【推荐2】“To write, or not to write, that is the question.” “Make America great again.” “Keep calm and scribble on.” These are the phrases “that can be adapted for different situations by changing only some of the words,” as Dictionary.com puts it. They are often written out in almost mathematical form: “To X, or not to X.” “Make X Y again.” “Keep X and Y on.” These X’s and Y’s are variables (变量), suggesting that you can replace any words that make sense.

In 2003, linguist Geoffrey Pullum tried to look for a good name for these “multi-use, changeable, instantly recognizable and time-worn phrases that can be used by lazy journalists and writers.” He was talking about many of those articles that led with “If the Inuit (因纽特人) have dozens of words for snow, X have as many for Y”, and his friend Glen Whitman suggested the name “snowclones”, which has been used ever since.

Though the name is only a couple of decades old, the phenomenon has been around for centuries. A favorite ancient snowclone was “X me no X(s).” In Shakespeare’s “Richard II,” for example, the Duke of York rejects his nephew’s attempts to please him with “Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle.” The snowclone lives on in 1964’s “Fiddler on the Roof,” when three unmarried women sing to village matchmaker (媒人): “Bridegroom me no bridegroom (新郎). Find me no find...”

Online, people seem to enjoy coming up with new “flavors” of snowclone. “X is the new Y,” which apparently originated when Vogue editor Diana Vreeland announced that “pink is the navy blue of India,” has spread far beyond fashion, producing “50 is the new 30,” “Knitting is the new yoga,” and so on.

Perhaps some snowclones are lazy writing as Mr. Pullum suggests, but others seem to offer evidence of how much we love to play with language, and how creative we can be.

【推荐1】The world feels like it’s being set alight. Wildfires in Canada and Europe, floods in China, and a never-ending stream of record-breaking heat waves have constantly dominated newspaper headlines. The feeling that time is quickly running out is very real. But that feeling is a barrier to action — nothing has changed when we’ve called for action before, so considering the seemingly limited time window.

Our past efforts tell us there is a chance. The world has solved large environmental problems that seemed impossible to overcome at the time. An eye-opening example is acid rain. Studying how the world dealt with this geopolitically divisive problem can give us some inspiration on how we can address climate change today.

It has mostly slipped from the public conversation, but acid rain was the leading environmental problem of the 1990s. Caused by sulfur dioxide (二氧化硫), it dissolved old sculptures, stripped forests of their leaves, and polluted rivers and lakes. Emissions from the UK would blow over to Sweden and Norway; emissions from the US would blow over to Canada. This is a classic game theory problem; outcomes don’t only depend on the actions of one country but those of the others too. Eventually, government officials had to sign international agreements, place emissions limits on power plants and start to reduce coal burning. Interventions were incredibly effective. In Europe, sulfur dioxide emissions fell by 84 percent and in the US by 90 percent.

Surely climate change is not the perfect parallel for the environmental problems we’ve solved before. It will be harder. It will involve every country, rich and poor. But change is happening. To accelerate action, we need to have the expectation that things can move faster. Past lessons tell us that these expectations are not unrealistic.

【推荐2】A good vegan milk (纯素奶) needs to look like milk and taste like milk, whether it contains fat or not. Vegan milk is only one example in the growing types of plant-based alternatives (替代品) to animal products, such as meat, cheese, eggs and fish. Burger King and McDonald’s sell vegan pies. Last year the world’s largest producer of canned tuna, Thai Union, began to sell a plant-based product. Growing sales show the growing taste for this type of food, which means alternative proteins have come a long way since 1980s.

Producing techniques have been improved, resulting in better products and lower prices of them, which meet the needs of a growing number of people. Some vegetarians say no to meat, but yes to fish. Some people are trying to cut fat for health reasons. Fitness lovers want to develop muscular mass and strength without building up fat. Concerns about animal rights and greenhouse gas from raising livestock (家畜) are driving the environmentalists to limit their intake of animal-based proteins. As is reported, producing a gram of beef gives off 25 times the amount of greenhouse gas as producing a gram of tofu.

However, plant-based proteins are a tough sell in giant markets like India, where diets are already plant-rich, or Nigeria, where meat-eating is a sign of being rich. That limits their global popularity. What’s more, animal products, including milk and meat, are better for children’s bone development, though lab-grown meat and dairy are becoming more nutritious.

All this suggests that alternative proteins have far to go to replace the animal kind. Plant-based foods may no longer be only a side dish in diets, but their makers’ place as the main dish is another matter.

【推荐3】Sharing Joy with Others

Ah Nao is a “furry” (兽迷). At Super Furry Fusion, the biggest furry party in China, Ah Nao dressed up in an animal suit, performed on stage, met friends and played games. “It was the happiest time I’ve ever had,” he told TMPost.

Furries are fans of animal characters from movies, books and video games. They enjoy wearing animal costumes and role-playing. They also draw or write furry artwork and stories. “People are like families in this community and we can really be ourselves here.” said Ah Nao.

Many young people, especially those born after the year 2000, have created all kinds of similar communities based on niche (小众的) interests. These can include hanfu, voice acting, and even pen spinning.

Hui, another young person born after 2000, is the head of a community called “Home to Pen Spinners”. In this community, people share videos of their performances and learn more difficult tricks from each other. Earlier this year, Hui led two Chinese teams to the sixth Pen Spinning World Cup. Sixteen teams from 11 countries, including the US, Japan and France, took part. The Chinese teams won sixth and seventh places.

“Young people have a strong need to build their identity (身份认同感). In these communities they can have a sense of belonging and find better ways to express themselves.” wrote Yu Tao, a PhD in cultural studies at Heilongjiang University.

“People group together based not on birthplaces, family background or any other factors, but simply on the same interests.” Yu wrote. As Chi Benben, another furry, told TMPost, “The circle welcomes everyone. Some furries feel inferior (自卑的) in day-to-day life, perhaps because they are fat or disabled in some way. But they can all make friends and have fun here.”

【推荐2】On January 22nd, 2021, China said it has established a new monitoring and research center for greenhouse gases and carbon neutrality(碳中和) in order to contribute more to fighting climate change. The official announcement of the Monitoring and Assessment Center for GHGs and Carbon Neutrality (温室气体及碳中和检测评估中心), located in Beijing, was made by the China Meteorological Administration. It is expected to play a vital role in providing both technical and scientific support for researchers. The center will gather top scientists in the field from both home and abroad. Apart from providing ways to achieve carbon neutrality, it will also be helpful to make technological breakthroughs in the next three to five years.

The center is tasked with creating a system to evaluate the effectiveness of the country’s efforts to fight climate change. The recruitment (招募) of staff members is expected to be finished in the next two months. A scientific steering committee will also be started in April to guide the center’s operation.

China is determined to peak(达到峰值) its carbon dioxide emissions(排放) before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. One of the lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic is that humankind must pursue a green development path and green lifestyle. China will lower its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by more than 65 percent from the 2005 level and increase its share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 25 percent. By 2030, China will also increase its forest stock by 6 billion cubic meters from the 2005 level, and bring its total installed capacity (装机容量) of wind and solar power to over 1.2 billion kilowatts.

The establishment of the center proves China’s determination to pursue a green development road. It’s a concrete action that China has taken to fight the climate challenge. Carbon neutrality, or a net-zero carbon footprint, means reading a balance between carbon emissions and removing pollutants through carbon sinks and other offset (补偿).

China has sped up research and development of equipment to monitor greenhouse gases and carbon neutrality and achieved encouraging results. However, there is still a long way to go to reach the top world standard.

【推荐3】As we’re all aware, social media is fake. People only showcase their best moments. But beyond this aspect, a lot of the photos are straight-up fake. Celebrities are airbrushed; some lie about their plastic surgery. Many Photoshop their faces and bodies to look exactly how they want. There are countless ways to pose to change their bodies.

TikTok (抖音) is not immune to these things. It may be harder to use Photoshop when it’s a video, but people find ways around it with different angles, lighting, and posing. This is not to say that they themselves don’t look good — it’s just that this isn’t how they look all the time. We can’t hold ourselves to that high of a standard when we see ourselves so often. But beyond the unrealistic standards that social media propagates (散播), TikTok heavily promotes eating disorder culture, and unhealthy attitudes about food and weight in general.

Unfortunately, it’s challenging to escape from this content. The TikTok is alarmingly accurate. If you interact with a video once, similar videos will continue to come up on your For You page. Interacting can be liking the video, commenting, sharing, following the creator, or even letting the video play multiple times. Once you’ve done this, it’s hard to escape from these videos. The best thing to do is to click “not interested” when one of these videos pops up.

I’ve learned a lot from my own struggle with an eating disorder. During my treatment, the most striking thing my nutritionist said to me was, “You don’t have to love your body.” I thought she was joking. But she’s absolutely right. What she meant is that it’s not realistic to love your body all the time. There are going to be moments when you don’t like something about yourself, and that’s okay. No one thinks every part of themselves is perfect. Self-love isn’t always realistic; self-acceptance is much better.