Is climate change consuming your favorite foods?

    Coffee: Whether or not you try to limit yourself to one cup of coffee a day, the effects of climate change on the world's coffee-growing regions may leave you little choice. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} America, Africa, Asia and Hawaii are all being threatened by rising air temperatures and unstable rainfall patterns, which invite disease and {#blank#}2{#/blank#} species to live on the coffee plant and ripening beans. The result? Significant cuts in coffee yield and less coffee in your cup. It is estimated that, if current climate patterns continue, half of the areas {#blank#}3{#/blank#} suitable for coffee production won't be by the year 2050.

    Tea: When it comes to tea, warmer climates and erratic precipitation aren't only {#blank#}4{#/blank#} the world's tea-growing regions, they're also messing with its distinct flavor. For example, in India, researchers have already discovered that the Indian Monsoon has brought more intense rainfall, making tea flavor weaker. Recent research coming out of the University of Southampton suggests that tea-producing areas in some places, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} East Africa, could decline by as much as 55 percent by 2050 as precipitation and temperatures change. Tea pickers are also feeling the {#blank#}6{#/blank#} of climate change. During harvest season, increased air temperatures are creating an increased risk of heatstroke for field workers.

    Seafood: Climate change is affecting the world's aquaculture as much as its agriculture. As air temperatures rise, oceans and waterways absorb some of the heat and {#blank#}7{#/blank#} warming of their own. The result is a decline in fish population, including in lobsters (who are cold-blooded creatures), and salmon (whose eggs find it hard to survive in higher water temps). Warmer waters also {#blank#}8{#/blank#} toxic marine bacteria, like Vibrio, to grow and cause illness in humans whenever ingested with raw seafood, like oysters or sashimi.

    And that {#blank#}9{#/blank#} "crack" you get when eating crab and lobster? It could be silenced as shellfish struggle to build their calcium(碳) carbonate shells, a result of ocean acidification (absorb carbon dioxide from the air). According to a study, scientists predicted that if over-fishing and rising temperature trends continued at their present rate, the world's seafood {#blank#}10{#/blank#} would run out by the year 2050.

Titanic II Could Sail as Soon as 2022

    If you thought the long-delayed project to launch a full-size copy of the ill-fated Royal Mail Ship Titanic was sunk in the water—think again. Just like Celine Dion sang back in 1997, the travel project will "go on and on."

    Australian businessman and politician Clive Palmer, who is behind the {#blank#}1{#/blank#}, announced in September that work on the ship had started again. The idea was first floated in 2012. It is said that the new ship will be a(n) {#blank#}2{#/blank#} copy of the infamous ship, which sank in 1912 following a crash with an iceberg (冰山).

    To avoid a(n) {#blank#}3{#/blank#} disaster, Titanic II will apparently be equipped with plenty of life boats, modern navigation (导航) and radar equipment. The first voyage, however, will take passengers from Dubai to New York, reports CruiseArabia, with the first sailing {#blank#}4{#/blank#} to take place in 2022. Blue Star Line says the nine-decked ship will be home to 835 cabins, and 2,435 passengers will be {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. You'll be able to buy first-, second- and third-class tickets—just like in the original.

    Meanwhile tourists with plenty of money might soon have the chance to dive to the {#blank#}6{#/blank#} of the original Titanic. American company OceanGate has planned diving trips for 2019, costing $105,129 per person.

    Of course, the original Titanic voyage ended in {#blank#}7{#/blank#}, with over 1,500 people losing their lives. For many, voyages to the original ship are in bad taste. Steve Sims, founder of The Bluefish, said earlier in 2018 that he doesn't see diving to the original one as {#blank#}8{#/blank#}.

    Realistically, it's {#blank#}9{#/blank#} whether Titanic II will ever see the light of day—or whether the diving tours will happen soon. But one thing is for certain, more than 100 years after the Titanic's first and only voyage, global interest in this ship shows no {#blank#}10{#/blank#} of slowing down.

    A recent troubling study showed that "fake news" spread significantly faster, deeper and more broadly than the truth, and the effect is even more remarkable when regarding news as opposed to reporting on natural disasters, finance or science. So how can we encourage individuals to seek {#blank#}1{#/blank#} online content? Leading scholars are trying hard to deal with this question.

    Processing new information requires a considerable mental effort, especially when that information seems to conflict with your {#blank#}2{#/blank#} worldview. It takes the {#blank#}3{#/blank#} to admit you may be wrong. But with a great amount of conflicting information available, who's to say what's actually true and what's false? If you can't tell, why not just make life easy and go with what supports your current beliefs?

    So what {#blank#}4{#/blank#} do we have? Many suggest that we can {#blank#}5{#/blank#} the issue by reforming adult behavior, but this is aiming too far from source. An alternative solution is using early education to help individuals recognize these problems and {#blank#}6{#/blank#} critical thinking to the information they deal with. Currently, there is a push in the US to include Internet information classes into primary and secondary school curriculums. The movement, which has received some support, aims to make fact-checking seem like second {#blank#}7{#/blank#} to individuals at an early age.

    Primary and secondary school are {#blank#}8{#/blank#} to be supplying students with the skills they need to develop into productive and informed members of our society. As our society develops, the curriculum we are teaching our students needs to develop as well.

    The Internet is an amazing tool, but to use it most effectively we have to accept its benefits while also understanding the ways in which it makes us dangerously {#blank#}9{#/blank#}. If students are still learning the practices such as writing in school, shouldn't they be learning how to {#blank#}10{#/blank#} the Internet responsibly as well?