1 . Last Friday, Britain’s Prince William announced the winners of this year’s Earthshot Prize. The prize is meant to encourage new ideas and rapid action to help protect the planet. Below are parts of this year’s prize-winning projects in each category.

Protect and Restore Nature

Kheyti won the prize for protecting and restoring nature with its “Greenhouse-in-a-box” idea. Kheyti is already working with 1, 000 farmers across India, which is one of the most climate-affected countries in the world. The company says the greenhouses allow farmers to use 90% less water and produce seven times as much food. Kheyti hopes to get its greenhouses to 50,000 farmers by 2027.

Clean Our Air

Charlot Magayi won the prize for cleaning the air. Ms. Magayi developed a stove (炉子) that uses a fuel that’s cheaper and pollutes far less than charcoal stoves. Currently, over 200,000 of her Clean Stoves are being used in Kenya.

Build a Waste-Free World

A London-based company called Notpla(for “Not Plastic”)won the prize for building a waste-free world. They’ve created a plastic substitute(替代品)from plants found in the ocean. Unlike most plastic, their products break down naturally with no microplastics. Notpla believes their products can help end the plastic pollution that’s filling landfills and polluting oceans.

Fix Our Climate

The Earthshot Prize for working toward fixing our climate went to a company called 44.01 from Oman. 44.01 has come up with a way to turn polluting carbon dioxide(CO₂)into a rock called peridotite. Once the CO₂ has been turned into rock, it can no longer be released into the atmosphere again. The method that 44.01 uses is fast, cheap and permanent.

7 . If you really want to go green, here’s good news:eating green is good for you. The very foods with a high carbon (碳) cost — meat, pork, dairy products, processed snacks — also tend to be filled with fat and calories. A green diet would be mostly vegetables and fruit, whole grains (全谷物), fish and lean meats (瘦肉) like chicken — a diet that is good for environment and your figure. Eating green can be healthier and beneficial to the climate.

It may be hard to believe that a meal in a fast-food restaurant produces more carbon than your trip to a faraway place. More than 37% of the world’s land is used for agriculture, much of which was once forested. Deforestation (砍伐森林) is a major source of carbon. The fertilizer (化肥) and machinery needed on a modern farm also have a large carbon footprint, as does the network of ships and trucks that brings the food from the farm to your plate.

The most efficient way to reduce the carbon footprint of your menu is to eat less meat, especially beef. Raising cattle takes a lot more energy than growing the equivalent (相等的) amount of grains, fruit or vegetables. What’s more, the majority of cattle in the US are fed on grain and loads of it — 670 million tons in 2002 — and the fertiliser used to feed that creates separate environmental problems.

Focus on eating lower on the food chain, with more plants and fruits and less meat and dairy. It’s simple. We can change today what goes into our bodies for the health of our planet and ourselves.

8 . In 2022, campaign group Fashion Revolution Chelsea dye a garden for its Chelsea Flower Show presentation. An ancient craft, natural dyeing is a practice whose time has come again, with hand tie-dyed fashion also making a comeback in recent years.

The revival has been encouraged by Covid lockdowns, “which allowed people to explore the craft at home, says natural-dyeing enthusiast and teacher Susan Dye. It’s unlikely, though, that the practice would have caught on in quite the same way if not for a continually growing discomfort about fashion’s heavy footprint. From carbon emissions to animal cruelty, fashion is under considerable inspection. “Put it this way, 97% of dyes used in the industry are petrochemically (石油化学产品) based,” says sustainable fashion consultant Jackie Andrews, who helped advise the UN Ethical Fashion Initiative. We’ve got net zero targets which mean we’re going to have to remove all those petrochemicals from the manufacturing cycle.

Fashion is a huge polluter. According to the UN Environment Program, the industry is responsible for up to one-fifth of all industrial water pollution—due to the fact that most clothes today are produced in poorer countries where regulation is weak and enforcement weaker. Waste water is dumped directly into rivers and streams, poisoning the land as well as the water sources of people and animals who rely on them.

It’s easy to see why someone who cares about people, planet and animals, as well as clothes, might turn to natural plant dyeing. From the beauty of the raw materials—often wild plants-to the property of only bonding with natural fiber like cotton and linen (亚麻布) from the minor footprint of recycling old clothing that has grayed or faded over time to the vibrant and long-lasting dyeing results, plant dyeing feels like a quiet act of rebellion. This is why, while beginners start with simply changing their clothes’ color, new worlds open. Many of today’s natural dyers grow their own dye plants, run local community workshops, and advocate for change in industrialized fashion systems and beyond.

9 . An environmental group in Colombia is leading a project to save wild areas in the San Lucas Mountains with the help of coffee growers.

Since 2016, San Lucas areas have been threatened by mining and coca (古柯) planting Gold miners and coca growers make more money than coffee farms. Now the group WebConserva helps link coffee farmers with coffee processors from around the country in order that they can earn more. At the same time coffee farms can serve as boarders around the forests to protect the biodiversity within.

To date, the project includes 10 families who farm 400 hectares of coffee plants. WebConserva said it hopes, in time, 200 families will be included. At that level. 20,000 hectares of untouched forest could be protected. The families promise not to cut down trees to expand their crops or to hunt wild animals. In return, they receive $300 for 125 kilograms of coffee.

Arcadio Barajas is among those taking part. His coffee farm sets up a barrier between cattle farms and forests where wild animals live, thus reducing the possibility of conflict between cattle farmers and wild animals.   “Cutting down the forest to plant coca and killing wildlife were against my faith, and now I feel that growing coffee lets me be a good guard of the land,” he said.

Amnobis Romero is a former coca grower and miner. “Many families depended on illegal activities to support their children years ago. Now, we feel it a duty to look after this biodiversity and leave it for future generations,” he said. Activists want San Lucas to be protected as a national park, but the process has been slow. Carlos Valderrama, director of Webconserva, hopes the project can build production system that will last far into the future. “It protects forests, biodiversity and ecosystems at the same time as improving coffee growers’ quality of life,” he said.

It’s really nice to see a lot of Tibetan antelopes (藏羚羊) on the green grass. However,     1     (they) population dropped by more than 50% during the 1980s and 1990s. To make profits, some people were shooting antelopes. The habitats     2     the beautiful animals lived were becoming smaller as new roads and railways     3     (build).

In order to save this species from extinction, the Chinese government placed it under     4     (nation) protection. Many volunteers watched over the antelopes day and night to keep them safe from attacks. Bridges and gates were added to let the antelopes move     5     (easy) and keep them from     6     (car) and trains.

Gradually, the antelope population has recovered and     7     June 2015, the Tibetan antelope was removed from     8     endangered species list. The government, however, does not intend to stop the protection programmes, since the threats to the Tibetan antelopes have not yet disappeared.

In a word, if we want     9     (save ) the planet, we must change our way of life. Only when we learn to exist in peace with nature can we stop     10     (be) a threat to wildlife and to our planet.