【推荐1】Whales are celebrated for being the largest and most intelligent creatures in the ocean. Now, biologists have discovered that they also capture (捕获) tons of carbon from the atmosphere, a service with an economic value of US $1 trillion for all the great whales, according to a new study published by the International Monetary Fund. The study points out that protecting whales, normally viewed as a human good, also has a monetary motivation.

“The carbon capture potential of whales is truly incredible,” said the report. “Our conservative estimates put the value of the average great whale at more than US $2 million, and easily over US $1 trillion for the current stock of great whales.” Whales absorb carbon in their bodies during their long lives, some of which stretch to 200 years. When they die, they sink to the bottom of the ocean, taking the carbon with them. According to the study, each great whale traps around 33 tons of carbon dioxide on average. A tree during the same period only contributes to 3 percent of the carbon absorption of the whale.

Whale populations are today a smidgen of what they once were. It is estimated that there are slightly more than 1.3 million whales in the ocean, a quarter of their pre-whaling number of 4 to 5 million. Some species in particular, like the blue whale, are only 3 percent of what they used to be. “We can create financial methods to promote the restoration of the world’s whale populations,” said the report’s authors. “Rewards could help those who pay significant costs as a result of whale protection.”

With the Paris Agreement coming into force next year and the effects of climate change ever more widespread, we must prevent the harm to whales. Researchers analyzed that unless new methods are put forward, it would take over 30 years to double the number of current whales, and several generations to return them to their pre-whaling numbers. “Society and our own survival can’t afford to wait this long,” they said.

【推荐3】Plastic garbage is one of the world’s biggest environmental headaches. Some plastic items like water bottles and shopping bags can last for hundreds of years after being thrown away, with all this plastic rubbish disrupting ecosystems and disturbing the habitats of wildlife.

There have been several projects to help control plastic production, but researchers may have found a natural way to get rid of the products.

Waxworms, which are confusingly classed as caterpillars(毛毛虫), are the honey bee’s worst nightmares, as they lay their eggs inside their hives(蜂巢). Amateur beekeeper Federica Bertocchini decided to use plastic bags to protect the hives, however she was dumbfounded when she discover the insects were able to eat holes into the sides of the bags.

The beekeeper’s surprising findings sparked a study. Bertocchini, from the Spanish National Research Council, teamed up with scientists from Cambridge University to perform some tests.

When the team put about one hundred waxworms into a standard UK plastic shopping bag, they began feasting. After about 12 hours they’d eaten roughly 92 milligrams of the bag.

In all, this isn’t huge amount, but it’s a lot faster than other natural ways. Last year, researchers found a specific type of bacteria( 细 菌 )could eat plastic, but at a rate of 0. 13 milligrams a day, making this is a massive jump in the search for a natural way to dispose(处理) plastic.

The team is still not 100 percent sure how the worms do what they do, but they’re heralding this as an important first step to get rid of pollution.

Luckily, while that team works out the answer, plastic manufacturers have found a way to make their products much more environmentally friendly. There are three types of environmentally friendly plastics: bioplastics(which are made from corn starch), biodegradable plastics(which break down quicker) and recycled plastic.

Hopefully with these new products, we will get closer to a society that is less harmful to the environment.

【推荐1】We all know the grandmotherly wisdom of serving chicken soup to someone with a cold, but does this particular meal really have the same effect as the medicine? Could the chicken soup save people a trip to the local hospital?

You won’t find studies in humans that prove chicken soup can fight off a cold, but there’s enough evidence to make it worth trying. One study published in the medical journal Chest suggested that chicken soup might have anti-inflammatory (消炎的) effects, which could possibly cure symptoms of upper respiratory (上呼吸道) tract infections (感染). Researchers studied the movement of neutrophils-a type of white blood cell-when combined with soup. They found that the movement of neutrophils was reduced in the presence of soup, suggesting a possible anti-inflammatory effect that could at least reduce cold symptoms (症状).

“There are substances in chicken soup that could affect cells in the body, which could potentially have medicinal effects, but whether they are good or bad for you, we didn’t test,” said study author Dr. Stephen Rennard, Larson Professor of Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Because the study was done in a laboratory and not in humans, Rennard cautions that it remains to be seen whether one would even absorb the substances (物质) that appeared to have beneficial effects in the lab. The researchers did not actually separate specific substances in soup that might be beneficial, “nor did we show what it would do in a living person, let alone a living person with a cold,” he added.

“Chicken soup might be useful, but lots of more research is required,“ Rennard said. “There is some possibility that there is a medicinal basis to it, but ‘some,’ ‘suggests’ and ‘possible’ are the key words.”

【推荐2】Zhang Fan, 36, a movie visual effects designer who returned to Beijing from New Zealand for work last year, was surprised by the improvement to the city’s air quality. “I remember the smell in the air and the frequent smoggy days before I left in 2013, after getting a job offer from a film company in New Zealand, ” he said. Last year, a Chinese company offered Zhang a more promising position, so he returned, saying that he could find more opportunities in his line of work in Beijing than elsewhere. In addition to rapid economic development in the Chinese capital, he said the most impressive change is the local air quality. “People discussed air pollution a lot when I was in Beijing previously. Now, it seems that the topic has disappeared completely, as every day is good in terms of air quality,” Zhang said. “The sky in Beijing these days is so clear. ”

On Jan. 4, the municipal authorities in Beijing announced a comprehensive success in improving air quality, with the city’s annual average concentration of PM2. 5 in the air, falling to 33 micrograms per cubic meter, and ozone (臭氧) concentration dropping to 149 mcg per cu m last year.

Yu Jianhua, spokesman for the Beijing Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau, said at a news conference, “This is a milestone for Beijing’s hard work in fighting air pollution and also means that the city has met its air quality target outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan(2021-25) ahead of schedule. Beijing has demonstrated to the world over the past 20 years that a mega city with a rapidly increasing GDP, vehicle count, population and energy consumption can move forward to cut air pollution effectively. The PM2.5 reduction over the past few years has surpassed that of developed countries during the same period.

According to the Bureau, the city’s average concentration of PM2.5 dropped by 63 percent last year from 2013, an average annual reduction of about 8 percent. The city experienced 288 days of good air quality last year—up from 112 days in 2013—and just eight days of heavy air pollution. This achievement is clear to see and exciting, but it has not been easy work.

【推荐3】A magic number is mentioned again and again during the climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, 1.5℃.

It is a big number now but it wasn’t a major part of negotiations just seven years ago. The figure was put in near the end of negotiations into the historic 2015 Paris agreement because some small island nations insisted that it was a matter of survival for them. It is mentioned only once in the agreement, in which the primary goal is to limit warming to 2℃ above pre industrial levels. 1.5℃ is just a political suggestion.

“The 2℃ was chosen because it is the warmest temperature that the planet has ever seen in the last million years. To reach the goal, scientists say the world needs to cut its current greenhouse gas emissions (排放) by about half as of 2030,” said climate scientist Corinne LeQuere, who helped write the Paris agreement, “And the number is not another 1.5℃ from now. Instead, it stands for the international goal of trying to limit future warming to 1.5℃ since pre-industrial times. It’s actually only 0.4℃from now because the world has warmed 1.1℃ since pre-industrial times.”

After the Paris agreement threw in the 1.5 figure, the United Nations tasked the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to study what difference there would be on Earth between 1.5℃ of warming and 2℃ of warming. The 2018 IPCC report found that compared to 2℃, stopping warming at 1.5℃ would mean: 1) Seas would rise nearly 0.1 meters less; 2) Half as many animals and plants would die out; 3) There would be far fewer heat waves, downpours and droughts; 4) Half as many people would suffer from diseases, heat and lack of water.

“And we have more scientific evidence than ever that it gets worse and worse as we exceed (超过) beyond 1.5.” said Corinne LeQuere.

“It’s technically possible to limit global warming to 1.5℃. but I think it is close to politically impossible in the real world.” said Columbia University climate scientist Adam Sobel.

“As hard as it is. negotiators can’t give up on 1.5,” said Elizabeth May, one of the climate activists who demand that the world leaders keep 1.5℃ alive. “If we don’t hang on to 1.5 while it is technically possible, we are almost criminals.”