【推荐1】The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report. It stated that the world is quickly running out of time to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, the level widely agreed to be the conservative, safety-first goal to prevent serious climate harm. To get there, the world would have to cut current emissions (排放物) by 45 percent by 2030. That sounds absurdly unlikely.

But before we give in to despair, we should remember that the technology to address climate change is going along at high speed. The largest source of US carbon emissions is transportation, and a Green New Deal program for motor vehicles would be quite straightforward.

The reason is simple: With some subsidies (补贴), electric cars and buses are cost- competitive with fossil-fuel vehicles. Electric buses have gone into the market at the greatest speed, because they are a logical choice for electrification. At the end of 2018, electric vehicles were displacing about 280,000 barrels of oil demand per day. That’s more than the whole consumption of Greece.

And the electric car market is also reaching maturity, with appealing designs, longer range, and a quickly-expanding rapid charging network in many countries. It’s worth emphasizing that most of the basic systems necessary to recharge electric vehicles already exist. People often tend to assume that we would need to replace every gas station, but virtually all homes and businesses already have an electrical connection which can be easily improved for fast charging. All that is needed to go fully electric is enough battery capacity and fast charging stations to deal with long trips.

Now America would have to repair its electricity production, rails, shipping, and so on to fully decarbonize (脱碳) the transportation sector. It will be considerably more difficult than simply rooting out fossil fuel vehicles from the market.

But greening America’s vehicles would be straightforward, relatively cheap, and a huge step forward on climate. The politics of climate change are so fearful that despair can seem logical, but the first step in achieving a tough goal is the firm belief that it can be done. And this particular step wouldn’t even be that tough.

【推荐2】Fashion designers are always looking for new materials to work with. Lately, it’s all about environment-friendly materials -- recycled tires, mushrooms, even pineapple fibers! What if you want such a pair of shoes? Thaely is here to help.

This sneaker brand out of Dubai wants to fight the growing problem of plastic pollution. Led by 23-year-old Indian businessman Ashay Bhave, they may have found a winning approach: making shoes out of plastic grocery bags. “Thaely” means “plastic bag” in the Hindi language.

“I was looking to create footwear that is cost-effective and safe for the environment,” Bhave said in an interview with a newspaper. “I needed to come up with something that uses recycled plastic without creating any more plastic waste. ”Plastic bags were the perfect solution. He said five trillion plastic bags are used around the world each year. “I was motivated to find a solution to this problem,” Bhave said.

That solution was the fiber called ThaelyTex. Made entirely from plastic bags, the material looks and feels like leather. That sounds promising. Better yet, the production process requires no additional chemicals and produces no poisonous by-products. The result is a smart-looking pair of white low-top sneakers.

Bhave wouldn’t expose the full process for making ThaelyTex, but he said that each pair of shoes was made from up to 15 plastic bags and 22 plastic bottles. Where do they get the materials? Bhave told Elle that was the hardest part. “The biggest challenge we faced was right at the first step of acquiring the plastic bags. ”

Finally, they got help from TrioTap Technologies, a waste management plant. Bhave said they offered to collect the bags and also process them into ThaelyTex.

So far, it seems like things are falling into place. There are already hundreds of pre-orders in place. It sounds like they have some plans for the future. “We have a few more colors coming up,” said Bhave. They also plan to put out a high-top model and bring in a line of clothing. Let’s hope their growth is also friendly to the environment.

【推荐3】Chocolate could soon be a thing of the past, after scientists warned that the cacao plant, from which chocolate is made, could be extinct within 32 years.

Over half of the world’s chocolate comes from just two countries in West Africa—Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana—where the temperature, rain, and humidity provide the perfect conditions for cacao to grow. But the threat of rising temperatures over the next three decades caused by climate change, is expected to result in a loss of water from the ground, which scientists say could upset this balance.

According to the related data, a temperature rise of just 2.1℃ could spell an end for the chocolate industry worldwide by 2050. Farmers in the region are already considering moving cacao production areas thousands of feet uphill into mountainous area—much of which is currently preserved for wildlife. But a move of this scale could destroy ecosystems that are already under threat from illegal farming and deforestation.

Part of the problem, according to Doug Hawkins, is that cacao farming methods have not changed for hundreds of years. “Unlike other tree crops that have benefited from the development of modern, high yielding strains and crop management techniques to realize their genetic potential, more than 90% of the global cocoa crop is produced by small farms with unimproved planting material,” he said. “It means that we could be facing a chocolate decrease of 100,000 tons a year in the next few years.”

Now scientists at the University of California at Berkeley have teamed up with American candy company Mars to keep chocolate on the menu. Using the controversial(有争议的) gene-editing technology known as CRISPR they are trying to develop a type of the cacao plant capable of surviving in dryer, warmer climates. If the team’s work on the cacao plant is successful, it could remove the need for farmers in West Africa to relocate to higher ground, and perhaps even allow cacao to be grown elsewhere in the world.

【推荐2】Enjoy the Challenge of a New Term

The new term is finally here, which means, of course, it’s time to re turn to school.

For many students across China, that also means having to leave home for the next several months and move into a school dormitory.

Being away from our family for a long time, however, often leads to homesickness, a feeling that most students have experienced at some point.

A study by the UK’s National Union of Students found that up to 70 percent of UK students living away from home experience homesickness within their first few weeks of being away.

But homesickness isn’t just a feeling of sadness that happens in our mind; it can also affect us physically. “You feel homesickness in your stomach-it’s an unease in which you feel uncomfortable, nervous, stressed because you’re in a place or situation that’s not familiar,” Joshua Klapow, a professor of public health at the University of Alabama, US, told HuffPost.

According to Klapow, the body reacts physically when it’s placed in an unknown situation such as being separated from one’s familiar surroundings for a long time.

“It’s an evoutionary(进化的) thing that makes us protect ourselves from danger when something is unknown,” he told the HuffPast.

“When we think about home, we know that the sense of unknown is not happening there, so we want to return.”

So, how can we overcome these physical reactions?

Ruth Hardy of the Guardian offered advice for students who are feeling the effects of being away from the safety of home.

“Try and establish routines(常规) quickly. This can make your new environment feel more stable and will hopefully make you feel more settled,” she wrote.

Making friends with others who are in your situation is also a great way to feel less homesick, according to Hardy.

The most important thing to remember, however, is that homesickness is completely normal and is nothing to be ashamed of.

And once it’s gone, you’re free to enjoy the adventures and challenges of a brand new school year.

【推荐3】A latest study on people who eat red meat has found they have higher risks of heart disease and early death. The finding goes against other recent research that suggested removing meat from one's diet has few health benefits. The two opposing findings can make it difficult for people to make sense of what can seem to be conflicting messages on food.

Duane Mellor, a dietician at Aston University, and other researchers say that after examining research on the subject, moderation may be the best way forward. “In this case, eating a certain amount of meat, including red meat, is likely to be safe,” Mellor said. “However, in the interest of health, reducing meat intake to the recommended less than 70 grams per day would be sensible.”

A researcher with ties to the meat industry published a report on the subject in 2019, saying that people should not reduce the amount of red meat they eat. Some experts criticized the findings because they were in conflict with dietary advice from international agencies.

The latest study found that eating two servings a week of red meat or processed meat was linked to a 3% to 7% higher risk of heart disease and also a 3% higher risk of all causes of death. Norrina Allen, a co-leader of the latest study, said the health risk is small but people should try to change their diet. “It's a small difference, but it's worth trying to reduce red meat and processed meat.” She added that eating red meat is also regularly “linked to other health problems like cancer.”

The World Cancer Research Fund says red and processed meat may cause cancer. It recommends eating red meat with an upper limit of 500 grams cooked weight per week-and “little, if any” processed meat. They said on average, adults should reduce the amount of meat they eat by 50% and they should eat twice as much nuts, fruits, vegetables and beans.