【推荐1】The Underwater Photographer of the Year, which originated from 1965, is a yearly contest based in the United Kingdom. As you might expect, the focus is on photos taken underwater, whether in the ocean, in lakes or rivers, or even swimming pools.

The pictures are judged in several different categories. The contest in 2020 had over 5,500 entries from 70 different countries.

The grand prize winner was “Frozen Mobile Home” by French photographer Greg Lecoeur. The photo shows seals swimming around a small iceberg. To get the picture, Mr Lecoeur traveled to Antarctica in a small boat and spent time tracking the life around floating icebergs.

The photo “Last Dawn, Last Gasp” by Pasquale Vassallo of Italy won the award for Ocean Protection Photographer of the Year. Mr Vassallo said that he went diving early in the morning to take this picture of a tuna (金枪鱼) trapped as fishermen pulled their nets in.

Mr Vassallo also took “Octopus Training”, a picture that won in the category of “Behavior”. He says that when he came up after a dive, he noticed a soccer ball floating on the surface. When he went to check it out, he saw that there was an octopus hanging from the ball. Mr Vassallo says he doesn’t understand what the octopus was doing, but wonders if it was training for the World Cup.

Though Rooman Luc of Belgium didn’t win the “Portrait” category, his photo, titled “Angry Seahorse”, is quite striking. The close­up shot of a seahorse staring strictly into the camera was named runner­up (second place). He said he spent nearly an hour standing in knee­high water being bitten by mosquitos in order to get the picture.

The contest has many more amazing photos that can be viewed on the site, along with the stories behind them. There is even a book with all of the contents that can be downloaded for free.

【推荐3】While the temperature in Chicago on March 4, 2018 was 5 degrees, the water was even colder—2 degrees. That didn’t stop over 4, 800 people on North Avenue Beach jumping into Lake Michigan.

The Chicago Polar Plunge is a yearly event to raise money for Special Olympics Chicago. Each of the participants (参与者) collect at least $200 from friends and family members to get the chance to jump into the lake’s icy water. More than $1.5 million was raised for a great cause: Special Olympics Chicago and the over 7, 500 athletes it serves.

Special Olympics, a nonprofit organization, was founded in 1968. The group’s purpose is to provide athletic training and competition in 22 sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities (缺陷).

After some initial speeches, the first group of participants ran into the lake. Many of the participants were members of teams that dressed up in costumes (服装), including Minions and Waldo from the Where’s Waldo book series.

Chloe Krecun, 12, from Chicago, was shaking when she got out of the water. “I can’t feel my feet or fingers and my shoes are filled with water,” she said afterwards. But she would do it again to support the Special Olympic athletes.

As other participants headed towards the water to “take a plunge”, one of them shared why he participated in the event. “My cousin has benefited from the Special Olympics, so my family and I are here to support him by plunging,” said Brandon Marty.

Brunida Cotton, a special education teacher, was also paying attention to the Special Olympics as she prepared to plunge. “It gives the athletes confidence; they belong to a team and they enjoy being able to do things other kids do, ” Cotton said.

【推荐1】Italy's fashion capital is gray — not only because of the blocks of stone buildings，but also due to its often-gray sky, which traps pollution. But Milan now wants to change it.

The city has an ambitious plan to plant 3 million new trees by 2030 - a move that experts say could offer relief from the city's hot weather. Some projects have already contributed to environmental improvements. Architect Stefano Boeri’s Vertical Forest residential (居民的) tower, completed in 2014, aims to improve not only air quality but the quality of life for Milan residents. Boeri created a small island of greenery in the heart of Milan, filling every balcony with plants that absorb carbon dioxide.

“I think forestation is one of the best chances that we have today. It is one of the most effective ways we have to fight climate change, because everyone can plant trees, Boeri said.

Damiano Di Simine, a member of the environmental group Legambiente , said the green Milan project will lower temperatures in a city where the nighttime temperature can be 6 degrees Celsius higher than in the surrounding area. City show that Milan experiences 35 hot nights a year. Because the city lies close to the Alps, Milin gets very little wind to lower the city's temperatures. "Planting trees will help this,"   Di said.

The Vertical Forest has attracted more than 20 species of birds. And the shade provided by the 800 trees and 15,000 plants means that residents rarely have to put on air conditioning, even in hot summers. The Vertical Forest's total greenery- can absorb 30 metric tons of carbon dioxide every year. The presence of green trees has a very important effect on people's health and psychological state, as has already been proved.

【推荐2】Chaudhary weaves (编织) together lengths of rope and grass collected from the nearby riverbank in her village, skillfully shaping the materials into a gift box while instructing a group of women to follow suit.

The ropes being used were once the lifeline for mountain climbers tackling Nepal’s mountains and were then cast away. Diverse measures to remove such discarded materials have rocketed since 2019, when the government launched Clean Mountain Campaign.Around 140,000 tons of waste were collected on Mt. Everest alone, which were handled accordingly, either securely buried or recycled.

Some waste is now finding fresh life, transformed by skilled hands like Chaudhary’s into items to sell, thanks to an initiative led by Acharya, an owner of a waste processing business and an advocate for sustainable waste management. She has been working with the cleaning campaign, aiming at mountains like Mt. Everest.

“Metal waste goes through the recycling process, but we weren’t capable of recycling these ropes and cooking gas cans,” Acharya says. It didn’t occur to her that the waste which couldn’t be recycled could be reused until she met Rai at an art exhibition and a solution emerged.

Rai, a businessman dealing in craftworks, helped connect Acharya with Chaudhary and her team of craftswomen in hopes of unlocking the economic value of the mountain waste. With flexible hours, the project gives the craftswomen an opportunity to earn money even as they maintain their household responsibilities.

“While this seems insignificant compared to waste in the mountains, it’s a start. We can’t supply sufficient raw material with waste sorting and cleaning processes taking plenty of time and money,” Acharya says, desperate to expand the program to involve more women and treat more waste. But progress has been slow. “We need investment to mechanize the cleaning and processing of waste in the initial phase to provide the crafting team with enough materials to meet their demand,” she adds.