Recently, we have already shown that climate change has led to a dramatic increase in storm surge risk in New York City, making devastating events like Hurricane Sandy more likely.

    What can we say about the role of climate change in the unprecedented disaster that is unfolding in Houston with Hurricane Harvey? There are certain climate change-related factors that we can, with great confidence, say worsened the flooding.

    Sea Level rise attributable to climate change-some of which is due to coastal subsidence(下沉) caused by human disturbance such as oil drilling-is more than half a foot(15cm) over the past few decades. That means the storm surge was half a foot higher than it would have been just decades ago, meaning far more flooding and destruction.

    In addition to that, sea surface temperatures in the region have risen about 0.5C(close to 1F) over the past few decades from roughly 30C(86F) to 30.5C(87F), which contributed to the very warm sea surface temperatures(30.5-31C, or 87-88F). There is a simple thermodynamic(热力学的) relationship known as the Clausius-Clapeyron equation that tells us there is a roughly 3% increase in average atmospheric moisture content for each 0.5C of warming. Sea surface temperatures in the area where Harvey intensified were 0.5-1C warmer than current-day average temperatures, which translates to 1-1.5C warmer than “average” temperatures a few decades ago. That means 3-5% more moisture(水分) in the atmosphere. That large amount of moisture creates the potential for much greater rainfalls and greater flooding. The combination of coastal flooding and heavy rainfall is responsible for the devastating flooding that Houston is experiencing.

    Not only are the surface waters of the Gulf of Mexico unusually warm right now, but there is a deep layer of warm water that Harvey was able to feed upon when it intensified at near record pace as it neared the coast. Human-caused warming is penetrating down into the ocean. It's creating deeper layers of warm water in the Gulf and elsewhere. Harvey was almost certainly more intense than it would have been in the absence of human-caused warming, which means stronger winds, more wind damage and a larger storm surge.

    Finally, the more tenuous but potentially relevant climate factors: part of what has made Harvey such a devastating(毁灭性的) storm is the way it has stalled near the coast. It continues to strike Houston and surrounding regions with a seemingly endless flood, which will likely top out at nearly 4ft(1.22m) of rainfall over a days-long period before it is done. The stalling is due to very weak prevailing winds, which are failing to steer the storm off to sea, allowing it to spin around and wobble back and forth. This pattern, in turn, is associated with a greatly expanded subtropical high pressure system over much of the US at the moment, with the jet stream pushed well to the north. This pattern of subtropical expansion is predicted in model simulations of human-caused climate change. More tenuous(微弱的), but possibly relevant still, is the fact that very persistent, nearly “stationary” summer weather patterns of this sort, where weather anomalies(both high-pressure dry hot regions and low-pressure stormy/rainy regions) stay locked in place for many days at a time, appears to be favoured by human-caused climate change.

    In conclusion, while we cannot say climate change “caused” Hurricane Harvey, what we can say is that it exacerbated several characteristics of the storm in a way that greatly increased the risk of damage and loss of life. Climate change worsened the impact of Hurricane Harvey.

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    Green tree ants are important builders in the rainforest. They're like the worker bees of the ant world. The native forest of Thala Beach Nature Reserve is the natural home of these insects.

    They climb all over the tree that contains their nest and protect it from enemies with great fierceness. The ants are often in the fruiting trees of Tropical North Queensland. When an animal tries to help themselves to some tasty fruit, they find themselves attacked by a powerful, frightening army of green tree ants! Their bite is not very painful but many ants attacking at the same time can be extremely uncomfortable.

    The nests are large and constructed by sticking the leaves at the end of branches together to create a home looking roughly like a globe. Most of the nest construction and weaving is conducted at night. A mature colony of green tree ants can hold as many as 100,000 to 500,000 workers and may include as many as 12 trees and contain as any as 150 nests. Green tree ant colonies have one queen and a colony can live up to eight years.

    However, the ants are so busy that they fail to spot a dishonest figure. There is a spider called the Salticid spider, or the jumping spider, as they are sometimes referred to, which has excellent eyesight and is only active during daylight, weaving a protective covering of silk to spend the night in. Interestingly, the Salticid spider does not look like a green tree ant. Instead, it chemically copies green tree ants' smell. Effectively pretending to be an ant, it goes into the green tree ants' nest, enters the nursery and feasts on their babies. Green tree ants don't have good eyesight and smell everything with their antennae (two long thin parts on an ant's head). Therefore, the ants think the spider is another ant and ignore its presence within the nest.

    Next time, as you wander around Thala's native forest, keep an eye out for these busy little creatures. Look up into the trees and you'll likely spot their nests.

    The opening times of Vienna's museums, shops, Tourist Info Vienna, etc

    Tourist Info

    1st district, city centre

    Albertinaplatz, corner of Maysedergasse

    Daily from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm

    Vienna International Airport Arrival Hall

    Daily from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm

    Museums

    Most of Vienna's museums are open daily. Some are closed once a week, often either on Monday or Tuesday. The daily opening times vary from museum to museum, but you can generally assume that a museum will be open between 10:00 am and 5:00 pm. Some of the large museums offer art lovers one late evening per week and stay open until 8:00 pm or 9:00 pm.

    Shops

    In Vienna, shops are usually open from Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to 6:30 pm and on Saturday until 5:00 pm or 6:00 pm. Some shopping centers are open until 8:00 pm or 9:00 pm from Monday to Friday.

    Banks

    Most banks in Vienna are open from Monday to Friday from 8:00 am to 12:30 pm and from 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm, and until 5:30 pm on Thursdays. In the city center almost all banks are open over lunchtime.

    Restaurants and hot food

    Most restaurants in the city center are open daily. Hot food is generally offered from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm and from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Some restaurants, often outside the city center, are closed on one day each week, sometimes on Sundays as well.

    Welcome to iusEnglish, a wonderful online school that specializes in teaching English to school, aged Chinese children from seven to fifteen. We offer lessons focusing on English reading and writing. Because of the rapid growth of our school, we are now looking for more qualified（合格的）teachers to join us to teach 3rd & 4th grade.

    Online Teachers for 3rd & 4th Grade Reading and Writing Classes

    •Teach 3rd & 4th grade reading classes in an online environment ;

    •The students are Chinese children who are able to communicate in English ;

    •Class schedule will be set up according to teachers' time frame ;

    •Teachers are expected to create lessons and grade students' homework ;

    •40 minutes for a class and one class meeting once a week.

    Desired Skills & Experience

    •A recognized degree and a teaching qualification at the graduate level ;

    •Those with the teaching background in elementary school are highly preferred ;

    •Ability to plan, deliver and motivate students to learn;

    •Strong communication skills to work with cooperation ;

    •Native American English speakers ;

    •Be able to create lessons and prepare lesson plans ;

    •Love teaching! Patience, self­management, positive attitude, and most of all, be devoted ;

    • Two ­year experience in teaching online or in classroom circumstances for programming teachers.

    Teachers are able to work from the comfort of their own homes in the hours and days of their choosing. The benefits of joining iusEnglish are great. Besides earning extra income, teachers are rewarded by watching the continual progress of their students week by week. It' s a win­win situation, and we hope you will consider joining our team.

    Don't hesitate. Please contact us: ius@iusEnglish.com.

    This year marks the 170th anniversary of Paul Gauguin's birth. He lived for just 54 years but he packed his brief life with activity.

    The French painter spent his early childhood in Peru before returning to France. As an adult, he continued to travel a lot. Most famously, he spent much of the last decade of his life in Tahiti, an island in southern Pacific Ocean. Indeed, Gauguin is best known for his colorful paintings of Tahitians and their culture.

    The restlessness of this great painter has been normal among modern artists since the middle of the 19th century. They're never satisfied for long with a certain style or way of life. Once something becomes conventional, it's turned down.

    The artistic culture that Gauguin developed from was that of Impressionism (印象派). Painters like Claude Monet had wanted to paint how they saw the world, not how their teachers taught them it should be seen. Gauguin, and similar artists like his friend Vincent van Gogh, moved even further away from "respectable" art than the Impressionists. For them, it was not simply a matter of seeing the world differently, but feeling and thinking about it differently, too.

    Gauguin saw, felt and thought differently from most members of European society. He thought that European culture was too fancy and not spontaneous. This is why he turned to the traditions of other parts of the world, like Africa, and, eventually, Tahiti. Artists like Gauguin used the word "primitive" for these cultures, but not as a negative term. For him, Europe, in becoming modem, industrial and scientific, seemed less natural than other parts of the world.

    In truth, Gauguin's paintings may be unconventional but they are certainly not "primitive". They are the work of a painter with great awareness of what he was doing. It was this awareness that made him such an important painter for those that came after, in the 20th century. When we look closely at the works of Gauguin we begin to understand Pablo Picasso, and especially Henri Matisse, a little better.