Small islands that bear the brunt of rising sea levels also face the greatest risk of diseases linked to a warmer planet, health leaders said on Saturday, as 13 million medical professionals added to the calls for a global climate pact.

    Hundreds of thousands more people will die every year from heat stroke and tropical illnesses unless negotiators in Paris can agree a strong global deal to decrease global warming the Global Climate and Health Alliance said.

    The Would Health Organization has warned that the effects of extreme weather on the fight against malnutrition, malaria and diarrhea alone will account for an extra 250,000 premature deaths a year by 2030.

    “In the case of small island states like Tuvalu, the health impacts of climate change are palpable,” said the island's health minister.

    “When we are talking about climate change, this is important for the future health of our people, and people everywhere.”

    John Usamate, health minister for Fiji, said the island was suffering from climate-related diseases such as dengue fever and chikungunya, a disease transmitted by mosquitoes and unknown in Fiji.

    “As the climate changes, we are seeing new infectious diseases and many other health impacts,” he said.

    The Global Climate and Health Alliance groups more than 1,700 health organizations and 8,200 hospitals and health facilities.

    It is said it had collected 13 million signatories（签字者） from its members wanting to come to a medical agreement on the need to fight against global warming.

    Even without the wider effects of climate change, air pollution from fossil fuels, especially from coal-fired electricity and vehicle emissions（排放）, is a major cause of early death.

    In the European Union, more than 400,000 early deaths a year are linked to air pollution that cause respiratory disease and some forms of cancer, the European Commission has found.

    A long-term American study shows the importance of early education for poor children. The study is known as the Abecedarian Project. It involved more than one-hundred young children from poor families in North Carolina.

    Half of the children attended an all-day program at a high-quality child-care center. The center offered educational, health and social programs. Children took part in games and activities to increase their thinking and language skills and social and emotional development. The program also included health foods for the children.

    The children attended the program from when they were a few weeks old until the age of five years. The other group of children did not attend the child-care center. After the age of five, both groups attended public school.

    Researchers compared the two groups of children. When they were babies, both groups had similar results in tests for mental and physical skills. However, from the age of eighteen months, the children in the educational child-care program did much better in tests.

    The researchers tested the children again when they were twelve and fifteen years old. The tests found that the children who had been in the child-care center continued to have higher average test results. These children did much better on tests of reading and mathematics.

    A few years ago, organizers of the Abecedarian Project tested the students again. At the time, each student was twenty-one years old. They were tested for thinking and educational ability, employment, parenting and social skills. The researchers found that the young adults who had the early education still did better in reading and mathematics tests. They were more than two times as likely to be attending college or to have completed college. In addition, the children who received early education were older on average, when their first child was born.

    The study offers more evidence that learning during the first months and years of life is important for all later development.

    The researchers of the Abecedarian Project believe their study shows a need for lawmakers to spend money on public early education. They believe these kinds of programs could reduce the number of children who do not complete school and are unemployed.

    These days, North Kickapoo Street in Shawnee, Oklahoma, is a four-lane road leading out to the highway, and lined with all kinds of places to eat and shop. But in the mid-1950s, it was just a gravel(砂砾) country road, the perfect place for our daddies to teach us how to drive.

We didn't have driver's education at Shawnee High School. We were on our own. Mom took me to pick up an instruction handbook. I was the oldest of my friends, so we were excited at the prospect of a whole new world opening up. We'd have freedom to get around. Best of all, we could go to the Starlite Drive—In theater on 50-cents-a-carload night. We'd have it made.

    Mom let me back our 1949 Ford out of the garage a few times to get used to the clutch (离合器) and gearshift (变速排挡杆). I got familiar with the motion but was hardly ready for my road test.

    Finally, the day came for Daddy to give me a real lesson. He drove out to the end of the paved section of Kickapoo Street and across to where the gravel started. My daddy had come from a family of 10, and they had been farmers in a poor area in Oklahoma. There was only one way to do things, and that was the right way.

Praises were rare, so when he expressed his approval it was special. I didn't want to experience his glare if I ground the clutch or the car shook as I tried to get it going.

    I took a deep breath, slowly let out the clutch, pushed the stick into second gear, eased down the road, and then carefully moved into third gear. He had me stop and repeat the procedure two or three more times until I came to the end of the section. I was feeling pretty good as I came to a stop and looked to Daddy for approval.

He glared at me and then barked, “You've been driving, haven't you?” He must have thought I'd been practicing in somebody else's car. I quickly explained that my training was all done on the Ford.

    That was 60 years ago. I can still see the nod he gave me when he said, "Well, you did a good job."

    Singapore's public transport system is one of the best in the world, so you should have no problem finding your way around like a local. There are three main forms of public transport that you would find in any other major city－trains, buses and taxis.

    TRAINS

    Trains run from 6:00 am to midnight. Single trip tickets start at 80 cents. If you buy an EZ-Link card for $15, you can ride the trains and buses as you like. If you need more information, just call Transit Link on 1800 767 4333.

    BUSES

    There are several bus services in Singapore and fares start at 80 cents. Be sure to always ask the driver the cost of your ticket as he cannot give change. If you need help, just call Transit Link on 1800 767 4333.

    TAXIS

    There are three main taxi companies－City Cab (6552 2222), Comfort (6552 1111) and Tibs (6552 8888). Booking can also be easy by calling the numbers listed above.

    RENTAL CARS

    Driving in Singapore is a pleasure and if you like to travel at your own pace, renting a car is a good choice. Renting takes away the hassle of getting to places around Singapore. Just sit back and enjoy the city. It also means you'll get to see a lot more that a train or a bus won't let you see.

    For car rental, call Avis on +65 6737 1668.

    A walker seriously injured in a mountain­top lightning strike which killed two others is showing signs of improvement, the police have said. A major rescue operation was performed on Sunday following two strikes which hit the Brecon Beacons, South Wales. Two men died, while two others were taken to hospital.

    A police spokeswoman said, "A man in a serious condition in hospital, following simultaneous(同时发生的)incidents in the Brecon Beacons, has now improved and he is recovering. Officers are continuing to get in touch with the next of relatives of the dead men and enquiries are ongoing. All men were believed to be from England."

    Mark Jones,of the Brecon Mountain Rescue Team, described the lightning strike as a freak accident, and something he had not been called out to in 30 years of service.

    The walking group Ramblers Cymru said that while incidents involving thunder and lightning were rare  electrical storms should be taken seriously by walkers.

    The organisation's delivery officer, Elly Hannigan Popp, said, "We'd advise everyone to check the weather forecast before starting a walk. If you hear thunder, see lightning or if your hair stands on end, postpone activities even if the sky looks blue and clear. Lightning will strike as far as 10 miles away from any rainfall. Lightning can strike the same place repeatedly—especially tall, pointed, isolated objects."

    "If there is no shelter you should keep moving. And if you become the tallest object, crouch(蹲)in the open twice as far away from the nearest pointed object as it is tall. Make yourself as small as possible, stay on your toes and keep your heels together, as it will allow electricity to go up one foot, through the heels and back into the ground through the other."

    Plastics remain one of the most - used materials for making many things. Things made of plastics can be very strong and last a long time. Plastics are also much lighter than metal and can easily be formed into different shapes. Plastics can take hundreds of years to break down on their own. And very few kinds are highly recyclable.

    A team of researchers working at the US Department of Energy says it has created a kind of plastic that could lead to products that are 100 percent recyclable. It recently reported the discovery in a study in the journal Nature Chemistry.

    The researchers say the new material is a plastic polymer (聚合体)called polydiketoenamine, or PDK. The team reports the material can be broken down in parts at the molecular (分子的)level. It can then be built up again to form plastics of different shapes, textures and colors. The researchers say this process can be repeated over and over again—without the plastic material losing any performance or quality.

    "Most plastics were never made to be recycled," lead researcher Peter Christensen said in a statement. " But we have discovered a new way to assemble plastics that takes recycling into consideration from a molecular perspective. "

    Many plastics have different chemicals added to them to make them more useful and powerful. The problem is that these chemicals attach to the monomers (单体), which remain in plastics even after the material gets processed at a recycling plant. The research team reported that, with the newly discovered PDK material, the monomers could be recovered and separated from any chemical additives.

    Next, the researchers plan to develop PDK plastics "with a wide range of thermal and mechanical properties. These plastics could be used for many kinds of cloth, as well as things such as 3D printed materials and foams. In addition, the team is trying to include plant - based materials in the process.