A. These homes can easily collapse during earthquakes or slip and slide downhill in landslides, especially after heavy rain.
B. On the top of that, there is the added aspect of global warming. This has mainly been caused by the huge amount of carbon dioxide produced by factories and vehicles.
C. The reason why nature is beginning to turn on us is that overpopulation. The population of the world is growing at the rate of 10,000 people an hour, nearly 90 million a year.
D. The destruction of the world’s forests plays a part, too. As a result, a hotter ocean causes stronger winds. Atlantic hurricanes are 40% stronger now than they were 30 years ago.
E. Most of the growth is in the developing world. Poor people in agricultural areas often move to the cities. They build homes from whatever materials they can find.
2 . The Last Straw?
Every second, the world uses 160,000 plastic bags — that is a total of over five trillion per year. Up to 99 percent of these plastic bags hang around for at least 1,000 years and pollute Earth. And yet, plastic bags are hardly a necessity in our lives. Of all the changes we could make to create a more sustainable lifestyle, a total ban on plastic bags should be simple.
At the beginning of 2021, Shanghai put in effect a ban on all plastic bags in shopping malls and supermarkets, as well as a ban on non-degradable plastics in many other areas. Over the years, individuals and companies have worked to replace plastic items, such as cups and straws, with paper ones.
Customers complain that paper straws often become soft and break before they can finish their hot drinks. Experts, however, have repeatedly stressed plastic substitutes (替代品) are not the ultimate solution, and that our consumption habits need a bigger change.
In college, one of my environmental science professors promoted a type of waste-free living. She carried around a small glass jar with her, and in it was all her trash she collected for the entire year. She was able to do this by bringing her own cup to Starbucks, her own bags to the shops, and never buying anything that came wrapped in plastic. Her food waste also became compost.
Plastic bags are incredibly easy to forget about when they become increasingly common.
A.Clearly she demonstrated our ability to live a completely healthy life without creating a great deal of plastic waste. |
B.Plastic bag litter has even caused great problems in some areas. |
C.If they’re free to use and easily disposed of, they’re a mere tool that we don’t have to think about. |
D.Some of these decisions have been met with criticism. |
E.Unfortunately, such a high level of pollution doesn’t come without consequences. |