【推荐2】The world’s population cast aside 49 million tons of electronic waste, known as e-waste. It has been calculated that this number will grow to more than 60 million tons by 2023.

What is causing the upsurge (激增) in e-waste? Technology is becoming more and more widespread, covering almost every aspect of our lives. Meanwhile, the lifespan of devices is getting shorter—many products will be thrown away once their batteries die, to be replaced by new devices. Companies intentionally plan the obsolescence (过时) of their goods by updating the design or software and discontinuing support for older models, so that now it is usually cheaper and easier to buy a new product than to repair an old one. Since prices are falling, electronic devices are in demand around the world.

As more people buy electronic equipment, manufacturers (制造商) are beginning to face shortages of the raw materials needed to make their products, so recycling and reusing materials from discarded (扔掉的) products and waste makes economic and environmental sense.

Recycling e-waste is practiced both formally and informally. Proper or formal e-waste recycling usually involves taking apart the electronics, sorting through the materials and cleaning them. Companies must obey health and safety rules to reduce the health and environmental hazards of handling e-waste by using pollution-control technologies. All this makes formal recycling expensive. Informal recycling is typically unlicensed and uncontrolled. At informal recycling workshops, men and women recover valuable materials by burning devices to melt away non-valuable materials. Usually they do not wear protective equipment and lack any awareness that they are handling dangerous materials.

With the amount of e-waste growing around the world, recycling alone will not be enough to solve the problem. In order to reduce e-waste, manufacturers need to design electronics that are safer, and more durable (耐用的), repairable and recyclable. The best thing you can do is resist buying a new device until you really need it. Try to get your old product repaired if possible and, if it can’t be fixed, resell or recycle it responsibly. Before you recycle your device, put any broken parts in separate containers and close these tightly to prevent chemicals from leaking. Wear latex (乳胶) gloves and a mask if you’re handling something that’s broken.

【推荐3】Blue Planet Ⅱ’s latest episode (情节) is about how plastic is having a terrible effect on the ocean and slowly poisoning our sea creatures. Researchers have also found that sea creatures living in the deepest place on Earth, Mariana Trench, have plastic in their stomachs. Indeed, oceans are drowning in plastic.

Though it seems that the world couldn’t possibly function without plastic, plastic is a very recent invention. The first plastic bags were introduced in the 1950s, the same decade (十年) that plastic packaging began gaining popularity in the United States. This growth has happened so fast that science is still catching up with the change. Plastic pollution research, for example, is still a very early science.

We put all the plastic into the environment, but we still don’t really know what the outcomes are going to be. What we do know, though, is disturbing. Ocean plastic is expected to kill millions of sea animals every year. Hundreds of species, including endangered ones, are known to have been affected by it. One in three leatherback turtles, which often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, have been found with plastic in their stomach. Ninety percent of seabirds are now eating plastic regularly. By 2050, that figure is expected to rise to 100 percent.

And it’s not just wildlife that is threatened by the plastic in our seas. Humans are consuming plastic through the seafood we eat. I could understand why some people see ocean plastic as a disaster, worth mentioning in the same breath as climate change. But ocean plastic is not as complicated (复杂的) as climate change. There are no ocean waste deniers (否认者), at least so far. To do something about it, we don’t have to remake our planet energy system.

This is not a problem where we don’t know what the solution is. We know how to pick up garbage. Anyone can do it. We know how to deal with it. We know how to recycle. We can all start by thinking twice before we use single-use plastic products. Things that may seem ordinary, like using a reusable bottle or a reusable bag — when taken collectively, these choices really do make a difference.

【推荐1】Children are now more likely to want to work in social media or gaming than traditiona Careers. According to a new survey, many from seven to 11 -year-olds are looking at modern technology when they think about future jobs, rather than professions such as police officer or doctor.

The survey involved 13.000 UK primary school children. They were asked to draw pictures of the job they wanted to do when they grow up and then tell the reasons. It concluded that children's career aspirations (志向)are often based on factors such as gender stereotypes (性别角色定型)or what they've seen in the media, TV and film.

"For more and more children and young people, online celebrities and You Tube gaming videobloggers' have taken the place of TV and movie stars, "the report said. "It could be argued that this is due to the growing fame and attraction of YouTube and video blogging stars, who are especially popular among younger audiences. Also, this may also speak to children's present worlds.

Many from seven to 11-year-olds will spend their time gaming and perhaps at the same time watching celebrity gaming bloggers instructing them how to do it."

The survey found that 5% of children wanted to be in the police, with the same percentage on becoming doctors. A gender breakdown shows the top job choice for girls was teacher (19%). follow ed by vet (11%) and sportsman (9%) and police (8%).

This highlights the pressing need for closer ties between employers and schools, to ensure that all children can have role models in a wide range of fields to help them develop an awareness of career choices at an early age. "This is vital to ensure that all children—regardless of gender and backgrounds—can fulfill their full potential. "

【推荐2】In an ideal world, we would be able to devote as much time to sports as we feel we need. But in reality, with growing demands in both work and family, we can only jump at the chance for our physical exercise when we can. Making the most of that time to practice Yin Yang yoga, which mixes the dynamic and slow-paced elements of yoga, helps keep you active and relaxed.

Yin and Yang are the Taoist concepts representing a balance of opposite forces which are also interconnected. Yin is inactive, cooling, and negative, associated with the female force. Yang is   active, warming, and positive, associated with action and movement. They are complementary to one another, as one cannot exist without the other.

Yin Yang yoga is a combination (结合体) of high-energy movement which builds energy, increases strength and promotes stamina (耐力), followed by the more restful practice of Yin to give us a deeper stretch (拉伸) and calm the nervous system.

If you have a busy and active life you may feel more in Yang, so taking some cooler, slower Yin yoga practice into your routine may help you feel calmer and more balanced.

If you are practicing for an hour, divide the time in half. Warm up with sun salutations (拜日式瑜伽), continue into a dynamic flow and then move on to some standing postures. After half an hour your heart will be pumping, muscles tighten up and you are hopefully feeling energetic, but ready for a rest. Then pick five Yin postures to hold for 3-5 minutes, or even longer if you are enjoying them!

As ever with yoga, if you are a beginner or have health issues, always attend a class with a trained instructor first to guide you safely through the yoga practice and avoid injury.

【推荐3】In the mountainous southern Peru, Quechua women sit on the ground, chatting as they twist dry grass and shape it into long plaits (辫子). Every year for the past six centuries, each family contributes about 210 feet of plaints to build Q’eswachaka, the only surviving rope bridge that once connected the Inca Empire.

At approximately 100 feet, Q’eswachaka connects two mountains. It is rebuilt yearly by four Quechua communities who come together every second week of June to spend three days building the bridge and a fourth celebrating its completion. Before the work begins, one person asks for protection and permission. To people who gather to rebuild this structure, the bridge is a god. To build the new Q’eswachaka, one of the builders ties a rope around his waist and makes his way across last year’s structure. Once this connection is secure, the old bridge is cut loose. Then builders transport supplies and other ropes. They ride on the bridge’s cable and make its floor by hand. The skills for the bridge are communicated not through written instructions, but through apprenticeship (学徒期).

Nowadays, the bridge faces many challenges. Policy adjustments in the teaching field have caused the sharp fall in the number of Quechua speakers. Only 40% of the younger generation speaks the language of their ancestors. Since the ancestral language is necessary for the ceremony associated with Q’eswachaka, the decrease in the number of speakers will make it difficult for the tradition to continue. Besides, now Q’eswachaka is made of only one kind of plant, but it used to include other plant materials that have disappeared, which made it strong enough to serve the needs of the communities. These days, a nearby steel bridge satisfies the transport of cars and supplies, and Q’eswachaka’s construction is kept alive by tourism rather than function.