1 . When the monthly electricity bill came home, parents always couldn’t believe their eyes, as the amount was much more than needed.     1     Here are some tips for parents to educate their children on how to save energy.

Switch off the lights. Assign one day in a week for a “turn off” practice, for a few hours. Tell the kids the significance of using less electricity and how it impacts the environment.     2    

Use energy-efficient transportation. When parents and their children are out on vacation, have a cycling outing. When the whole family rides bicycles together, it not only serves as a great bonding exercise, but it also teaches the children about eco-friendly transportation options.     3    

Play a game.     4     Engage them in a game instead. Ask the little ones to walk around the house with pen and paper, and make a note of all the equipment that consumes energy. Let them suggest what measures can be taken within the home to reduce consumption of electricity and go green. Parents can stick small notes near these appliances to give them interesting information on conservation.

    5     Create a theatre-like experience at home on a Sunday and gather everyone in the family, especially the kids, to watch an informative film about environmental issues or climate change. If parents have slightly older children, they can discuss the film and ask them what they think.

2 . In an area that’s surrounded by Scotland’s coal mining past and its industrial present, there’s a transformation happening beneath our feet. Just three years ago this area was re-engineered to bring the coastal wetland back to its natural state.

Allison Leonard, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, “We tear down the coastal defenses and let the water back in. But within a year or two we were seeing saltmarsh plants reappear. And we’re now three years down the line and you know, it’s all saltmarsh. And at that point we kind of just stepped back and let nature do its thing, and we’re really seeing the wildlife respond. So birds are using it at high tide and we see lots of deer, hares in the spring.”

As well as a diverse wetland habitat, this marsh has become a natural tool in our fight to reduce emissions of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. Marshland plants absorb one of those key planet-warming gases, carbon dioxide, which then becomes buried in the mud. Lucy Miller, Research technician, University of St Andrews, said “This is some of the most organic-rich soils we find in the UK, compared to agricultural land, forest, forestry land. So we’ll wrap this up in cling film and then just to keep it, hold its shape and then we take it back to the University of St Andrews. We have a laboratory there. We will just perform a couple of experiments using a couple of different machines to measure the different layers, different levels of carbon within the layers of the core here.”

Allowing the sea to reclaim this stretch of land has provided a glimpse of how we can help nature to help us deal with the climate crisis.

4 . It is reported that half the world’s forests have already been destroyed. This widespread destruction is due to deforestation (采伐森林). Deforestation is the removal of a forest or group of trees where the land is later transformed to a non-forest use. Cutting down trees is necessary for man’s survival. However, deforestation has a number of negative effects on the environment and needs to be controlled.

There are two main purposes for cutting down trees and one of them is to use the trees as resources. Essential items like paper, furniture and charcoal are all made from trees. Deforestation is also carried out to clear land for farming and to make room for roads and houses. As the population grows, more of the forest has to be cleared.

Although deforestation is necessary up to a point, it has some negative effects on the environment. Firstly, cutting down forests destroys animal habitats, leaving them with no place to live in. Deforestation also allows erosion to occur, which leaves the land easy to landslides and makes it difficult for plants to grow there. Finally, the removal of trees also worsens air pollution. Trees act as natural air filters that change carbon dioxide into oxygen. When they are removed, carbon dioxide can build up and pollute the atmosphere. Hence, it is obvious that deforestation harms the environment.

Due to the harm deforestation causes, it is necessary to control it. There are a number of ways to do this. One of them is to make better use of farming land. That means we do not need as much land for farming, and hence do not need to cut down so many trees. There must also be laws to limit deforestation and these laws must be enforced strictly. On top of that, reforestation must be carried out systematically. This method involves planting new trees and plants in areas where deforestation has occurred to replace what was destroyed.

To sum up, although deforestation must be carried out, it can harm the environment and must be controlled. Beyond a certain point, this damage to the environment cannot be fixed. Hence, we should do our best to make sure that the damage is never too great to fix.