A pair of earth scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpu are calling for flood prevention and warning systems in areas around the Himalayan mountains to protect people from floods or to warn them of the potential disasters. In their Perspectives piece published in the journal Science, Tanuj Shukla and Indra Sen point out that rising temperatures due to global warming are leading to an increase in flood danger for people who live in the area.

As Shukla and Sen note, the Himalayas hold the most ice anywhere on the planet outside of the polar regions-snow-covered mountains and glaciers hold on to massive amounts of water. In the past, as snow and ice have melted in the warmer months, mountain lakes have formed with natural dams holding them in place. But previous research has shown that increases in the amount of water buildup in such lakes and melting of the ice in the rocky material that makes up natural dams can lead to massive floods. Just eight years ago, they note, melting ice in northern India led to an avalanche (雪崩)that pushed the natural dams past its breaking point. The water rushing down the mountain, carrying with it large rocks, trees and other debris, wound up killing over 5, 000 people. Such events are common enough to have been given a name-glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). They can also be caused by extreme rain events during Monsoon season, which, due to global warming, are happening more often.

Shukla and Sen point out that as the planet grows warmer, more GLOFs are certain to occur. But they also note that the same outcomes are not inevitable. They suggest that the construction of reservoirs to hold extra rain, structures to change the course of water, detention basins along with embankments (堤岸)could prevent such flooding. They also suggest improvements in technology could help-upgrading cell service in the region, for example, would allow people upstream to call and warn those living downstream. They also suggest building a satellite network that could be used to monitor troublesome areas. Taken together, such technology could form the basis of an early warning system. Without such action, they warn millions of people could lose their lives in the coming years.

I live in a small town of about 12, 000 people. Normally, the streets are busy with cars, the sidewalks are filled with pedestrians and the stores are filled with shoppers going about their business. My home is within sight of Victoria International Airport and we are used to the background sound of large passenger aircraft arriving and departing. Restaurants are usually crowded at mealtimes and friends visit back and forth frequently. However, life is different now.

Most stores here are now closed except for those such as grocery stores that supply an essential service. You can't have a meal in a restaurant now, although some are still cooking food you can take home. When I walk through downtown I can wander across the main street almost any time I please without much danger because there are so few cars. Even the airport is quiet because people aren't travelling as they used to.

We haven't been told if there are any actual cases of Covid-19 in our town, although I would be a little surprised if there weren't any. We have a fairly large proportion of our population made up of senior citizens who are likely to be affected by the disease. We have five or six long-term care homes for seniors here and the fear is that if the virus gets into one it will be disastrous.

There is no question but what the world has changed. We're lucky, in a sense, because we saw what happened in China and we learned from that experience. We know to stay at least two meters away from other people, we know to wash our hands frequently, to wear face-masks and to limit our time in those few stores that are open. It seems to be working and there is hope that we can soon beat this bug into submission (屈服) but, for now, it's a strange world. It also makes me wonder if this virus, like the flu virus, will mutate (突变) almost every year and turn the world into a series of situations like this.

"Your mother needs a new heart," my father told me when I called on that December afternoon. An unrelenting optimist, he spoke as if she merely needed to have a part replaced. But, although my two sisters and I knew that our mother had heart problems, this news still made us frozen for a while with our eyes widening in disbelief.

Dr. Marc Semigran of the transplant team reviewed my mother's medical history. She'd had an irregular and rapid heartbeat for most of her life. Her present treatment——the use of a series of cardioversions, or electric jolts, to restore a normal heartbeat——would not work in the long-term. She had an enlarged and weakened heart, as well as a faulty valve.

"With medication," Dr. Semigran said, "you have a 60 percent chance of living six months. You could have a longer life with a transplant, but there are risks. You're at the

top end of the age group of sixty years old. The lungs and other organs must be healthy and strong. While the transplant surgery is actually a straightforward procedure, acceptance by the body is the difficult thing."

My family came together, trying to provide strength and work out what to do. We'd already gone from shock, over our mother's condition, to worry that she wouldn't be a suitable recipient. Despite of the risk, we chose to believe that she would make it eventually.

Word came later in December that she had been accepted into the programme. Dr. Jeremy Ruskin told us one of the reasons she had been accepted was that she had such strong family support.

One Monday in May, at about 8 p. m., my mother received a phone call from the hospital that a heart was available. As she was about to be wheeled off, my father took her face in his hands and looked into her eyes. His look said everything about their 42-year relationship.

The heart transplant operation was successful and the conditions could not have been better.

The irony of the transplant process is that one family's loss is another's gain; that tragedy begets fortune. It is a kind of life after death, our hearts beating beyond us. We developed a feeling of love for this new part, of gratitude for the doctors, for the process, and for those people who made a decision just for humanity.