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.     1    .

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.     2    .

Plastic bags are incredibly easy to forget about when they become increasingly common.     3    . Once they are in the trash, we take it for granted that they are someone else’s problem. The sad fact is that plastic bags break down into microplastics which then get mixed into the air, soil and water, and eventually end up in plants, animals, and our very own human bodies. So what are you going to do about them?

Using renewables seems to cut carbon more than nuclear. Nations that embraced renewable forms of energy have significantly cut their carbon emissions, but     1     pursuing nuclear power have failed to do so, researchers have found.

Nuclear and renewables are seen as two key ways for governments to decarbonize(去碳), but the question of   whether one is more effective for dealing with climate change     2     (not address) fully. With several countries on the brink of deciding whether    3     (back) new nuclear power plants to meet their carbon targets, the answer to this question matters

To find out, Benjamin Sovacool at the University of Sussex and his colleagues looked at carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and GDP over 25 years. They found that in 117 countries that had been using renewables, CO2 emissions per capita(人均地)dropped from 0.69 tonnes(公吨)on average between 1990 and 2004 to 0.61 tonnes between 2000 and 2014 and     4     these latter figures included a further six countries.

During the same periods, however, the 30 countries that had been using nuclear power largely stayed flat, shifting from an average 0.52 tonnes of Co2 emissions per capita to 0.51. The two groups of countries overlap because some fall into both. Renewables included wind, solar, hydroelectric, and biomass energy. “If you’re focusing on    5     we can do to reduce emissions in the next 15 years,     6     (pursue) renewables instead of nuclear,” says Sovacool.

The reason    7     the results is not clear — the analysis found a connection, not a causation—but Sovacool has ideas. Nuclear power is restricted due to agreements     8     (limit) the spread of nuclear weapons     9     material from reactors (核反应堆) can be used to make bombs. Renewables are not, enabling more countries to learn from one another, such as Germany benefiting from Chinese economies of scale on solar. Other reasons for this    10     be that renewables are cheaper and quicker to build and more socially acceptable, says Sovacool.

Food delivery apps are changing the way we eat

It’s raining, it’s dinnertime, and the fridge is nearly empty. Years ago, we made do; today, we order food through our phones. Within twenty minutes, we get whatever it was we were craving, we’re warm and dry, and there’s not a single dish to wash afterward.

Food delivery apps have altered the     1     of how eat, particularly in big cities. The industry is a complex machine; there’s Meituan, Ele.me, Hema…the list goes on. These companies are     2     and changing at a rapid rate, bringing on the rise of virtual restaurants and ghost kitchens, and customers who will never step inside a brick-and-mortar shop（实体店）.

Of course, these apps bring all types of cuisines around the city to our fingertips, but it comes at a cost. And one of the real environmental     3     lies in all that plastic and excess food.

In the US alone, packaging accounts for 30 percent of municipal solid waste. In 2017, that meant 80.1 million tons. Food delivery systems are likely     4     this huge number to rise. Durable materials like the plastics serveware is made from, are difficulty to     5     of.

Restaurant delivery is a global phenomenon – as is the impact on the environment. Meituan, one of the leading Chinese delivery platforms, delivered 6.4 billion food orders in 2018. It is estimated that China     6     1.6 million tons of packaging waste(containers, utensils, plastic bags) in 2017, nine times more than in 2015.

In the EU, University of Manchester researchers estimate, over two billion single-use takeaway containers are used every year. Most of those are not     7    . According to the European Commission, packaging, which includes plastic utensils, plates, and straws, make up 70% of all     8     pollution found in European seas.

Plastic bans,     9     packaging materials, and other efforts to cut down on waste are on the rise. Food delivery apps should, too, do their part to raise awareness for plastic pollution and     10     the gap between food waste and hunger.

91. The Problem of Packaging

A large source of rubbish is packaging material. It often makes up more than 30 percent of the total. To understand why this is true, think of the packaging commonly used for a simple product, such as toothpaste. The packaging includes not only the tube for the toothpaste, but also the box for the tube. This box is put into a plastic wrapper. Then, the boxes are transported in a cardboard container.

Most packaging material ends up in a landfill after it is thrown away. Though necessary, landfills take up valuable space, often stink, and can leak harmful substances into the soil. Landfills not included, the production of packaging material itself is a major source of air and water pollution.

People are now trying to solve the problems caused by packaging materials. In 1991, Germany took the lead by requiring companies to recycle the packaging used for their goods. To do this, the companies set up recycling bins in every neighborhood. Consumers now separate their rubbish into three categories—metal, plastic and paper cartons. They then put it into the appropriate bin. The rubbish sorted, it is transported to recycling company for processing.

The programme worked well at first. However, the amount of rubbish has begun to increase again. One reason for this is that many consumers no longer reduce waste because they think the problem is solved. It seems that to properly deal with the problem of rubbish, everyone must remain alert and do their part.

8 . EARTH WEEK—A diary of the planet

Storms

Several more rounds of fierce storms, tornadoes and floods struck many parts of the American Midwest and Northeast as bad weather continued across the US for a second month.

Monsoon Storms

A south-west monsoon has caused great damage in parts of SriLanka. Government meteorologists said that unexpected monsoonal winds blew directly across the country from the southern part of the earth at about 100km/h, producing several rounds of stormy weather. Nearly 250 houses in the capital Colombo were damaged.

Mt Etna Erupts

Sicily Mount Etna volcano erupted shortly after midnight on July 1, shooting “bombs” of lave (岩浆) on the eastern side of the mountain. The 30-minute eruption could be seen for several miles but did not threaten any nearby villages.

Hurricane

Hurricane Blas lost strength as it moved over cooler waters in the Pacific Ocean to the west of Mexico. Blas formed off southwest Mexico during the last week, but the outer part of the storm swept western Michoacan State, killing four people when their wood and cardboard home fell down.

Monkey Repellent

After years of unsuccessful attempts to keep crop-eating monkeys out of Japanese fields, a Tokyo research team believes that it may have finally found a way to prevent the damage caused by the monkeys. Animal ruin of crops were successfully prevented by shooting chili powder into the air, irritating the eyes and noses of monkeys that passed in front of carefully placed warning. “We’ve tried all kinds of preventive measures, but the monkeys are bright enough to outsmart the tricks,” said Toshiaki Wada, Director of the Tokyo Forestry Experiment Station in western Tokyo.

9 . The old 1986 truck was a gift from his grandfather. It worked, but it was large and inconvenient. So it was not an ideal vehicle for Ian Cheney’s ________ inner-city neighborhood in New York. Many New Yorkers would look at the truck and think of a rubbish dump. Ian Cheney looked at his grandfather’s truck and thought of a (n) ________.

As in other large cities, there are not many places to grow food in New York. Yet Cheney wanted a vegetable garden. Many urban farmers in New York have found ________ ways to grow vegetables. There are rooftop gardens high above the city. There are community gardens in old parking lots. There is even a (n) ________ garden in the Hudson River. Cheney, however, didn’t ________ any of these. So the old truck was a (n) ________ solution. The back of the truck provided him with the ________ he needed. “Since I don’t have a rooftop to grow any food,” Cheney explains. “It seemed like the logical thing to do.”

So Cheney ________ to work. First, he drilled holes in the truck bed for drainage—allowing water to pass through the bed. Then he laid down a recycled plastic mat. The soil came next. He made sure that everything was organic. Cheney ________ organic because he wanted to grow vegetables without chemicals. Then he planted lettuce, herbs, spinach, and tomatoes. Finally, he watered and waited.

When the food was ready to pick, Cheney drove the truck from one urban neighborhood to another. He ________some of the vegetables. He sold the rest to friends and neighbors. Everywhere he parked, passersby stopped and talked about the beautiful vegetable garden in the back of the truck.

Cheney is ________ about food. He strongly believes that people are better off eating more local food, because it reduces economic and environmental ________. There is also the question of nutrition. Less nutritional benefits of vegetables ________ over time. So eating food within a few days of harvesting is healthier for you.

Cheney knows that his truck cannot solve the problem of the lack of fresh food in all neighborhoods. Yet, like rooftop gardens, it could be part of the solution. Cheney continues to plant his truck and drive it around New York neighborhoods. He hopes that fresh and healthy food can be ________ in more places, including inner-city areas. As Cheney says, “If we can grow food in the back of a 1986 Dodge pickup, we can ________ find better ways to grow more fresh produce.”

10 . There is a kind of climate pollution that we can’t see clearly. It isn’t in our rivers, lands or skies, it is in our minds. When climate disinformation goes unchecked, it spreads like wildfire, undermining the existence of climate change and the need for urgent action.

Like the biosphere that sustains us, the health of our information ecosystems is vital to our survival. As an artist, I feel a responsibility to create new ways of seeing the disinformation that has come to define the age of fake news.

Social media sites are honed to grab our attention. Using sophisticated algorithms, the corporations behind them decide what billions of people see around the world, dictated by what keeps you hooked, but also by what the companies paying social media sites choose to put in front of you.

Powerful corporate actors deploy clever influence campaigns via ads targeted at specific users based on what social media firms know about those people. Major oil and gas companies have spent billions of dollars over the years persuading consumers about their green proofs, when only 1 per cent of their expenditure in 2019 was on renewable energy. This is known as corporate greenwashing. Still, fossil fuel firms maintain that their climate policies are “responsible” and “in line with the science”.

To expose the scale of corporate greenwashing online, I was part of a team that recently launched Eco-Bot.Net. Co-created with artist Rob “3D” Del Naja of the band Massive Attack and Dale Vince, a green entrepreneur, Eco-Bot. Net’s AI-powered website ran throughout the COP26 climate summit, exposing climate change misinformation by releasing a series of data drops for heavily polluting sectors, including energy, agribusiness and aviation.

Academic definitions of climate disinformation and greenwashing were used to unearth posts across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and visualize them on our website. Eco-Bot.Net then flagged greenwashing ads and posts on the original social media site with a public health warning.

By digging into our data, journalists have already revealed that companies are targeting specific demographics in order to influence public perceptions about climate change – and even alter government policy.

One data drop focused on the 100 biggest fossil fuel producers, companies that have been the source of 71 per cent of global carbon emissions. It found that 16 of these companies ran 1705 greenwashing and climate misinformation ads globally on Facebook and Instagram this year. In total, they spent more than £4 million creating influence campaigns that generated up to 155 million impressions.

Social media companies could end most of the harms from climate disinformation on their platforms if they wanted to. Flagging systems were swiftly introduced to warn users of posts containing disinformation about covid-19. The scientific consensus on human-caused global warming has been resolute for decades, so why can’t a similar flagging system be implemented for related disinformation?

It is true that Twitter and Facebook have both introduced climate science information hubs, but these are little more than PR exercises that fail to directly tackle climate disinformation on any kind of scale.

This epidemic of climate change disinformation on social media is eroding collective ideas of truth. In this post-truth age of disinformation, we hope that the public, the press and policy-makers will be able to use our data findings to see what is hidden by what we see online.

For the first time, we can witness the regional scale of corporate greenwashing. The era of climate denial and delay is largely over — except, as Eco-Bot.Net has revealed, on social media.