A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of teaching a young couple to dive (潜水) in Thailand on one of my favorite reefs (礁). The weather conditions were perfect, with mild currents and excellent sight of the beautiful ocean and the bright, vivid corals. Even with their masks on, I could see the smiles on my students’ faces.

The dive couldn’t have gone better. However, things changed as we made our way back to the boat. As we swam back along the reef, I noticed the current (水流) changing. As it did, huge quantities of trash and plastic began to flood the area. I saw small reef fish swimming amongst the straws, plastic bags and other bits of rubbish. I noticed that some of the fish were pecking away (啄) at the plastic. By the time we got back onboard the boat, there were bits of plastic floating all around us. It looked more like a trash site than the ocean.

When I got home, the first thing I did was to go online and research plastic pollution in the ocean. I was surprised to find out that over the past decade, divers and beach lovers have seen a lot of changes in the oceans. Even very remote locations were suddenly filled with plastic and other chemicals. Plastics were entering our oceans at an alarming rate—up to 12 million tons each year. This huge amount of plastic was wreaking havoc (破坏) not only on the environment, but also on the marine animals that lived in the ocean, such as sea turtles and sea birds. Some of them were sadly mistaking the pieces of plastic for food. Pollution has brought our oceans to the point of disaster, and unless we make a great change, then our oceans and all of its living things, will be at risk.

Since that unforgettable plastic-polluted dive, I have become an ocean supporter and spend my days trying to get the message out there about just how harmful ocean pollution is, not only to marine life, but also to mankind.

Then the idea came to me: I could appeal to my fellow divers to take action.

I decided to take it a step further to try and stop those companies producing single-use plastics.

4 . Online secondhand store thredUP has shown its tenth yearly Resale Report, which shows that the secondhand clothing industry is growing rapidly in the United States, as well as around the world. The secondhand market in the US is expected to more than double by 2026.

When choosing what to buy, people are increasingly experienced in what can be resold. More than one-fifth of Generation Z shoppers say they’ll pay more for the clothes that they know they can resell, and more than half of them resold clothes last year.

This is a much healthier opinion than storing out-of-style or ill-fitting clothes in a closet (衣柜). As resale becomes easier thanks to mobile technology and online stores, increasing numbers of customers hope to turnover their closets. This helps the industry and keeps the market full of fresh finds, bringing people back for more.

Buying or selling things secondhand helps to reduce people’s worry about the environment. As thredUP reported in 2021, buying or selling things secondhand reduces a product’s carbon Footprint (碳排放量) by 82%. It requires far less water to produce. Besides, it’s a good way to save money.

Aja Barber said in her book: “Clothing is produced at a fast speed, so it is important that resale become a key part of people’s lifestyles. Accepting reuse is not always easy when we are faced with many choices — many of which encourage the buying of cheap, single-use clothes-but the rise of online resale is enabling people to make different choices and do so with pride and joy.”

It’s great to hear that resale is being accepted by more people, which can help us save money while protecting our planet.

5 . News that dolphins form friendships may not come as much of a surprise to anyone paying attention to the animal world.     1    . They form their friendships with those that have a common interest.

For the research, scientists study the lives of a population of bottlenose dolphins in the Western Australian World Heritage area of Shark Bay. These dolphins are unique in their use of marine sponges (海绵体) as tools to find food.     2    . The method is taught by their mothers and helps the “spongers”, as the ones who do it are called, find food in deeper water. Both male and female dolphins can be spongers, but the study focused just on males.

    3    . But for the study, they selected a group of 37 male dolphins, including 13 spongers and 24 non-spongers. They found that the spongers spent more time with other spongers and that the bonds were based on similar foraging (觅食) techniques and not relatedness or other factors.

    4    , so it was long thought to invest time informing close bonds with other males. This study suggests that male dolphins form social bonds based on shared interests. Interestingly, while male spongers spent more time looking for food than non-spongers, both groups spent an equal amount of time socializing.

“Male dolphins in Shark Bay exhibit fascinating strong social bonds.     5    . They are critical to each male’s mating success. We were very excited to discover alliances of spongers, dolphins forming close friendships with others with similar traits,” says Dr. Simon Allen, the leading author of the study at the University of Zurich.

6 . From prehistoric (史前的) cave paintings to modern-day dog shows, humans’ love and fascination for animals has long remained. The following projects show you how humans are working to create a brighter future for animals.

Big Cats Initiative

This has the primary goal of stopping the decline in the population of big cats worldwide since 2009. In Africa, this means ensuring the monitoring and protection of species like lions and cheetahs, whose numbers have declined sharply over the last century. With the Initiative’s help, these species will continue to live in their natural habits, safe from illegal hunting, environmental degradation (恶化), and other human influences. Find it on: Explore Kruger National Park.

Polar Bears International

Climate change has threatened the world’s polar bear populations: As the planet warms, these creatures risk losing more of their icy habitat than ever before. This project works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause the melting of the Arctic sea ice upon which polar bears depend, and to raise awareness about the plight (困境) of this beautiful animal. Find it on: Canadian Polar Bear Experience.

Vembanad Wetlands Conservation Program

Since 2005, the program has worked to protect the habitat of plants and animals in the wetlands of Vembanad Lake in India. The organization also teaches and monitors sustainable fishing practices there; travelers will learn from fishermen how fishing practices are carried out in a way that does no damage to these important waters. Find it on: Iconic India.

Sea Turtle Conservancy

Sea turtles depend on seagrasses. When these grasses die, the turtles a replaced at serious risk. This has a cyclical effect: seagrasses, like regular grass on land, depend on regular “mowing” to continue growing, and without turtles to feed on it, the grass itself stops thriving, which threatens hundreds of other species who use seagrasses for shelter. Find it on: Explore Costa Rica.

7 . Oxygen levels have dropped in hundreds of lakes in the United States and Europe over the last four decades, according to a new study.

Researchers examined the temperature and the amount of dissolved oxygen (溶解氧) in nearly 400 lakes and discovered widespread drops in oxygen levels. They found dissolved oxygen fell an average of 5.5 percent in the surface water and 18.6 percent in deep water. Their findings suggest that warming temperatures and falling water clearness from human activity are causing oxygen levels to fall.

Testing for oxygen is one of the best ways to judge how healthy water systems are. The study’s findings suggest a conspicuous human footprint. That footprint includes warming caused by climate change. In addition, falling water clearness can be caused by runoff (地表径流) from human waste systems, cars and power plants.

Dissolved oxygen losses in Earth’s water systems have been reported before. A 2017 study of oxygen levels in the world’s oceans showed a two percent drop since 1960. But less was known about lakes, which lost two to nine times as much oxygen as oceans, the new study found. Before this study, other researchers had reported oxygen drops in individual lakes over a long period of time. But no one looked at as many lakes around the world.

The drop of oxygen levels in deep water may affect creatures that are more sensitive (敏感的) to temperature increases, such as cold water fish. During summer months they depend on cooler temperatures found in deeper water. But if deep water is low in oxygen, these creatures can’t survive. “Those are the conditions that sometimes lead to fish kills in the water,” said study co-author Kevin C. Rose. “It means a lot of areas cold water fish depend on may become unlivable.”

Meanwhile, about a quarter of the lakes examined actually showed increasing oxygen in the surface water. It is a bad sign because it points to a sudden growth of algae (藻类). In those lakes, dissolved oxygen was “very low” in deep water, likely creating unlivable conditions for many species, the researchers said.