【推荐1】The Yawa technology is an example of best practice in the circular economy. Materials used to build the machine are recyclable. The technology is even being adjusted to local air quality, a response to the challenges caused by air pollution. But most importantly, the technology can be used, owned and repaired by the communities it serves, even if they are not clear on the science behind it.

“When I was first testing this technology in different rural communities, I spent a lot of time explaining the technical aspects of it,” Hidalgo said. “At one point a woman stopped me and looked me in the eye and said, ‘Young man, I just want water.’ And that changed something inside of me, and I knew that I had to keep things simple.”

Hidalgo finds that getting out of the lab and into communities is vital for anyone seeking to produce environmental change. “We have to listen to what communities want and respond to their needs. That is where the winds of creation take us.” he said.

【推荐1】After analyzing 14.5 billion words used in daily news coverage in 2021, The Oxford English Dictionary has chosen “vax” as the Word of the Year.

Oxford Languages, the publisher of the dictionary, reported that “Vax”, the shortened term for “vaccine”, has injected itself into the bloodstream of the English language, and is a catchy and punchy word for 2021.

A contributing factor to its rise in 2021 — aside from its obvious relation to the COVID vaccine drive — is its adaptability, according to Fiona McPherson, a senior editor of The Oxford English Dictionary. It can mean either vaccine or vaccination as a noun and vaccinate as a verb, and it is the root of many other phrases such as “vax cards”, “vax passports”, and “getting vaxxied”. The word has also been changed into other inventive words like vaxxie, a selfie taken during or immediately before or after one’s vaccination. “It has made the most striking impact,” said Fiona MePherson.

Vax and vaxx are both accepted spellings, but the form with one x is more common. It was first recorded in English in 1799, while its derivatives (衍生词) “vaccinate” and “vaccination” both first appeared in 1800. All of these words ultimately came from the Latin word “vacca”, which means “cow”. According to The Oxford English Dictionary, this is due to English physician and scientist Edward Jenner’s pioneering work on vaccination against smallpox in the late 1790s and early 1800s.

“The word’s highest frequency in usage caught our attention first. Then we ran the analysis and a story started to emerge, revealing how ‘vax’ sat at the centre of our preoccupations this year,” Casper Grathwohl, the president of Oxford Languages, said in an interview. “No word better captures the atmosphere of the year than ‘vax’”.

【推荐2】Teens and younger children are reading a lot less for fun, according to a Common Sense Media report published Monday.

While the decline over the past decade is steep for teen readers, some data in the report shows that reading remains a big part of many children's lives, and indicates how parents might help encourage more reading.

According to the report's key findings, “the proportion (比例) who say they ‘hardly ever' read for fun has gone from 8 percent of 13-year-olds and 9 percent of 17-year-olds in 1984 to 22 percent and 27 percent respectively today.”

The report data shows that pleasure reading levels for younger children, ages 2—8, remain largely the same. But the amount of time spent in reading each session has declined, from closer to an hour or more to closer to a half hour per session.

When it comes to technology and reading, the report does little to counsel(建议) parents looking for data about the effect of e-readers and tablets on reading. It does point out that many parents still limit electronic reading, mainly due to concerns about increased screen time.

The most hopeful data shared in the report shows clear evidence of parents serving as examples and important guides for their kids when it comes to reading. Data shows that kids and teens who do read frequently, compared to infrequent readers, have more books in the home, more books purchased for them, parents who read more often, and parents who set aside time for them to read.

As the end of school approaches, and school vacation reading lists loom(逼近) ahead, parents might take this chance to step in and make their own summer reading list and plan a family trip to the library or bookstore.

【推荐3】Twenty-four trains, nine countries, 13, 500 miles. They are the numbers behind the heroic round trip one man took from Southampton in the UK to eastern China.

Roger Tyers, 37, used over $2, 500, which was almost twice more than the cost of a return flight, to travel to the Chinese port city Ningbo for academic research in May, 2019. The man spent a month on board 15 trains during the first leg of his round trip. It was the climate crisis, not a love of trains, that drove the sociologist to choose this complicated route over a return flight. He stopped flying when UN climate experts warned that the world had less than 11 years to avoid terrible levels of global warming. Tyers calculated that his train journey to China produced almost 90% less emissions than a return flight.

Tyers is not the only person to avoid air travel in response to climate change. Thousands of people worldwide have publicly promised to stop flying. Activist Maja Rosen launched the “Flight Free” campaign in Sweden with the goal of encouraging 100,000 people not to fly for one year. Although only around 14,000 people signed the online “#flightfree2019” pledge (保证), Rosen, who stopped flying 12 years ago, says that the campaign had made more people worry about the climate crisis and aware of harm of travel by air and motivated them to try new ways of travelling.

According to a survey released in May 2019 by Swedish Railways (SJ), 37% of respondents chose to travel by train instead of by plane where possible, compared to 20% at the start of 2018. An SJ spokesperson said: “Rail travel has been augmented due to the worries.” Domestic passenger numbers in July fell by 12% compared to the previous year, according to Swedavia, a company which operates Sweden’s 10 busiest Airports.

“The collective pledge helps fight the sense of hopelessness many people feel when it comes to tackling climate change”, Rosen said. “One of the problems is that people feel there’s no point in what you do as an individual. The campaign is about making people aware that if we do this together, we can actually bring changes.”

【推荐1】Experienced climbers of Mount Qomolangma are wondering if new proposed rules will solve the root causes of various deadly accident on the world’s tallest mountain. The proposals, if approved by the government of Nepal, would add steps to the permitting process for mountaineers as well as limitation to tourism companies to prevent the disaster in last May happening again.

Traditionally, Nepal has given climbing permits to anyone prepared to pay a fee of $11, 000. In 2019, the government approved a record high of 381 permits. With essential Sherpas and guides added, more than 800 people were trying to reach the peak during the short weather window. The overcrowding led to deadly delays in what is known as the “death zone”, the area above 8, 000 meters, and the death of eleven climbers eventually, many of them dying in late May after they were stuck there. It also raised suspicions that guide companies were urging inexperienced or incompetent mountaineers to attempt the climb.

To reduce the potential risks, among the suggested changes is a rule for those who want to climb the Mount to have a qualified doctor prepare a report on their medical history and general health. Another is that climbers provide evidence they have climbed another tall mountain in Nepal. They will also need to be accompanied by a trained Nepalese guide.

American mountaineer Ed Viesturs said the proposed changes will likely limit the amount of climbers able to plan journeys up the Mount, yet will not do enough to stop the “group think” mentality that led to the traffic jam in late May. He said climb leaders at base camp also needed to consider how to fix the problem. “I know several climbers who waited until later and had the mountain almost to themselves,” Viesturs said of the 2019 climbing season. “We really need to answer why so many people are there on the same day? How can you control it?”