【推荐1】The UK government has promised to cut the country's greenhouse gas emissions (排放) by at least 68% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels, marking a significant increase from its current goal.

The new goal comes nine days ahead of the UK hosting a“climate action summit (峰会)”to encourage other countries to declare tougher climate plans, known as Nationally Deter-mined Contributions (NDCs), under the Paris Agreement. Current NDCs will raise temperatures by 3℃. And stronger plans are needed to meet the Paris deal's goal of limiting global warming to 1. 5℃.

"This is the most significant NDCs announcement so far from any major economy," said Richard Black at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a UK-based think tank, in a statement.

The new goal is exactly in line with what the government's official climate adviser, the Climate Change Committee, called for in a letter published earlier today. The group said 68% would be "“world-leading" compared with existing plans of governments.

The UK had previously promised a 53% cut in emissions as part of a joint (共同的) effort with the rest of the European Union, but the UK is determined to produce a new NDCs. Separately, the UK had also promised a 57% cut by 2032 domestically.

It is clear that far more action will be needed if the UK is to meet the new goal. The government's own analysis last week showed that recent major methods, such as banning newoil-fueled car sales by 2030，had failed to do enough to put the UK on track even for the old goal of 57% by 2032. The new goal obviously widens that gap further.

【推荐2】There are many ecosystems that are truly suffering from degradation (退化). The solution is that they can be restored by re-introducing several animal species. The United Nations funded a study that shows that if you introduce 20 specific large mammals you can successfully restore a lot of the planet.

Some roles that species play in the environment are critical, so the loss of any of these can harm the world. So that means that on the other hand, re-introducing a species can produce positive results. When a few wolves were re-introduced to Yellowstone Park is one of the most cited examples. There is no doubt that the re-introduced wolves did restore the ecosystem.

Dr. Carly, a scientist, along with her team, was able to identify 13 herbivores (食草动物) and 7 predators (食肉动物) that if re-introduced, could help restore a lot of what we’ve destroyed in nature. One species can benefit its environment in a dramatic way, helping create more soil insects and worms.

The team compared environments from 500 years ago to conditions of modern environments to know how travel and the industrial revolution have influenced the planet. And at last they figured out that only 16% of the world still has undamaged wild mammal communities and just 6% looks similar to what it looked like pre-1500.

They suggested that a 54% expansion in territory home to undamaged mammal communities can easily be accomplished, especially in South America and northern areas of Africa. In Europe, re-introducing beaver, bison, wolf, and reindeer could really make a dramatic impact. However, just wolves and wild horses could make a difference to Asia.

“Our recommendations may not be suitable everywhere in the world — local assessments will judge if hunting pressures or the lack of adequate preys mean other issues need addressing before reintroducing them. However, our findings show there are huge areas of the world that could be suitable for large mammal restoration if other factors are managed,” said Dr. Carly.

【推荐3】The area around Taal Lake on Luzon Island in the Philippines is known for its natural beauty. Tourism is popular there as travelers go there to see the scenery that surrounds Taal Volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in the country. It was quiet for years until January 12,2020 when the volcano erupted. Since then, the cities surrounding the volcano have been covered with ash and many people are forced to leave home.

But the ash didn’t stop the residents of Binan, a city that is 35 km south of Manilla, from finding a way to help their neighbors in the towns that suffered the most from Taal. Binan Mayor Walfredo Dimaguila ordered the city residents to collect the ash and to put it in sacks (麻袋) to be sent to the state-owned factory that can produce 5,000 bricks (砖) a day to turn it into bricks to use for rebuilding damaged communities.

“What we plan is to turn them into hollow blocks and bricks and sell them to interested companies,” Dimaguila said. But he noted, the money would be donated to the people directly affected by the volcano. “When Batangas (the region where Taal is located) is in recovery, the bricks can not only be used to build schools, community halls and livelihood centers but also help deal with ash pollution for the earth,” Dimaguila said. “The misfortune of our neighbors in Batangas is there. Let’s transform this into opportunity.”

The Philippines, located in the Pacific “Ring of Fire: zone of fire” and part of the typhoon belt, is a country that is known for natural disasters like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and major storms. But the Filipino people show their strong will and community spirit.

【推荐1】Two days after eight e-sports games were officially announced to be included in the 19th Asian Games, China’s Edward Gaming (EDG) team, which is made up of 5 members, (Meiko, Jiejie, Scout, Viper and Flandre) earned its first League of Legends World Championship title with a 3-2 win over South Korea in a tough battle on November 7th, immediately drawing cheers from people around the country. The topic “EDG wins” had been viewed more than 2.63 billion times as of press on Sina Weibo, ranking the top trending topic for a long time.

With the popularity of digital technology, new forms of cultural exchanges have been appearing, of which e-sports are the most popular. Unlike texts and videos, e-sports go beyond the barriers of language and are understandable around the world. E-sports mostly appeal to those in their early 20s, as shown by the carnival(狂欢) of college students. That in turn makes them a good bridge of communication between young Chinese people and their counterparts(对应的人) around the world.

More importantly, the e-sports industry is sustainable in spreading Chinese culture, as the large audiences mean huge commercial potential. In 2020 alone, the sales revenue of the domestic e-sports industry exceeded 278.69 billion yuan, and involved 280,000 enterprises, which in turn created over 10 million jobs. According to a media report, nearly 95 percent of graduates from e-sports majors at the Communication University of China in Nanjing, succeeded in finding a job after graduation this year, with 62 percent of them devoted to the e-sports industry, including video game clubs, game design companies and game competition operation companies.

The inclusion of e-sports in major sporting events has been a much-discussed topic in recent years. With more Chinese gaming clubs and teams emerging, the industry is expected to further prosper and continue spreading Chinese culture to the world.

【推荐2】Rats and other animals need to be highly tuned to social signals from others so that can identify friends to cooperate with and enemies to avoid. To find out if this extends to non-living beings, Loleh Quinn at the University of California, San Diego, and her colleagues tested whether rats can detect social signals form robotic rats.

They housed eight adult rats with two types of robotic rat—one social and one asocial (不爱社交的)—for 5 our days. The robotic rats resembled a bigger version of a computer mouse with wheels to move around and colorful markings.

During the experiment, the social robot rat followed the living rats around, played with the same toys, and opened caged doors to let trapped rats escape. Meanwhile, the asocial robot simply moved forwards and backwards and side to side.

Next, the researchers trapped the robots in cages and gave the rats the opportunity to release them by pressing a button. Across 18 trials each, the living rats were 52 percent more likely on average to set the social robot free than the asocial one. This suggests that the rats perceived the social robot as a genuine social being. They may have bonded more with the social robot, because it displayed behaviours like communal (共同的) exploring and playing. “This could lead to the rats better remembering having freed it earlier, and wanting the robot to return the favour when they get trapped,” says Quinn.

The readiness of the rats to befriend the social robot was surprising given its plain design. The finding shows how sensitive rats are to social signals, even when they come from basic robots. Similarly, children tend to treat robots as if they are fellow beings, even when they display simple social signals. “We humans seem to be fascinated by robots, and it turns out other animals are too,” says Wiles.