分类 必应美图 下的文章

马瑙斯附近的亚马逊河流域鸟瞰图，巴西 Aerial of the Amazon River Basin near Manaus, Brazil (© Art Wolfe/Danita Delimont)

Reflections on the mighty Amazon

For World Rainforest Day we take you below these clouds to the Amazon River Basin and the largest rainforest in the world. At more than 2.1 million square miles, the Amazon accounts for half of Earth's remaining tropical rainforests. And a fifth of the world's freshwater flows through this river basin. Perhaps a tenth of the planet's known species call it home, many of which have yet to be identified—that's trees, plants, fish, mammals, and a third of Earth's bird species. Now take a deep breath. The ‘Lungs of the World' produces 20 percent of Earth's oxygen, while storing vast amounts of carbon dioxide, earning it an all-star ‘carbon sink' status.

Why's it called the Amazon? Spanish explorer and conquistador Francisco de Orellana gave it that name after encountering indigenous women of the Pira-tapuya tribe who fought alongside men. The women warriors of the region reminded Orellana of the Amazons of Greek mythology. Today, the Amazon rainforest still sounds almost mythologically powerful—and it is. Yet, all rainforests are fragile biosystems. Worldwide, we lose swaths of these precious environments to agriculture and mining. However, the pace of deforestation is slowing as farming methods improve and advocacy efforts build awareness around these rich bio-diverse tropical rainforests. The more we learn about rainforests, the more we appreciate how our own future, and the future of our planet, hinge upon their health.

Sun Voyager sculpture by Jón Gunnar Árnason in Reykjavik, Iceland © Martin Child/Getty Images Plus

Ode to the sun

Today marks the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere—the longest day of the year and, for most of us on this side of the globe, the first official day of summer. (Iceland, being Iceland, celebrates the first day of summer in April, an old Viking tradition.) What better way to celebrate this day of sun than with Reykjavik's Sun Voyager. Though it looks a bit like a Viking ship or maybe a fish skeleton, sculptor Jón Gunnar Árnason created it to be a dream boat and an ode to the sun. Sounds good to us. Join us in celebrating the sun today.

从上布法罗荒野地区的惠特克顶小道向东看，阿肯色州奥沙克国家森林 (© Jens Lambert Photography/Getty Images Plus)

格伦德根花园的樱桃月桂树迷宫鸟瞰图，英国康沃尔 Aerial view of the cherry laurel maze in Glendurgan Garden, Cornwall, England (© Richard Cooke/Alamy)

Glendurgan Garden hedge maze is 186 years old

Created by Alfred Fox in 1833 to entertain his 12 children, the cherry laurel hedge maze at Glendurgan Garden was designed to resemble a serpent curled in grass. In addition to the maze, Glendurgan also includes an amazing collection of exotic plants that Fox obtained on his travels and imported from abroad. Luckily, the temperate climate of Cornwall allowed these rare imports, like bamboo, Brazilian giant rhubarb, and tree ferns to thrive in this valley garden. In 1962, the Fox family gifted the gardens to the National Trust, a UK charity that works to preserve places of historic interest or natural beauty.

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas © Eddie Brady/Getty Images

World-class art comes to Arkansas

Bentonville, Arkansas is probably not the first place that comes to mind when you think about visiting a world-class art museum. But Crystal Bridges is a new must-see in the art world. Its collection includes paintings, sculpture, photography, drawing, and installation art from colonial times to today and features American artists such as Maya Lin, Andrew Wyeth, Jacob Lawrence, Jackson Pollock, and Georgia O'Keeffe. But perhaps the biggest piece of art is the museum itself. Designed by Moshe Safdie, the building blends seamlessly and beautifully into the surrounding Ozark landscape. In addition to the art and architecture collections, there are eight nature trails on the grounds. And admission to the museum is always free.

塞尚山，法国普罗旺斯艾克斯 (© travelview/iStock)

位于大本德国家公园的格兰德河和卡门山脉，得克萨斯州 Rio Grande and Sierra del Carmen Mountains in Big Bend National Park, Texas (© Grant Ordelheide/Tandem Stills + Motion)

A big birthday for Big Bend

Seventy-five years ago today, on June 12, 1944, Big Bend officially became a US national park. The park, which covers 801,163 acres in West Texas, along the Mexico border, contains mountain, river, and desert ecosystems, including the largest protected area of the Chihuahuan Desert in the United States. But the ‘big’ doesn't stop there. Big Bend is home 1,200 species of plants, over 450 species of birds, 75 species of mammals, and 56 species of reptiles. (We're not sure how many of those are snakes, if you're wondering.) Because of its remote location, Big Bend also has among the darkest skies ever measured in the contiguous US. So tonight, the only light you'll likely see is the glow from 75 birthday candles—and a few million stars.

Cracking Art installation at Le Mans Cathedral in 2015, Le Mans, France © Michel GILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Installation art turns heads

If you ever encounter a giant, plastic snail in the city or an army of rainbow-colored meerkats holding sentry outside a historic building, it's likely an art installation from the Cracking Art collective. The group uses plastic to craft vivid representations of meerkats, elephants, snails, and other natural creatures for traveling art installations in unexpected locations. The collective's use of plastic is meant to call attention to the sometimes-blurry connection between natural and artificial reality, inviting viewers to reexamine the world around them. The meerkat exhibit on our homepage took place in 2015 at Le Mans Cathedral in Le Mans, France.

富士山与丛生福禄考花田，日本山梨县 (© Srinil/shutterstock)

阿尔加维海岸附近的Ponta da Piedade岩层，葡萄牙 Ponta da Piedade rock formations off the coast of Algarve, Portugal (© David Santiago Garcia/Offset)

Ponta da Piedade rock formations off the coast of Algarve, to celebrate the Day

Today we're featuring the Ponta da Piedade rock formations in the Algarve region as a nod to Portugal Day, a celebration of the Portuguese nation and its people. Observed throughout the Portuguese diaspora, the main festivities are military ceremonies, exhibitions, concerts, pageants, and parades on June 10, the anniversary of the death of Portuguese poet Luís de Camões. Camões was an incredibly colorful character whose poem 'Os Lusíadas' chronicled the discovery of the sea route to India by Portuguese explorers and the development of the Portuguese Empire. It is regarded as the national epic poem, much like Virgil's 'Aeneid' was to the Ancient Romans, and his influence is so great that Portuguese is often referred to as “the language of Camões.”