【推荐1】After the sudden loss of her 5-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, Natalia Spencer felt she needed to do something to honor the little girl. That strong wish inspired Spencer to start what she calls a “Walk of Love”, a 6,000-mile trek (长途徒步旅行）along the British coastline.

“Elizabeth particularly loved the beach and the sea and we visited the seaside a lot. After she passed away, I went to the seaside and it was the first time I had felt some comfort,” Spencer said. “I knew this was what I had to do. It was something I could do and it would somehow make life more bearable.”

On Valentine's Day, Spencer began walking Durdle Door in Dorset, England, the last beach she took Elizabeth to before she became ill. So far, Spencer has journeyed about 1,500 miles, walking through Dorset, Cornwall, Devon and the entire coast of Wales. Every day, except Saturday, Spencer walks 20 miles. Often locals join her; many times they share stories about losing their own children.

Everything changed for Spencer on Nov. 22, 2015. Spencer noticed Elizabeth was ill with what she thought—was a chest infection. But the girl’s health worsened rapidly. Doctors diagnosed her with a life-threatening immune condition where the immune cells damage tissue and organ. This caused Elizabeth's organs to shut down and stopped the blood supply to her arms and legs. She was moved to Bristol Children's Hospital where she spent 18 days on life support before passing away on Dec. 10.

After Elizabeth died, Spencer struggled. She stayed with friends because it felt too hard to live in a house with the memories of Elizabeth. In January, a friend encouraged Spencer to go for a walk and the two ended up at the Gower Peninsula in Wales. That's when she realized she wanted to walk along the coast for her daughter.

While walking provides Spencer with time to grieve (感到悲痛)，she’s also using the trip to raise￡100,000(about $144,000) for the Bristol .Children’s Hospital. She admired the doctors and nurses and wanted to raise money to allow another family access to treatment.

Spencer expects to complete her walk next spring. She’d love to finish on Valentine’s Day, but doesn’t know if that is realistic.

【推荐2】In 2020, Jamie Whitmore was considered one of the most successful athletes in America.She was a six-time USA champion for XTERRA racing, a two-time European tour champion, and held a world title.

Everything changed during a triathlon that seemed like so many others she had conquered. As a professional athlete, Jamie Whitmore was used to suffering, but she never imagined the pain in her leg could be a deadly cancer.

After a friend recommended she go to the University of California, San Francisco, Whitmore took his advice and was quickly admitted. What doctors found during surgery shocked them all: Whitmore had spindle cell sarcoma, a soft tissue tumor that can start in the bone, and the tumor was wrapped around her sciatic nerve and touching several vital organs. They couldn’t cut it out for fear of bursting the tumor.

When she heard the diagnosis for the first time, Whitmore said time stood still. “I couldn’t breathe. They were talking about treatment and I just started crying and saying ‘I don’t want to die.’” Finally, the doctors enlisted the help of several specialists to remove the tumor. Whitmore developed sepsis(败血症) from the surgery and endured a grueling two-month recovery. When she began to feel sick again, Whitmore was certain her cancer was back. Instead, doctors gave her unexpected news: She was pregnant—with twins. “That was a whole other freak-out,” Whitmore recalls.

Jamie Whitmore isn’t used to slowing down. She has never met a challenge she couldn’t overcome, whether it was an XTERRA mountain bike race—or cancer. Today, Whitmore is a mother of two sons and cancer-free. She’s competing again, and has won a gold medal in the Paralympics, nine world titles, and has set two world records. She travels as a motivational speaker when she’s not spending time with her sons. Whitmore has some words of advice for others with limitations: “Never let anyone tell you what you can and cannot do. Some doctors told me I would never ride anything more than a stationary bike. And yet I rode my mountain bike 104 miles climbing from 9,000 feet to 14,000 feet. People with two good legs have fallen short of that task! You just can’t give up.”

【推荐1】Eradajere Oleita thinks she may have a partial solution to two of her country’s problems: garbage and poverty. It’s called the Chip Bag Project. The 26-year-old student and environmentalist from Detroit is asking a favor of local snack lovers: Rather than throw your empty chip bags into the trash, donate them so she can turn them into sleeping bags for the homeless.

Chip eaters drop off their empty bags from Doritos, Lays, and other favorites at two locations in Detroit: a print shop and a clothing store, where Oleita and her volunteer helpers collect them. After they clean the chip bags in soapy hot water, they slice them open, lay them flat, and iron them together. They use padding (衬垫) and liners (衬里) from old coats to line the insides.

It takes about four hours to sew a sleeping bag, and each takes around 150 to 300 chip bags, depending on whether they’re single-serve or family size. The result is a sleeping bag that is “waterproof, lightweight, and easy to carry around”, Oleita told the Detroit News.

Since its start in 2020, the Chip Bag Project has collected more than 800,000 chip bags and, as of last December, created 110 sleeping bags. Sure, it would be simpler to raise the money to buy new sleeping bags. But that’s only half the goal for Oleita—whose family moved to the United States from Nigeria a decade ago with the hope of attaining a better life —and her fellow volunteers. “We are devoted to making an impact not only socially, but environmentally,” she says.

And, of course, there’s the symbolism of rescuing bags that would otherwise land in the trash and using them to help the homeless. It’s a powerful reminder that environmental problem and poverty often go hand in hand. As Oleita told hourdetroit. com: “I think it’s time to show connections between all of these issues.”

【推荐3】Young Chinese are increasingly making their voices heard and influencing world opinion as they take on more important roles in international organizations and global projects, at a ceremony in Beijing in April, singer and actor Karry Wang was made the national goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme by Eric Solheim, the organization’s executive director.

“The youth are no longer merely onlookers when it comes to environmental action, nor should they be. I will spare no effort in doing everything I can to take care of our Earth, and I invite everyone to join me in generating a wave of positive action,” Wang said in his speech after the appointment. In 2016, Wang widely shared the online Wild for Life campaign, which gained 400 million views. A year later, he publicly spoke out on the urgent need to protect endangered wildlife, calling the animals the “superstars of the planet.”

Beyond drawing attention to wildlife, he called on his followers to pledge to reduce their electronic waste, using the hashtag BEATPOLLUTION to highlight the issue. Within 24 hours, his post was retweeted 1.67 million times and more than 400,000 followers had pledged to reduce waste.

“Our actions will soon be the leverage to change the world,” Wang says, calling on the younger generation in China and around the world to raise their awareness of environmental issues.

Erik Solheim, head of UN Environment says, “It is inspiring to see the strong and determined voice of Chinese youth when it comes to the environment. When young people set their minds to change, it is incredible to see the great things that can be accomplished, We are very excited to work with Wang Junkai to create even more awareness about the environmental problems and solutions for these times.”

According to the UN report Youth in the Core of Sustainability in Asia Pacific published in March 2016, young people’s participation will help achieve the sustainable development goals in the Asia-Pacific region set for 2030.

Besides Wang, other UNEP goodwill ambassadors include actress Li Bingbing, actor Li Chen, Ellie Goulding, Bertrand Piccard and celebrities from all walks of life both from China and abroad.

【推荐1】A farmer grew some vegetables in his garden. One day his wife was ill and he had no money. He had to sell some cabbages and carrots in the market. The next morning he took two baskets of vegetables to town, but it was raining hard that afternoon and there were few people in the street. When his vegetables were sold out, it was dark. He bought some medicine and hurried to his village.

On his way home he saw a person lying on the ground. He placed his baskets on the ground and was going to help the person to get up. At that time he found it was a dead man and there was much blood on his body. He was so afraid that he ran away quickly, without taking his baskets.

The next afternoon the farmer was sent to the police station. Having shown the baskets, an officer asked, “Are these yours?” “Yes, sir.” The farmer answered timidly. “Have you killed the man?” “No, no, sir.” The farmer said in a hurry. “When did you see the dead man?” “About seven last evening.” “Did you see who killed the man?” “No, sir.” The officer brought out a knife and asked, “Have you seen it yet?” “No, sir.” The officer became angry and told the policemen to beat him up and sent him into prison.

That evening the officer went on trying. Pointing to the knife, he asked again, “Have you seen it yet?” “Yes, sir.” The officer was happy and asked, “When and where?” “I saw it here this afternoon, sir.”

【推荐2】Maybe no one forgets their first bicycle and there is no exception to a woman like me. Mine was a Schwinn coaster bike, second-hand, painted a distinctive red and yellow by its previous owner. I remember riding too fast down the big hill on Springfield Avenue. I knew at once that the world was mine to explore.

A couple of years later, when I was 11, my grandmother visited from England, bringing me a bike. It was a shiny dark green, with three gears and hand brakes. As the owner of the first English bicycle my neighbors had ever seen, I was, for a time, almost a star.

Unlike my coaster bike, it was light and responsive — riding it felt like flying. I rode it past big stone houses with their huge yards and trees. I rode past brick row houses. I rode alone and with groups of friends.

That beloved bike went with me to college, carrying me to the library and to classes. Beyond transport, it was often a prop (道具): pushing it along as I walked the college paths made me feel less self-conscious. Somehow, conversation flowed more easily on either side of a bike. After college, I lived abroad for a time. Returning from London, I discovered to my horror that my parents had sold my bike. They didn’t even know who had bought it.

For years after that, I didn’t have a bicycle that was specifically mine. Teaching in a New England prep school, I simply rode whatever bikes its graduates had left behind. I rode around the little town on bikes which slipped in and out of gear, with brakes that often failed.

I did not take any of those bikes with me when I moved south to the coastal town where I now live. But after a while I missed riding. Finally, on a fall day, I bought a bicycle. Called a comfort bike, it has wider tires than my old bike and seven gears. But it is green — a brighter green bike.

Still, I was a bit apprehensive. I was out of practice and a lot older. I brought the bike home and put on my helmet — I’d never worn a helmet before. Then I got on the bike. After a tentative, slightly shaky start, I fell exactly as I was on that long-ago day on Springfield Avenue: free. Soon I was riding along. It seemed that everyone I passed smiled and waved or call out, great day for a bike ride! And I knew they all remembered their first bike and how it had set them free. I wanted to call back to them, “I still can!”