2 . Yvon Chouinard, who started the company Patagonia, gave all the stocks of the company to a trust and a non-profit group in September 2022.

Mr Chouinard is a rock climber who began climbing in the 1960s. Back then, he created a company that made climbing equipment. The business closed, but Mr Chouinard was left with a lifelong love of the outdoors and a respect for the environment.

Mr Chouinard began Patagonia in the 1970s. Patagonia sells clothes aimed at outdoor activities. Over time, the company changed the way it did business to do a better job of protecting the environment. Since 1986, Patagonia has given 1% of the money it makes from sales to groups that work to protect the environment.

Mr Chouinard, who is now 83 years old, was worried about what might happened after he died. He made the decision after considering other options, including selling the company and donating the profits. “But we couldn’t be sure a new owner would maintain our values or keep our team of people around the world employed,” he said. So he came up with a new and unusual plan: he gave his company away. And he did it in a way that helped protect both the company and the environment.

Mr Chouinard gave away all the voting stock of the company(2% of the total stock)to a small group called the Patagonia Purpose Trust. It will make all the decisions about the way the company is managed. The other 98% of the company has been given to a non-profit group called the Holdfast Collective and it will use every dollar received from Patagonia to protect nature and biodiversity.

4 . Here are four women who made it their life’s mission to make the world a better place through environmental activism.

“I have not accomplished anything. ”This statement was made by Greta Thunberg(17 years old)and it couldn’t be further from the truth. Her dedication to protecting the environmenl for our future generations is all accomplishment on its own. Her ability to resist to adults in power is admirable and continues to push the importance of conservation to the front of our minds.

WE ACT for Environmental Justice is an organization that“through advocacy，planning，and research…mobilizes low-income communities to make environmental changes. ”At the helm(掌权)of WE ACT is Peggy Shepard. Her goal is to make sure that sustainable environmental practices are accessible to all，regardless of circumstance.

American marine biologist，writer，scientist，and ecologist，Rachel Carson(1907—1964)，was way ahead of her time. She wrote about conservation in the late 1930s and focused on her mission of protecting our oceans.

In the late 90s，Julia“Butterfly”Hill spent 738 days living in an ancient redwood，called Luna. This act brought awareness to the immense human threats to Redwood trees. Julia continues to advocate for the environment. “By standing together in unity，solidarity and love，we will heal the wounds in the earth and in each other. We can make a positive difference through our actions. ”

5 . One of the problems damaging our planet is the number of things we throw away. Rubbish of all kinds is piling up in landfills and polluting our rivers and oceans. A more recent addition to the list of things we chuck away is e-waste--electronic items that are broken and not recycled. Now solutions are being found to give this stuff a new life.

Many millions of tons of televisions, phones, and other electronic equipment are discarded each year, partly because it's cheaper to replace them than fix them, but also because we lack the skills to repair them. A UN report claims the 50 million tons of e-waste generated every year will more than double to 110 million tons by 2050, making it the fastest growing waste stream in the world.

However, there's a growing trend for repair events and clubs which could be part of a solution to the growing amount of electrical and electronic junk. The BBC visited a Restart Project in London, which is one of many found around the world. One of its volunteers, Francesco Calo, said, “This project allows you to reduce waste, extend the life of objects, and it helps people who cannot afford to get rid of items that have developed a fault. ”

As many electrical items contain valuable metals, another idea is e-waste mining. An experiment at the University of New South Wales involves extracting these materials from electronic gadgets. It's thought that doing this could be more profitable than traditional mining. With phones typically containing as many as 60 elements, this could be part of the solution to our appetite for new technology.

At present, in countries where there is no legislation, much of it just gets dumped. However, the European Union, for example, is trying to tackle the problem by insisting manufacturers make appliances longer-lasting and supply spare parts for machines for up 10 years.

7 . India has the world’s worst air pollution. Home to 21 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities, its poisonous air kills more than one million people each year. That’s partly because the South Asian nation is the world’s second largest brick producer. Brick kilns(砖窑)— which account for 20% of black carbon emissions globally—make a significant contribution to its terrible air.

Indian architect Tejas Sidnal was shocked to discover the construction industry’s role in the pollution crisis. “That was a crazy eye opener,”he says, “As architects, we should take responsibility for so much air pollution.”Determined to make construction more sustainable and tackle India’s air pollution, Sidnal launched Carbon Craft Des2019. “We found a way to add value to this recovered carbon by using it as a pigment （颜料，色素）in carbon tiles（瓷砖，瓦片），”he says.

To create the carbon tiles, Carbon Craft Design partnered with Graviky Labs, an Indian company that previously created “Air Ink”, a technology that captures carbon soot from cars and factories, and converts it into ink and paint.” Graviky Labs views pollution as a resource,” company founder Anirudh Sharma tells CNN. “We are one of only a few companies in the world to capture these carbon emissions and turn them into new materials.”

Since launching its first tiles a year ago, Carbon Craft Design’s customers have included global fashion brands and architecture firms in India. In November 2020, the company retrofitted an Adidas store in Mumbai, covering the walls and the floor with its carbon tiles. Architect Manan Gala, whose firm Bombay Contractors designed the Adidas store, describes the carbon tile as a “winner” for the construction industry. “As well as being sustainable, the product has better strength than conventional cement tiles due to the carbon content, and the raw and rustic feel adds to the overall charm,” he says.

“Carbon Craft Design is currently rising investment and hopes to start distribution in Europe this year.” says Sidnal, adding that “We are flooded with inquiries from in and out of India.”

8 . “Tick, tick, pzzzz…” the song of the Florida grasshopper sparrow is unusual and surprisingly insect-like. But it almost fell silent forever. In 2012, Joel Sartore, National Geographic Explorer and Photo Ark founder, received a call from the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service: The songbird, an important ecological link in Florida’s dry grasslands, was struggling on extinction. With only a few dozen males in sight, it was among North America’s most endangered bird species.

Funded by the National Geographic Society, Sartore flew to Florida to photograph the bird and work with conservationists to raise awareness of the species’ situation. The story went viral on social media, helping boost government funding for a protecting program. Thanks to these steps, there are now as many as 180 adult birds in the wild, and researchers are working hard to bring the species back from the brink of extinction.

This journey reveals the Society’s mission to illuminate and protect the wonder of the world. Over the past 136 years, it has developed a unique explorer-led model, combining science, exploration, education and storytelling to drive impact. The society also supports explorers in more than 140 countries, including Sartore and others whose work relates to this issue: biologist André Green II, photographer Jasper Doest and education advocate Ara Kusuma.

Sartore is now 17 years into his efforts to create an “Ark” of animal photos. Portraits of more than 15,000 species invite audiences to connect and care. With the Society’s support, the images have appeared on the landmarks and postage stamps in the U. S., contributing to on-the-ground conservation efforts.

As Sartore says, “The sounds of birds are the sounds of a health y planet. When we save a bird or another species, we’re actually saving ourselves.”

The number of chinstrap penguins in some colonies in western Antarctica     1     (fall) by as much as 77 percent since they were last surveyed in the 1970s, say scientists studying the impact of climate change on the remote region. The chinstrap penguin,     2     (name) after the narrow black band under its head, inhabits the islands and shores of Antarctic oceans and feeds on krill( 磷虾). It is the dramatic declines     3     catch the attention worldwide.

A study, published by the United Nations meteorological agency, states that heat-trapping greenhouse gases—carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide - have reached an unprecedented level in the atmosphere,     4     contributes to global warming. Researchers discovered that between 1979 and 1990, Antarctica shed     5     average of 40 billion tons of ice mass annually. Climate changes are turning into a severe situation,     6     (impact) marine and land ecosystems.

China, as a big country, plays an important role in environmental protection. It aims not only to get rid of the environmental challenges domestically but also to help other parts of the world achieve     7     (they) climate goals. Investment in China on renewable energy accounts     8     45% of total global investment. Since 2014, China has invested     9     (heavy) in the wind and solar PV projects in the regions along the Belt and Road. Faced with this situation, every country should raise the     10     (aware)of environmental protection.

10 . The sixth mass extinction is not a worry for the future. It’s happening now，much faster than previously expected，and it's entirely our fault，according to a study puhlished Mooday.

Humans have already wiped out hundreds of species and pushed many more to the brink of extinction through wildlife trade，pollution，habitat loss and the use of toxic substances. The findings published in the scientific Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences( PNAS)show that the rate at which species are dying out has accelerated in recent decades.

Gerardo Ceballos González，a professor of ecology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and one of the authors of the study，said approximately 173 species went extinct between 2001 and 2014. “173 species is 25 times more extinct species than you would expect under the normal extinction rate. ”he told CNN in an email. He and his team found that in the past 100 years，more than 400 vertebrate(脊椎动物的)species went extinct. In the normal course of evolution，such extinctions would have taken up to 10，000 years，they said.

Mass extinctions are just as severe as their name suggests. There have been five mass extinction events in the Earth’s history，each wiping out between 70％and 95％of the species of plants，animals and microorganisms. The most recent，66 million years ago，saw dinosaurs disappear. The past events were caused by catastrophic changes of the environment，including massive volcanic eruptions or collision with an asteroid.

The sixth mass extinction the one happening now—is different：scientists say it’s caused by humans. The researchers also said the current coronavirus(冠状病毒)crisis shows people’s recklessness(鲁莽)towards nature can seriously hurt themselves. Many endangered species are dying in large numbers due to the trade in wild animals and plants.