【推荐2】Plants, and the insects which rely on them, are the living foundations of our planet. But these foundations are under stress because we have a tendency to replace fields and forests with decorative trees and shrubs imported from around the world. Adding to the problem, our obsession (痴迷) with perfection leads us to use a lot of pesticides (杀虫剂).

These actions are part of the reason global biodiversity is crashing. There are over three billion fewer wild birds in North America than there were in 1970. Recent research shows that insect numbers, even in nature reserves, have fallen, and 40 percent of all insect species may be extinct within a few decades. This is discouraging news; however, there are actions we can take to help bring at least some species back.

The first step is to redefine our concept of “garden” to include more than just plants. We need to intentionally share our space, and not just with the birds, bees and butterflies that visit our flowers, but also with the little insects that may eat a part (very rarely all) of our plants. Therefore, we must limit pesticide use. It’s crucial to support nature’s recovery, and it’s much better for everyone: no doctor has ever recommended long-term exposure to pesticides.

Many drought-tolerant plants brought in from across the planet are being passed off as ecofriendly. However, mostly they’re not. Yes, you’re saving water, but these foreign plants can become disasters when they escape our yards. Helping the environment can be about more than saving water. Even in drier areas, like the American West, the selection of attractive native plants to choose from is vast. If dry is your style, there are native wildflowers, flowering bushes and trees that allow you to save water and nature.

Xeriscapes (节水型园艺) leave many gardeners thirsting for green, and there’s an important alternative that has been largely ignored. For those disenchanted with dry landscaping, using underappreciated and water-loving native plants to make your garden a real-life oasis (绿洲) could be lifesaving to wildlife. In nature, this unsung group of native plants is limited to riparian zones, the narrow belts of green along water bodies, but if consumers demand them, nurseries will increasingly carry these riparian species, and the presence of such plants in the garden will provide for many animals including not just butterflies and their relatives but also colorful birds.

The ideal garden would offer a combination of drought-tolerant native plants and a few species that need a little more water, providing options for little guests and the bigger ones that will come to eat them. As more creatures stop by to share our yards, we will be making nature, and us all, a little healthier.

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【推荐1】The car has reshaped our cities. It seems to offer autonomy for everyone. There is something almost delightful in the separation from reality of advertisements showing mass-produced cars marketed as symbols of individuality and of freedom when most of their lives will be spent making short journeys on choked roads.

Despite top speeds and cornering ability advertised, the most useful gadgets on a modern car are those which work when you’re going very slowly: parking sensors, sound systems, and navigation apps which will show a way around upcoming traffic jams. These apps know where almost all the users are, and how fast they are moving almost all the time, they can spot traffic congestion (堵塞) very quickly and suggest ways round it.

The problem comes when everyone is using a navigation app which tells them to avoid everyone else using the same gadget. Traffic jams often appear where no one has enough information to avoid them. When a lucky few have access to the knowledge, they will benefit greatly. But when everyone has perfect information, traffic jams simply spread onto the side roads that seem to offer a way round them.

This new congestion teaches us two things. The first is that the promises of technology will never be realised as fully as we hope. They will be limited by their unforeseen and unintended consequences. Sitting in a more comfortable car in a different traffic jam is pleasant but hardly the liberation that once seemed to be promised. The second is that self-organisation will not get us where we want to go. The efforts of millions of drivers to get ahead do not miraculously produce a situation in which everyone does better than before, but one in which almost everyone does rather worse. Central control and collective organization can produce smoother and fairer outcomes, though even that much is never guaranteed.

Similar limits can be foreseen for the much greater advances promised by self-driving cars. One autonomously operated car by the taxi company Uber struck and killed a woman pushing her bicycle across a wide road in Arizona. Experts have said that it suggests a “catastrophic failure” of technology.

Increasingly, even the top tech-company has to acknowledge the costs of intoxicating (令人陶醉的) hurry that characterizes its culture. What traffic teaches us is that reckless and uncontrolled change is as likely to harm us as it is to benefit us, and that thoughtful regulation is necessary for a better future.

【推荐2】The curb cut (下斜路缘) is a convenience that most of us rarely, if ever, notice. Yet, without it, daily life might be a lot harder — in more ways than one. Pushing a baby stroller (婴儿推车) onto the curb, skateboarding onto a sidewalk or taking a full grocery cart from the sidewalk to your car — all these tasks are easier because of the curb cut.

But it was created with a different purpose in mind.

It’s hard to imagine today, but back in the 1970s, most sidewalks in the United States ended with a sharp drop-off. That was a big deal for people in wheelchairs because there were no ramps (斜坡) to help them move along city blocks without assistance. According to one disability rights leader, a six-inch curb “might as well have been Mount Everest”. So, activists from Berkeley, California, who also needed wheelchairs, organized a campaign to create tiny ramps to help people dependent on wheels move up and down curbs independently.

I think about the “curb cut effect” a lot when working on issues around health equity (公平). The first time I even heard about the curb cut was in a 2017 Stanford Social Innovation Review piece by PolicyLink CEO Angela Blackwell. Blackwell rightly noted that many people see equity “as a zero-sum game.” Basically, there is “a prejudice that intentionally supporting one group hurts another.” What the curb cut effect shows, Blackwell said, is that “when society creates the circumstances that allow those who have been left behind to participate and contribute fully, everyone wins.”

There are multiple examples of this principle at work. For example, investing in policies that create more living-wage jobs or increase the availability of affordable housing certainly benefits people in communities that have limited options. But the action also provides those people with opportunities for better health and the moans to become contributing members of society — and those benefits everyone. Even the football huddle (围成一团以秘密商讨) was initially created to help deaf football players at Gallaudet College keep their game plans secret from opponents who could have read their sign language. Today, it’s used by every team to prevent the opponent from learning about game-winning strategies.

So, next time you cross the street, or roll your suitcase through a crosswalk or ride your bike directly onto a sidewalk, think about how much the curb cut, the design that benefits one group of people at a disadvantage, has helped not just that group, but all of us.

【推荐3】Lao-tzu and Confucius were China’s most famous philosophers.     1     “Those who know do not say; those who say do not know.” said Lao-tzu. Confucius said that the best people say the least, but do the most.

    2     It comes from the story that he was born with white hair, already old and wise. ? Very little is known about Lao-tzu’ s life. His writings are titled the “Tao Te Ching”.

According to Taoism, the entire universe flows with a mysterious force called the Tao, which means “The Way”.     3     When people forget this, opinions of good and evil or true and false happen. Taoists try to remember their oneness. However, this is easier said than done, Lao-tzu said. Over time, Taoism changed a bit. ? Taoism became more popular in AD 440 when it became China’s state religion. Many people practice Taoism today.

Born in 551 BC, Confucius wandered throughout China as a government employee and a political adviser to the ruling Chou family.     4     After Corfucius died in 479 BC, his students wrote down his teachings and called them Lun-yu, or the Analects. Many of his clever sayings are still followed today. “It is as hard to be poor without complaining as to be rich without becoming arrogant (傲慢的).” Confucianism says it is important to learn to be human. People should act with goodness towards each other to create order and unity. Confucianism guided thinking in China until about a hundred years ago.

Taoism and Confucianism have differences and similarities. Confucianism tells people how to act toward each other. Taoism tells people how to find meaning in life. They both share ideas about man, society, and the universe. Both Taoism and Confucianism have served as guides.     5