that at the beginning they had a different plan for the" relaxation center," and imagined a longer stay for their guests, but, given that people weren't able to take more time off, they had to reduce the length of stays to just two days.

    Park Woo-sub, a guest at" Prison Inside Me," said the experience helped him a lot." This is my third time in prison. Being kept in a prison makes me hard to breathe, but it also offers time to focus only on me and spend some quiet time with myself."

    Others said the experience would have been more helpful if the conditions had been poorer, like in a real prison.

    On Sept. 19 the Westchase Elementary PTA（Parent-Teacher Association）will hold its Wizard Walk. The Wizard Walk is a locally organized, healthy alternative to traditional product sales that will raise money to support all PTA programs and events for the year. Remaining money will be applied to an on-going capital campaign to build a new playground.

    The Wizard Walk will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 28, from 8 a. m. to noon at the Westchase Recreation Center Field.  Volunteers will be needed throughout the event.  Look for more Wizard Walk information and volunteer sign-up links in your student's folder, or contact（联系）Laura Kohler at president＠ westchasepta. org.

    The PTA is also holding a year-long Spirit Stick fundraiser（资金筹集活动）. Spirit Sticks are small and students can display them on a key ring on their backpacks, which represent a variety of interests and accomplishments. There will be many ways to earn a Spirit Stick （good grades, great behavior, exceptional attendance, etc.）and opportunities to purchase the limited edition sticks for just $1 every Friday in the courtyard. For more information, contact Nikki Pivnichny at fundraising@ westchasepta. org.

    In addition to new fundraising programs, the PTA is partnering with our Guidance Counselor, Mrs. Kiersten Rivenburg, on a new campaign called Kindness Counts. Look for new recognitions and rewards as we continue to promote kindness from our children, staff and parents throughout the year. For more information, contact Laura Smith at kindnesscounts@ westchasepta. org.

    Now in its eighth year, the After-School Enrichment Program（ASE）is bringing back some favorite programs and offering some new ones. Students will have the opportunity to explore and develop a variety of new interests. Class schedules will be available soon. Registration starts on Sept. 7. Fall session begins Sept. 21 -22. For more information, contact Jennifer Newman at ase@ westchasepta. org.