Growing coffee beans is a huge, making-money business. However, unluckily, full-sun production is replacing the industry and causes a lot of damage. The change in growing coffee from shade-grown(荫下栽种) production to full-sun production brings certain animals and birds in danger, and even breaks the world’s ecological balance(生态平衡).

On a local level, the damage of the forest that is required by full-sun fields affects the area’s birds and animals. The shade of the forest trees gives a home to birds and other species which depend on the trees’ flowers and fruits. Full-sun coffee growers destroy this forest home. As a result, many species are quickly in extinction.

On a more global level, the damage to the rainforest for full-sun coffee fields also does harm to human life. Medical research often makes use of the forests’ plant and animal life, and the ruin of such species could keep researchers from finding ways for certain diseases. In addition, new coffee-growing methods are harmful to the water locally, and lastly the world’s groundwater.

Both locally and globally, the continued spread of full-sun coffee plantations(种植园)could mean breaking the balance of the rainforest ecology. The loss of shade trees is already causing a little change in the world’s climate(气候), and studies show that the loss of oxygen-giving trees also leads to air pollution and global warming. Besides, the new growing methods are bringing about acidic (酸性) soil conditions.

It is clear that the way much coffee is grown affects a lot, from the local environment to the global ecology. But coffee users do have a choice. They can buy shade-grown coffee whenever possible, although at a higher cost. The future health of the planet and mankind is surely worth more than an inexpensive cup of coffee.

With new life coming out in spring. everyone is expecting to enjoy beautiful flowers and fresh air. However, to our disappointment, the sky is always grey, the haze (雾霾) blankets everything…

Suzhou,May 2020:According to a government's plan,all major cities in China are expected to start garbage classification this year, and the system should be completed and functioning by the end of 2025.The city of Suzhou has thus acted and related campaigns have been launched and flourishing throughout the neighborhoods.

In a summer camp,one of the events,a group of adolescents visited several waste treatment plants where they gained a better understanding of methods of sorting and recycling organic waste,sewage(生活污水）and sludge(生活污物）。In another event,a team of residents.and a team of students from a local college had a debate on"Should Practice of Garbage Classification Rely More on Law Enforcement or Moral Consciousness'.Many residents watched the debate and acquired a good knowledge of garbage classification in the process.Still another community offered the local administrative staff working on garbage disposal(处置）and environmental protection and staff from the local property management company a chance to visit a community in Wujiang District,Suzhou to learn experience for more efficient garbage classification.

Lower Oxygen Levels Threaten Marine Life

Oxygen in the oceans is being lost at an alarming rate, with “dead zones” expanding rapidly and hundreds more areas showing oxygen dangerously exhausted, putting sharks, tuna, marlin and other large fish species at particular risk. Dead zones, where oxygen is effectively absent, have quadrupled(翻两番) in extent in the last half-century, and there are also at least 700 areas where oxygen is at dangerously low levels, up from 45 when research was undertaken in the 1960s.

The reasons behind this environmental collapse are multiple. Among all, pollutants generated by the industrial world have been the most destructive force to cause the unbalance, including a rising tide of plastic waste, as well as other pollutants. Seas are about 26% more acidic than in pre-industrial times because of absorbing the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, with damaging impacts on shellfish in particular.

Low oxygen levels are also associated with global heating, because the warmer water holds less oxygen and the heating causes stratification(分层), so there is less of the vital mixing of oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor layers. Oceans are expected to lose about 3-4% of their oxygen by the end of this century, but the impact will be much greater in the levels closest to the surface, where many species are concentrated, and in the mid to high latitudes.

Another major cause for lower oxygen is intensive farming. When excess artificial fertilizer from crops, or wastes from the meat industry, runs off the land and into rivers and seas, it feeds algae(藻类) which bloom and then cause oxygen consumption as they die and decay.

The problem of dead zones has been known about for decades, but little has been done to tackle it. Now is high time to take actions and help the oceans function better.

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