【推荐1】Many kinds of turtles (海龟) found in the Philippines are endangered. But now, the turtles have one less threat. Many people who used to collect their eggs to eat or to sell are now working to keep turtles safe.

Those people are called poachers (偷猎者). Now, however, protection organizations are teaching former poachers how to safely collect the eggs and protect them before they hatch (孵化). The people who do this are paid about 37 cents per egg. That is four times more than they would earn from selling them illegally.

One of the former poachers is Johnny Manlugay. “I’ve learned to love this work,” he said, adding that he did not know it was illegal to eat turtle eggs and their meat. He now collects the eggs carefully and brings them to a group called Coastal Underwater Resource Management Actions (CURMA), which takes the eggs and puts them under the sand in a safe place. When the baby turtles hatch, they are directed to the water.

The turtles are called “pawikan” in the local language. They are at risk not only from poachers, but also climate change and habitat loss.

Carlos Tamayo is one of CURMA’s leaders. “We talked to the poachers, and it turned out poaching was just another means for them to earn a living,” he said. “They had no choice.”

Cabagbag is over 40 years old. His wife and seven-year-old son sometimes help him collect turtle eggs. Since October, they have taken over 1,000 eggs to CURMA. Cabagbag said that once he received training and learned that the turtles were endangered, he stopped poaching.

When the baby turtles hatch, many visitors come to watch them run down the beach and into the water. Cabagbag said seeing the turtles get safely into the water brings him a feeling of joy.

【推荐2】For the last three years, a man in India has been living a real-life daily nightmare (噩梦). Every time he walks out of his house, he gets attacked by a group of crows. The strange thing is that the birds only aimed at him.

Shiva Kewat, a daily wage laborer from Sumela village, says his troubles with crows began three years ago. One day, as he was walking on the street, he noticed a crow chick trapped in iron netting. Despite his efforts to help the small bird escape, it died in his hands. Some of the crows must have seen the scene and believed that he killed it, because they’ve been attacking him ever since. Kewat has to carry a stick with him. He just waves the stick around to drive them off.

Kewat said that he didn’t really take the crows’ attacks seriously until he was aware that he was the only target (目标) of the birds and that no one else had ever had a problem with them. And as word of his troubles with the blackbirds spread in and around the village, people started gathering at his house every day just to see if he’d get attacked. Some found it amusing, while others described the attacks as “sudden and frightening”.

Professor Ashok Kumar Munjal, who studies bird behavior at Barkatullah University in Bhopal, said that crows have a very sharp memory and tend to recollect those who have wronged them. While their idea of revenge (报仇) may not be as complex as ours, they do tend to conduct either single or group attacks against humans who hurt them.

【推荐1】Earth Day is an annual environmental event during which people celebrate the   earth's natural environment and promote environmentally healthy practices.     1     They may include continuous living fairs, outstanding speakers, music, dancing, food, and parades, among other things.

There is some disagreement as to when, exactly, Earth Day is.     2     Others celebrate it on the spring equinox (春分), which means that Earth Day falls on different days in the Northern and Southern part.

Early Earth Day celebrations were used to highlight growing environmental problems and to suggest ways of solving these problems.     3     They may include industrial pollution, along with over-harvesting of natural resources and practices which harm the earth. As humans have recognized more and more environmental problems, ranging from global warming to a growing number of threatened or extinct species, the range of the issues which come up on Earth Day has expanded.

    4     They were designed to draw attention to planet issues. Modern Earth Day celebrations often focus on the positive, celebrating progress which has been made in the quest to protect the earth, and offering education about living in a continuous way. Earth Day festivals often feature sources of alternative energy, organic farmers, and locally produced products, to get people to connect with the earth and their communities.

As Earth Day has become more well-known, more and more nations, companies and people have begun actively participating in the event. It is not uncommon to see companies releasing information about major environmentally friendly breakthroughs on Earth Day, for example, and for nations to pick Earth Day as a target date for emissions reductions and other environmentally friendly measures.     5    

【推荐1】Last week, four speakers shared, at the Skoll World Forum, why they find themselves smiling in spite of everything.

Ava Duvernay

I don’t believe that all of the problems are happening to us. I believe they’re happening for us. Lonnie Holley is a wonderful artist who uses waste material to create artworks. He says we shouldn’t think of it as garbage. Rather, it can be turned into something new.

Mahali Hlasa

I love my family. I was brought up in a very close family. Of course we fight, but we also laugh together. We share all the joys and the pains and find comfort in that. When I want to be happy, my family is always there for me. With these people who I love, I know that I am safe.

Rodrigo Paris Rojas

I find optimism in villages and slums (贫民窟). That’s because despite the difficult environment around them, they still come together and celebrate at different times of year.   They bring so many smiles and so much joy. When I see that, I say, “I have more money and more education than them, but they’re way happier than me. ”So I find optimism in those ways of celebrating life and building community.

Edgard Gouveia Jr.

I’ve found optimism among kids — Black, white, poor, rich. They play. They enjoy life. They connect. It’s only later that they learn about differences and start to behave differently. But when I see how they interact as children, it’s all about playfulness. Even during war times or in very poor neighborhoods, I see kids finding ways to create joy among themselves.

【推荐2】Conservation experts are calling on the prime minister to commit to protecting nature. They say the past decade has seen far too little action, with England remaining one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries. The letter to Boris Johnson was headed by Prof Sir John Lawton, who chaired a review of wildlife sites in 2010. The Making Space for Nature panel advocated “bigger, better and more joined up spaces for nature”. Ten years on, there is a need for renewed action, the experts say, highlighting three overarching areas: better protection and management of wildlife habitats; scaling up efforts to restore wild areas; bringing nature to people.

Prof Lawton writes: “Nearly half of our species are in decline and about a quarter of our mammals are threatened with national extinction. These losses represent a decline in resilience of the ecosystems upon which we depend and a loss of experience and joy: there are too few places left where a child can walk through a cloud of butterflies or sit amongst a rainbow of flowers.” The letter is signed by members of the original panel, including Dr Peter Brotherton, director of science at the government agency, Natural England.

In a second letter, a group of more than 25 nature charities urged the leaders of the four devolved nations to commit to a new era for nature in the UK. They want the UK to lead the charge for new targets and concerted global action to protect nature, following a “lost decade” of nature conservation.

The UN’s latest global biodiversity report shows that the world has failed to fully meet any of its targets to halt damage to natural habitats. The report from The Convention on Biological Diversity(CBD)says only six of 20 goals were partially met over the last decade. The head of the CBD, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, said that while some good things were happening, the rate of biodiversity loss was unprecedented in human history and it showed the pressures were intensifying. The announcement follows a report by WWF and the Zoological Society of London that shows animal populations globally have plunged by 68% in the last 50 years.

Richard Benwell, CEO of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said the failure to meet these targets is a wake-up call for nature that our leaders must answer before it is too late. He added: “We are calling on the prime minister to help start a new era for wildlife, fighting for a strong global target and worldwide action, matched with a clear legal commitment, increased investment and ambitious programmes to restore nature at home.”

【推荐3】It’s easy to think festivals are just about drinking and dancing, but festivals are also representatives of what a certain way of life thinks, the way they express themselves. I’ve been to over 60 festivals in 22 different countries, and I still want to experience more. One of the main reasons I enjoy going to international festivals so much is the fact that they are a microcosm of what they represent. Festivals are an opportunity to see as much as possible in a weekend into worlds so different, or even familiar, of my own.

Festivals are a fascinating insight into a group of individuals with a common understanding and the world they are living in. This is also one of the reasons I enjoy international festivals.

I ticked off a huge bucket list festival in Lake of Stars Festival in Malawi a few years ago. I was unwell and not my usual party self, but, it gave me the opportunity instead to sit and listen to the local poets. Through their poetry they enlightened me to some of the issues of the day—calling out their “fat government” and covering everything from housing, to relationships, to the nominal(名义上的) opportunities.

The importance of celebrating festivals abroad isn’t just to gather with your “tribe”. What I learned in a few poems at Lake of Stars Festival were fascinating insights into modern social issues and the Malawi of the present, which I would have had to dig deep to find out. And I probably wouldn’t have bothered to, to be honest.

Even if only for a weekend, what I learned there from the poets and artists gave me a better understanding of what life was like in Malawi.

You never know what you’re going to learn when you visit a new festival. That’s all part of the fun and expectation.

Comedy makes current social issues fun, music makes them melodic(有旋律的), while poetry makes them considered and heartfelt. Festivals bring you them all.