A Dream for a Better World

Acid rain, is the acid rainfall with PH less than 5.65. The “acid” of acid rain mainly means sulfuric acid and nitric acid which come from nitrogen oxides discharged by industrious production, coal burning and automobile exhaust.
Acid rain will cause the following harmful results: 1. fish and shrimps will be killed 2. Heritages outdoor will be damaged 3. Buildings and industrial equipment will be corroded 4. Forest will be damaged 5. Water contaminated by acid rain is harmful to people’s health 6. Soil will be destroyed and crops growth will be badly affected.
At present, there are three areas all over the world suffering from acid rain and they are west Europe, North America and Southeast Asia. Some south parts of our country are terribly suffering from acid rain and in recent years, acid rain can be found more and more in our country. In 1980s, acid rain mainly occurred in Chongqing, Guiyang and Liuzhou and the acid rain area was about 170 square kilometers. In the middle of 1990s, acid rain expanded to the south of Yangtze River, Qinghai-Tibet plateau and Sichuan Basin and more 100 square kilometers area was suffering from acid rain. Changsha, Guangzhou, Nanchang, Huaihua and other cities which are polluted more terrible than the rest cities in China. The PH is lower than 4.0 and once it rains, those cities suffer from acid rain. In addition, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Qingdao etc are also badly affected by acid rain. Acid rain area has been up to 29% of whole national area and the area is becoming larger and larger year by year. According to some statistics in south part of China, crops loss is up to 42.6 billion every year and limber loss is up to 18 billion. In the whole country, direct loss caused by acid rain is up to 140 billion every year.
In west Europe, acid rain has also damaged environment. In Sweden, 18000 lakes are destroyed by acid rain. People in Germany consider acid rain as “green plague” because half forest in Germany is damaged by acid rain. “Black forest” has turned into “yellow forest” in Germany. In North America, people also cannot escape acid rain because of rapid industrial development. According to some test, acid rain occurred in south of Canada is more acid than tomato juice and acid rain in Virginia OG America is far more acid than acetic acid. Some lakes damaged by acid rain seem very clean and clear but they have been dead lakes actually.
As for acid rain damage, people in different countries have taken some pressures to control it. In the past 10 years, sulfur dioxide discharge in Sweden has been decreased by 40%. Norway also has reduced waste discharge in accordance with the level of the lowest standard in Europe. Government in Athens imposes strict rules on automobiles. Canadian government also formulated some laws to control sulfur dioxide waste. In China, the government makes every effort to develop advanced equipment to eliminate sulfur dioxide waste and strictly control coal with much sulfur exploitation. Though people have got great achievement for acid rain treatment, they still have a long way to go.

In people’s mind, all parts of polar bears are priceless. At present, a polar bear skin can be sold up to some thousand dollars and people use it to produce carpet as luxurious decoration. In arctic area, polar bear skin is considered as daily object and it is also used as tribute to the king and queen in Norway. The meat of polar bear is very fresh and delicious but its liver is toxic because of excessive Vitamin A. In addition, polar bear is very popular in circus, especially small bears. In such case, polar bear hunting never stops. Polar bear can be killed just by guns. Inuit people can kill polar bears easily by dogs and firearms. Arctic National Conservation Area has set some laws to protect polar bear and every Inuit person can kill a polar bear every year if no excessive hunting occurs. However, some commercial hunting activities for polar bears have brought bad consequences. According to some report from media in Europe, about 10 companies in Europe have offered polar bear hunting groups charging 20000 pounds and they have published the bloody photos for hunting through internet. Among those pictures, injury can be found in some polar bear bodies and it proves that polar bears were killed gradually. Experts estimate that more than 1000 polar bears are killed every year among 22000 to 25000 ones and most hunters are mainly from Canada, USA, and Russia etc. A hunting company in Alaska published their advertisement on internet and said, “Go adventure with us for the largest booty, polar bear”. The company said that they had had enough quotas for polar bear hunting the next year. Hunters from America, European countries and Japan all kill polar bear excessively and US geological experts predict that the quantity of polar bear all over the world will decrease by 2/3 because the ice on which polar bears live are melting in a fast speed.
Besides human unreasonable hunting for polar bears, killing among polar bears also starts. As the global warming occurs, ice on which the bears live is melting so it is very difficult for bears to hunt food. Consequently, they start to get food by killing the species of the same kind. Environmentalists ever took photos for killing among polar bears. A male polar bear managed to separate a small bear and its mother and finally killed and ate the small baby. In addition, the male bear took remains of the dead bear to its home for next dinner. Actually, environmentalists can record more and more killing among polar bears. As for such phenomenon, some people think it is very common and they also think it is nothing to do with global warming. However, we cannot ignore that as the global temperature rises and ice starts to melt, homes of polar bears have been destroyed and they also have lost some preys. In addition, even they are excellent swimmers; they cannot stay in the sea for long time after ice melts. In other words, they have more chance to be drowned to death.

Ocean anoxia has been a serious problem all over the world and more than 150 waters in the world have become “dead waters”. In the past 30 to 80 years, some waters in America, China, Norway, UK, Germany, Denmark and other countries suffer from ocean anoxia. What is the meaning of “dead waters”? Fishes are very few in these waters and some fishes have been extinct. Why such phenomenon occurs? Scientists in recent years have found that excessive nutrients in the ocean reduce oxygen and compared with male fishes, female fishes suffer more from ocean anoxia. In such case, the quantity of male fishes is much more than that of the female fishes. Consequently, it is harm to the existence and reproduction of fishes. Scientists have taken Zebra fish as research example. In “dead waters”, sex hormone of female zebra fish with a small amount is as twice as usual and this result reflects the existence of marine creatures. In addition, gender bending is another kind of phenomenon in the “dead waters”. In normal circumstance, 61% male zebra fish are born in the sea. But when the ocean is lack of oxygen, the birth rate of male zebra fish increases up to 75%. The person in charge in NOAA said that excessive male marine creatures do harm to all marine creatures in the sea and their existence and growth would be badly affected. Besides zebra fish in the ocean, scientists also find other marine creatures suffer from ocean anoxia, for example, shrimps and frogs in the Gulf of Mexico.
So how ocean anoxia happens? First, to some extent, ocean anoxia is related with some natural factors but until now, people still cannot find the reasons. 2.5 billion years ago, ocean anoxia also happened at that time and 90% marine creatures were extinct. Second, people’s unreasonable activities directly cause ocean anoxia. Increasing temperature and rainfalls take wasted pollutants including some chemicals and contaminated water into oceans then seaweeds become more and more and much oxygen in the ocean is used up by them. Ocean anoxia can be also found in some artificial breeding areas where a large amount of fishes exist. Then those fishes need much oxygen and oceans will be lack of oxygen.
Ocean anoxia not only does harm to marine creatures but also causes Red Tide because increasing of fertilizers, for example, nitrogen, will cause more nutrients in the sea and fast growth of phytoplankton. In addition, some Red Tide is toxic and it can kill marine creatures.
As for ocean anoxia, human beings nowadays have paid attention to it when some disasters caused by it have happened and we have to decrease discharge of pollutants, usage of fertilizers, etc. However, the task to decrease pollutants rapidly is quite difficult. For example, if people intend to decrease 1/3 “dead waters” in the Gulf of Mexico, they have to reduce 45% nutrients discharge along the Mississippi. The hurricane can change the condition of ocean anoxia according to some analysis. However, when hurricane is over, the ocean will be lack of oxygen again. Therefore, in order to change ocean anoxia, human beings should try their best to do more.

Terrible pollution always starts from big cities. According to scientists’ research, Mexico is still the most terrible city polluted in the world. Bangkok in Thailand and Athens in Europe are listed in the second place. In the past 10 years, in order to decrease the terrible pollution, Mexico government has invested a large amount of money and published 17 laws to deal with pollution. However, they have got unobvious achievement. Pollution from dust and ozone is still increasing. Ozone in Mexico is much more than that of International Health Standard. A report demonstrated that the amount of lead in more than 30% children’s body was much more than that of International Health Standard. Bangkok is notorious about its terrible traffic jam. The number of people who possess Benz in Bangkok is more than that of people in any other countries but they cannot always use their cars because they suffer from terrible traffic jam. Until in the year 1995, the city had the first sewage treatment equipment through it was very small. But most people living in the city discharge contaminated water into rivers without any treatment. In addition, there are more than 6 million motorcars in Bangkok and they release much polluted air. 60% industry in Greece is in Athens and the city is always covered by toxic air all around the year. Athens is considered as the most terrible polluted capital in Europe.
Compared with Mexico, the pollution in Tokyo has been well controlled. In 1970s, Tokyo was also one of the most terrible polluted cities in the world. San Diego, the capital of Chile, is also terribly polluted. There are about 600,000 cars in the city and in winter, the city is covered by polluted air. In Asia, the pollution also cannot be ignored. Ho Chi Minh city of Vietnam, a developed industry city, makes people cannot breathe normally. New Delhi, the most terrible polluted city in India, discharges toxic gas more than 70% of stipulated standard. As for pollution in Africa, Lagos in Nigeria is the typical example. 60% cars concentrate in the capital. Besides Athens in Europe, many cities in Italy are also seriously polluted, for example, Milan. Milan is the most terrible city polluted by Nitrogen dioxide. Some cities in middle east, middle Europe are also polluted. Toxic gas released from vehicles and coal burning in Istanbul of Turkey makes people suffocating, especially in winter. In Moscow, much Nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide is released into the air and water in most rivers cannot be used in daily life.
The world Environmental organization displayed a new report that more than 5000 people in Los Angeles and 3000 people in New York die from inhaling toxic air every year. There are at least 11 toxic substances floating in the air in Hong Kong and they can cause cancer. Guangzhou, a big city in south part of China, has a large population. Noise pollution can be found everywhere and 70% of it comes from restaurants. People in Guangzhou like to go out to eat at night so it is very noisy even at the night.

The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is the largest coral reef organism in the world. It is commonly considered that those reefs and islands are consisted of rocks. Actually, it comes into being because of a large amount of corals tracing to ancient times. Corals can bring much convenience to human beings. People can live on corals which can be used for building houses and they also play an important role in exploiting oil underground. However, corals have died of “black illness” and “albinism” in a large number since the end of the 20th century due to human unreasonable activities and warming globe.
The Great Barrier Reef, located along Queensland coast in Australia is the largest coral reef organism in the world. It extends about 1430 miles along the east coast in Australia. The acreage of National Marine Park around the Great Barrier Reef is up to 128960 square miles with the similar size as that of Japan. Great Barrier Reef not only provides habitat for millions of fishes, whales, sea birds, sea turtles etc but also for dolphin.
In recent years, the Great Barrier Reef has suffered from damaging. More than 12% corals on the land are protected in the world but less than 1% corals in the sea are under protection. In1970s, when the Great Barrier Reef Park was set up, people thought that fishes and other marine creatures were inexhaustible and they could decompose waste from mainland. But the fact showed the opposite side. At the end of the 20th century, the Great Barrier Reef crisis appeared and fishes, corals were on the edge of extinction. Waters near to the sea was also terribly contaminated. Corals are seriously suffered from overfishing, pollutants, pesticide, warming globe etc. More than 11% corals in the world have been destroyed and 20% are destroyed terribly and scientists have estimated that 32% more corals will disappear in the next 30 years.
“Black illness” and “albinism” are the two main causes for corals death. In many regions of the world, daily pollutants are discharged into the sea without any purification steps and scientists have found that some microbial from human body would bring illness to corals. Such microbial would cause dysentery only when they exist in children’s body with a large number. But when they mix with other microbes, they would do great harm to corals. Scientists also have found that “black illness” is caused by the reaction among various bacteria. As for “albinism”, it is also cause by bacterium from people’s body though it cannot damage people’s health and life. Since 1990s, more and more coral illnesses have been found because of increasing pollutants and warming globe.
Some researchers have said that if Australian government cannot take pressures to protect the Great Barrier Reef, it would be extinct in future. At present, the government tries to seek for solutions to coral protection and it forbids economic development on 1/3 area of the National Marine Park and such provision would help the Great Barrier Reef become the largest marine protected area.

History has left many sites for human beings but more and more historical and cultural sites are lost gradually. Here take some historical sites as examples.
Historic Route 66 in USA. Historic Route 66 just refers unconnected places and interstates at first. Afterwards, it played an important role when the federal government started to set up national road system. Historic Route 66 is not only the longest road with the longest history in USA but also the shortest trunk connecting middle and west part of USA and Pacific coast. When more and more people started to use cars in 20th century, the route make people move to the west region. During the great depression in USA, people escaped west region with much sand and drought through the route. When the second world was broke up, soldiers made use of the route to delivery goods. At present, Historic Route 66 is on the wane but thousands of people all over the world still pass the road. In the past 10 years, many sites of Historic Route 66 have lost and as more buildings will be built, the route will be destroyed more.
Fenestrelle Fortress. Fenestrelle Fortress is located in Italy. The fortress was built as a impregnable barrier and its length is about 3km with about 4 square kilometers. Various buildings, churches and museums etc were built within the fortress. In 1947, Fenestrelle did not have the military function any more. Afterwards, it always suffers from theft, erosion, aging and destruction of other factors.
Herschel Island. Herschel Island is situated in Beaufort Sea and near to north part of Yukon area of Canada. Thule were the earliest residents on the island 1000 years ago. Many buildings in ancient times were remained on the island. However, as the globe becomes warm and sea level rises, some buildings on the island have been moved to other regions.
Old Shanghai. Shanghai is always the center for international trade in China. During two world wars, some architects who ever accepted education from western countries built various building with unique style. However, as the society develops so fast and many buildings remained have been ignored in modern times.
The Wa Naa’s Palace. The Wa Naa’s Palace is the building in Ghana and it was ever the traditional residence for leaders of Wala people in north part of Ghana. The Palace is the typical and significant building in Sudanese style in Ghana. The building needs changing coatings every year but few people nowadays know how to do it. In addition, the country is not stable and local government can not pay much attention to repairing it. Therefore, the building has been terribly destroyed.
Pidhirtsi Castle. The castle was built from the year 1635 to 1640 in Ukraine. The castle was first established for entertainment instead of defense. Therefore, it looks like a villa or palace which has been listed as a part of historical and cultural sites in Ukraine. However, the castle was seriously destroyed during wars. In addition, the fire disaster in 1956 also destroyed the castle too much and many walls and galleries will collapse.

Tundra, a kind of biomes which grow in permafrost, grow in extreme environment. Tundra is located within polar easterlies of polar circle. In tundra area, the wind speed is very large and polar days and polar nights often occur. In winter, the temperature within tundra area is not very low and the lowest temperature there is even higher than that of coniferous forest in east Siberia. But in summer, it is very cold in tundra area and the summer also lasts not long. Rainfall in tundra area is not much but the evaporation is also very small. Therefore, the climate of tundra area is moist. In such environment, plants have to adjust to both moist climate and physiological drought.
Most tundra mainly is scattered around Arctic ocean. In Eurasia continent and north America, from Taiga to coastal area of Arctic ocean and the tundra expand to islands of Arctic Ocean. Tundra located in Europe and west part of north America is affected by warm current and they are distributed in the north region and the tundra belt is distributed narrowly. However, in Asia and east part of north America, tundra can expand far to south direction. In addition, forest tundra is located between the transitional zone of forest and tundra. Compared northern hemisphere, the area of tundra in southern hemisphere is not so large. Some vegetation similar with tundra can be just found in Falkland Islands of south part in South America, small ice-free area in South America and some islands in southern ocean. There are two kinds of tundra and they are alpine tundra and boreal tundra. The former is located in middle and upper position of volcanic cone situated more than 2000m of sea level and the latter, natural belt on the land, is located northern part of Eurasia continent and north America.
Tundra is the natural vegetation on the land but as the globe becomes warm, the ecosystem of tundra is facing up to destruction. In the summer of 2007, 5 fire disasters occurred in Alaska due to thunder and such disaster was very rare within Arctic circle. More and more evidence has shown that tundra in Arctic Circle disappeared due to global warming and scientists predict that tundra will be substituted with bush and forest gradually. In the past half century, temperature in most regions of Arctic region has increased by 3 to 5℉ and by the year 2100, the temperature will have increased by 10℉ compared with that of industrial revolution. That means tundra will disappear in the whole Arctic region. A research group has studied an area of tundra which suffered from fire disaster in 1977 and found that nearly all moss and shrub-like lichen could not be found, instead, shrub willow has occupied more area. Apart from fire disaster, thermal karst phenomenon also imposes harmful effects on tundra. Disappearance of tundra can cause great changes for ecosystem, plants, animals and human beings. Reindeer is a kind of animal which depends on tundra too much and local people also live on reindeer. After much tundra disappeared, the quantity of reindeers correspondingly decreased. In a word, endangered tundra will lead significant changes in Arctic region during those hundreds or thousands of years.

Cheetah, whose formal name is Acinonyx Jubatus, is a kind of feline. Cheetahs mainly live in Africa and west Asia and they depend on fast speed to hunt food instead of sneak attack or group attack. Cheetah is the animal which runs fastest in the world and the speed per hour is up to 110km. In addition, cheetah is the animal among all feline animals with the longest history and uniqueness. There are two subspecies of cheetah in the world. One is Asian subspecies and the other is African subspecies. Cheetahs which ever lived in India of Asia have been extinct so at present, cheetahs mainly live in Africa. In Texas, Nevada and Wyoming of America, people ever found the fossil of the oldest cheetah which lived more than 10,000 years ago. At that time, cheetahs could be found in Asia, Africa, America and Europe. Afterwards, as the climate underwent great changes during ice age, various animals were extinct and some cheetahs in Europe, America, some parts of Asia and Africa also disappeared. Cheetahs live in jungle or dry wood and they like living alone. Cheetah is the most docile animal among all feline animals and it does not attack people and other animals actively except when it is hunting. People in ancient times often used it to hunt other animals. Cheetah mainly lives on small and medium animals. although they can have 50% chance to catch preys successfully, their preys sometimes are caught by stronger animals such as lions, hyena and other larger rivals. Therefore, they have to eat preys within the shortest time. If a cheetah can not get a prey or the prey is taken away by other animals for 5 times continuously, it will be starved to death because it does not have strength to hunt food. Baby cheetah have few chance to survive because they are eaten by larger animals or starved to death.
Survival of the fittest is the constant truth in the world. The number of cheetah has decreased due to two major reasons. Cheetah is often beaten down by larger animals and then it is eaten by rivals. Therefore, it is not strange that the quantity of cheetahs would decrease. In addition, people also never give up hunting cheetah. Since the year 1990, wild cheetahs living in some parts of Asia and Africa have been extinct in more than 20 countries. According to experts’ estimation, there are about 10,000 odd cheetahs in the world and 400 to 700 of them live in South Africa. Nowadays, cheetahs still face up to hunters’ illegal hunting. A nation in Africa, is a nomadic people and people do not kill cheetah but they always take away cheetahs’ preys. So poor cheetahs have to hunt preys again. As for endangered cheetah, people have set up some national parks and natural preservation zones to protect cheetahs. People also have started to breed cheetahs artificially. In addition, trade for cheetah skin has been forbidden among countries in the world. Therefore, people have to reduce hunting for cheetahs.

Sand dust storm is the combination of sandstorm and dust storm. When sand dust storm comes, strong wind blows sand into the sky and the air is terribly polluted. In addition, people can just see objects within 100m. sand dust storm is a kind of natural disaster like flood, drought and other disasters.
On the earth, sand dust storm mainly occurs in inland desert. Sahara desert, middle and west part of north America and Australia are main origins for sand dust storm. From the year 1933 to 1937, the well-known sand dust storm in bowl shape arrived in middle and west part of North America. In Asia, sand dust storm mainly occurs in Mesopotamia among Jordan desert, Baghdad and the coast of north gulf, the south beach of Iran near to Abbas and the plain across Mill Road branch and Afghanistan. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan also encounter sand dust storm. In northwest part of China, sand dust storm often badly affect local people’s life due to the unique geographical environment. Gurbantonggut desert, the Taklimakan desert, Badain Jaran desert, Tengger desert, Ulan Buh desert and Mu Us desert are the origins for sand dust storm in China. From the year 1999 to 2002, 53 sand dust storms arrived in China and 33 sand dust storms were caused by Gobi in Mongolia. In other words, 60% sand dust storms are caused by deserts outside China.
In the world, there are four regions where sand dust storm often occurs and they are north America, Australia, Middle East and Middle Asia. Deserts in north America are mainly located in west part of America and north part of Mexico. Therefore, the dry region which is next to deserts often suffers from sand dust storm. In 1930s, a very terrible sand dust storm arrived in the vast plain of west part of America and more than 3 billion tons fertile soil was destroyed. Millions of farmland was abandoned and a large number of people had to move to other places. Consequently, many cities and towns were empty. Australia is a dry country and 75% land belongs to arid and semi-arid. In middle and west part of Australia, sand dust storms occur frequently and local people can suffer from the terrible weather 5 times a year on average. In addition, over-grazing and farming also accelerate desertification. In middle part of Asia, as the population increases so fast, over-irrigation, deforestation and over-grazing etc consequently happen. It is no doubted that sand dust storm occur very often. Sand dust storm in Middle East is mainly caused by Sahara desert. In addition, some sand has been taken to Amazon in south America and European countries.
As for sand dust storm, it can cause great harm to people’s life. Strong wind with sand and dust can destroy buildings and public devices and it also hurts people and animals. Farmland, roads, villages and railways etc can be covered with sand and dust. The source of sand dust storm and destroyed regions can also suffer from wind erosion. Besides the previous harm described, sand dust storm will also pollute the air. Desert is the source for sand dust storm and if human beings continue engaging in unreasonable activities, there will be more and more deserts.

When we talk about pollution, we always associate it with urban districts. At present, as technology and economy develop so fast, the environment in urban district has been indeed seriously polluted. However, the environment in rural area has also been polluted but people always ignore it. In recent years, people living in rural area have got higher income but the environment still remains the same and in some areas, the environment has become worse. According to some data, about 3 billion people in rural areas could not get clean water and more people suffer from cancer due to dirty water.
There are mainly three kinds of pollution in rural areas of China. First, modernization of agricultural production has caused some pollution. China has a large population and inadequate land. In such case, people have to improve the productivity in order to obtain good yield and they always make use of fertilizers and pesticides to get more output. At present , China has become the leading country for fertilizers and pesticides use in the world. On one hand, fertilizers and pesticides can bring more output to farmers, on the other hand, they have also destroyed the land. In fact, much land has suffered from acidification and people can not get any output from it. In addition, when it rains, fertilizers and pesticides are taken into rivers and people have to use the contaminated water which will cause diseases. Fishes and other creatures living in rivers will also be killed. In a word, the whole ecosystem will be destroyed. In Tai Lake, 1300,000 ton fertilizers and pesticides are put onto farmland every year but only 1/3 of them was absorbed. The rest is taken into rivers and agricultural products. As greenhouse agriculture develops rapidly, plastic film pollution is very terrible. Much plastic film has been remained on the land and output of agricultural products has also decreased. Second, pollution occurs because of unreasonable infrastructure construction and environmental management in rural areas. In many regions, the construction is not reasonable, for example, factories are set up next to people’s houses. In addition, daily contaminated water is directly discharged into rivers without treatment. Third, distribution of factories is not reasonable and some enterprises produce terrible pollution when they arrange production. At present, COD and some solid waste discharged by factories in rural areas takes up more than 50% of total industrial pollutants in the country. In addition, the treatment methods for waste in rural areas are not as advanced as that in cities. That solid waste has also terribly polluted the land in rural areas.
As for the pollution, there are some reasons. The government has not paid much attention to it and makes related laws for pollution prevention. People living in rural areas do not have good awareness to protect environment. Local government does not have enough capital to deal with the pollution and they can not get enough technical support for pollution treatment. therefore, how to deal with the pollution in rural areas mainly depends on what the government will do.

Chiru is one the precious animals in China and is categorized as an animal under China’s level one protection. Chiru and Mongolian gazelle look the same with the weight up to 45kg to 60kg. Chiru mainly live in desert, plateau and meadow with altitude up to 4600m to 6000m. They like to go out and hunt for food during the morning and nightfall and they are good at running. As for the lifespan, they can live about 8 years. The behavior chiru is complicated. Some chirus like living in an area for a long time but some other prefer migration. In addition, male and female chirus have different habits in their lifetime. The area where the chirus live expands 1600km from east part to west part. Seasonal migration is an important feature for chirus. Female chirus mainly produce babies in Ulan UI Lake, Zhuonai Lake, Hoh Xil Lake and the Sun lake etc. when the end of April comes, male and female chirus start to separate and female chirus also leave male baby chirus less than 1 year. When May and June come, female chirus will move to the place to produce babies. After they finish production, they go back again then the migration completes. Chiru is mainly distributed in Qinghai, Tibet and Xinjiang and sometimes, a small number of them move into India.
However, at present, the quantity of chirus has decreased too much. In 1990, the number of chirus was about 1 million and in the year of 1995, the number became 75,000. In previous time, it was easy to find a chiru group with more than 15,000 chirus but it is difficult to find them now. Since 1980s, as the illegal international trade expanded, a large number of chirus was illegally killed. In the past, people from Tibetan also hunted chirus but they just wanted to support the family. On the contrary, people kill chirus for the purpose of obtaining the velvet which can be made of the most beautiful and soft shawl in the world. Although Chirus live in remote area with dick climate, hunters with weapons have never stopped hunting them during recent 10 years. According to the remains left in their habitats, people estimate that about 20000 chirus are killed every year. The survey in 1980s and 1990s displayed that in 1986, 0.2 or 0.3 chiru could be found per square kilometer in southwest part of Qinghai province. In the year 1991, 0.2 chiru could be found in east part of Qiangtang Natural Preservation Zone. In 1995, the total number of chirus has decreased 50,000 to 75,000. In recent years, no people can find a chiru group with about 2000 chirus. Nowadays, it is still hard work to prevent chiru hunting. The velvet of chiru can bring much benefit for people and they can take great risk to hunt chirus. In addition, it is easy for hunters hide the velvet when they make custom clearance. Hunters always make use of various means to hunt chirus and their natural enemies also increase. The existence of chiru indeed makes people be anxious.

Hexi Corridor, located in northwest part of Gansu, is called “Northwest Granary” and it is also an important part of the Silk Road. Since the ancient times, Hexi Corridor is the main passage and stragetic site to western regions. Hexi Corridor is rich in water and grass with abundant resources. In addition, Hexi Corridor is adjacent to Qilian Mountains which can offer enough water for irrigation. Therefore, if the ecosystem in Qilian Mountain is destroyed, the environment of Hexi Corridor will also be badly affected.
Qilian Mountain is considered as the lifeline for Hexi Corridor and more than 450,000 people live on the mountain which provides enough irrigation for local people. When summer comes, a vast area of rape flowers next to Qilian Mountain are very beautiful against the mountain. After years’ management, the region has become the largest production site for rape flowers all over the country. However, those rape flowers have depleted much water of the region. An official in China have said that in recent years, the snow line of Qilian Mountain had risen up and the glacier had also decreased. According to the latest report from Bureau of Meteorology in Gansu province, compared with the quantity of melt water in 1970s, the quantity of melt water has decreased 10 billion cubic meters. The snow line of Qilian Mountain has also increased by 2m to 6.5m every year on average. In some parts, the snow line has even increased by 12.5m to 22.5m every year on average. Some experts have said that most glacier in Qilian Mountain will disappear within 200 years. If the snow of Qilian Mountain melts, people living in Hexi Corridor will suffer from terrible water shortage.
At present, Hexi Corridor, with the length up to 1200km, is covered by g
Gobi and desert, the so-called golden section of Silk Road has been seriously destroyed. In east and west part of Hexi Corridor, the ecosystem is very terrible. In east part, a county called Minqin is surrounded by two large deserts and a vast area of woods and farmland have been abandoned because of water shortage. Some land has become the part of desert. In the county, 94.5% land has become the desert. In west part, wetland of the last green barrier in Dunhuang suffers from desertification at 4m every year due to gradual water shortage. In addition, three main rivers in Hexi Corridor also encounter the problem of ecological degradation and much vegetation has been destroyed.
Actually, ecosystem degradation in Hexi Corridor occurs due to two reasons. Firstly, climate change has caused bad results for the environment. In recent 50 years, the temperature in the region has increased 1.4℃ on average. In fact, the increasing speed is much faster then that of other regions in northern hemisphere. Consequently, the snow line has risen too much and increasing temperature also accelerates evaporation and desertification in the region. Secondly, large population has destroyed the ecosystem. The population started to increase rapidly since Qing dynasty and more people mean means more exploration to the environment. In addition, more water would be consumed. As for environmental protection in Hexi Corridor, the government are taking pressures but we can not be optimistic at present.

If we compare water as the origin of life, wetland can be considered as kidney of the globe. Wetland is a kind of extremely important and irreplaceable ecosystem on the earth. It has various functions such as water maintaining, water purification, flood prevention, run-off regulation, pollution controlling, climate adjustment and landscaping etc. Wetland is not only the natural reservoir on land but also the breeding and wintering place for various wild animals and plants, especially for rare animals. in addition, wetland which is the precious resource also can provide water and food for human beings.
However, as the population has increased rapidly and the economy also has developed fast during recent years, people start to develop more wetland. Consequently, many regions with abundant water have become the places with water shortage and wetland ecosystem has been terribly destroyed. Over a long time, people develop wetland as wasteland for unrestrained exploitation and they have destroyed vast wetland. The largest lake, called Hulun Lake in the northeast part of China is lack of proper treatment for years and the ecosystem nearby has been destroyed by human beings so the water level has reduced and the wetland area has also shriveled. What is worse, the land near to Hulun Lake has terribly suffered from desertification and even the ecosystem of Hulunbeier grassland and Daxinganling forest has also been badly affected. Baiyangding, the largest wetland ecosystem in north part of China, is called the kidney of north part in China. The lake area has decreased from 561.6 square kilometers in the 1950s to 366 square kilometers at present. The capacity of the lake has also reduced and water level is always going down. Therefore, many wild animals and plants have gradually disappeared. In Heilongjiang province of China, wetland area has decreased too much and surface water of 87 billion cubic meters therefore is lost. In recent years, Qinghai Lake has seriously degenerated due to global warming, over-grazing, unreasonable human activities and management shortage etc. the water level does down 12m on average every year.
Actually, the wetland degeneration in China is caused by the following main factors. First, government has not pay much attention to wetland protection and has not taken enough pressures to protect it. In some regions, people can exploit wetland at random. Second, wetland pollution becomes more terrible. Much industrial and agricultural waste water is discharged into wetland and they do harm to wildlife. Third, people over use biological resources and water from the wetland. Fourth, sediment deposits too much and it can cause wetland degeneration. Fifth, the government has not invested enough money to protect wetland.
At present, the government has taken some pressures to protect wetland. First, people should have right value towards wetland protection. Second, the government has issued some laws for wetland protection. Third, the government has listed wetland protection into economic construction. Although the government has taken some pressures, whether they can put the pressures into practice or not is what people concern. We hope that some achievements for wetland protection can be witnessed by all people.

Whale shark, also called rhincodon typus, is the largest fish in the world at present. Whale shark is a kind of shark but not whale. In Vietnam, whale shark is considered as the God and people call it Ca Ong. Whale sharks in Mexico and most middle American area have spots on the body so they are called pez dama or dimino in local region. Some other whale sharks often appear in Belize Barrier Reef which is near to Sapodilla Cayes so people call them Sapodilla Tom. In Kenya, it is called papa shilingi because people believe that when the God pour shilling on its body, then it has the spots. In Madagascar, people call whale sharks marokintana. In Philippine, people call it butanding. The length of common whale sharks is about 10m but some can be up to 20m. the weight of whale shar is about 10 to15 tons. Whale sharks mainly live in upper part of warm ocean and they are very mild and do not attack human beings. A unconfirmed report demonstrates that even people turn over the body of whale shark to clean the parasite, it will keep still. In addition, people can swim with the mild animal together without any danger. Whale sharks swim not very fast and they often float on the sea to enjoy warm sunshine. But recently, scientists have realized that whale shark is not the animal which swim slowly but it can dive into the deep ocean with high speed like eagles. Plankton, crustaceans, molluscs and small fishes are the delicious food for whale sharks.
Whale sharks almost do not have natural enemies. Human hunting is an important factor for the quantity decrease. Whale shark is a kind of economic fish along coastal regions. The liver can be made of cog liver oil, industrial oil and the material for soap, paint and candles etc. the skin can be made of leather and the fresh, bone and visceral can be made of fish meal. When whale sharks gather in some season, people will hunt them for aquaculture development. Southeast Asia, especially Taiwan, is the main hunting area for whale sharks and people often eat the fresh when they get a whale shark. In Fujian which is near to Taiwan, local fishermen ever hunted a whale shark and it was bought at 85,000 RMB very soon. Then it was killed for selling. In other regions, people do not hunt it deliberately but sometimes also hunt it for mistake. At present, scientists are not able to estimate the quantity in the world but they consider it as endangered animal. Consequently, some countries also formulate some laws to protect whale shark. For example, in Philippine, the government started to forbid commercial hunting, selling and importing and exporting for whale sharks in the year 1998. But in China, the government has not formulated any laws to protect whale shark and the hunting is completely free. Maybe people are lack of survey for whale shark distribution and they think that there is no whale shark in China so law-makers seems to neglect the protection for whale sharks.

When we hear that an animal is on the edge of extinction, that means the animal will disappear in the world forever and it can not be found in the ecosystem. At present, the polar bear has been listed as one of endangered animals in the globe. Among 19 subspecies, 8 of them are decreasing. For thousands of years, polar bear is always the key symbol for the local people in material, spiritual and cultural aspects. In addition, polar bear hunting is also a kind of essential activity is their daily life. However, in recent years, people’s unrestricted hunting for polar bears has caused the cancer of the international community.
Most polar bears which are the largest terrestrial predators in the world live within the Arctic Circle and they live on the ocean and land near to arctic area. Polar bear is the biggest bear in the globe and the body length is up to more than 3m. The weight of a grown-up male polar bear ranges from 350kg to 680kg and the figure of a grown-up female polar bear is half of that of the grown-up male polar bears. In order to hunt food in the environment with ice, snow and icy sea, their bodies have adjusted to the environment for many years. Polar bears are used to living in cold environment and they can bear the temperature about -45℃ and they can healthily grow up. Although most polar bears are born on the land, they spend most time living in the ocean. Therefore, they are also called “costal bears”. But the animal is a loser when it struggle with the changing climate.
Scientists have found that polar bears are facing danger because of climate change and environmental pollution. Unfortunately, those problems are caused by human beings. In past 50 years, the temperature of arctic area in Canada has increased 4℃. In addition, the temperature in arctic area is much faster than that of other regions in the world. The ice in arctic area is melting and it is undoubtedly a bad news for polar bears. On one hand, when the ice is melting, the distance between the ocean and the land becomes farther and polar bears have to swim more. Actually, polar bears are not very great swimmers so some may be drowned and others also can not be strong enough to hunt food due to long distance swimming. On other hand, polar bears mainly live on seals. About 1500 seals are born every year but as the ice is melting, many baby seals are drowned. In the 20st century, the quantity of seals has decreased from 180,000 to 8500. as for pollution, some toxic chemicals and sea water arrive in the arctic area such as mercury, chemical cooling agents and hazardous control agents etc. most of these materials are fat-soluble and they accumulate in other animals’ body which would be eaten by polar bears.
Polar bears continue decreasing and maybe they will be extinct in next some years. So what should human beings do at present?