1 . Research shows that with 2℃ of global warming we will have more disasters like droughts, floods, wildfires and storms. Unless we act immediately to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we won’t be able to escape the worst consequences of climate change. This can seem depressing.     1    . Here are some ways you can be part of the climate solution:

●Transform your transport

    2    . So many governments across the world are taking action to reduce carbon emissions in transport. You can get a head start. Leave your car at home and walk or cycle whenever possible. If the distances are too great, choose public transport, preferably electric options. If you must drive, offer to carpool with others so that fewer cars are on the road.

●    3    

To reduce your food’s carbon footprint, buy local and seasonal foods. You’ll be helping small businesses and farms in your area and reducing fossil fuel emissions associated with transport and cold chain storage. Go one step further and try growing your own fruit, vegetables and herbs.     4    .

●Don’t waste food

One-third of all food produced is either lost or wasted. People waste 1 billion tons of food each year, which accounts for around 8-10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Avoid waste by only buying what you need. Take advantage of every edible (可食用的) part of the foods you buy. Be creative with leftovers, share extras with your friends and neighbours.     5    . It’s a best option for managing organic waste while also reducing environmental impacts.

2 . Since the 1950s, some 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced globally, of which only about 10% has ever been recycled. Yet environmentally conscious companies and consumers continue to look to recycling as a way to ease the plastic problem. Manufacturing giants claim to be committed to making more of their products and packaging from recycled materials. However, this confidence masks (掩饰) a complex web of issues around plastic recycling. Recycling rates remain extremely low and critics argue that we should look at alternative ways to tackle plastic pollution.

While many plastics have the potential to be recycled, most are not because the process is costly, complicated and the resulting product of a lower quality than the original. Despite rising demand for recycled plastic, few waste companies turn a profit. Part of this is because virgin plastic-linked to oil prices - is often cheaper than recycled plastic, meaning there is little economic incentive to use it. Worse yet, much of our plastic waste is difficult to recycle. Lightweight food packaging, like a mozzarella packet, contains different plastics, dyes and toxic additives (添加剂). This dirty mix means plastic recycled through mechanical methods- the most common form- can only be melted down and moulded (浇铸,塑造) again a couple of times before it becomes too fragile to be reused. And the nature of the process means plastic recycling has a carbon footprint of its own.

Given all of these difficulties, environmental critics say recycling is not the solution-and argue that creating more products from recycled material to attract environmental consciousness merely worsens the problem. “The solution is to use less plastic and to stop misleading the public about the recyclability,” says Enck, president of Beyond Plastics, a US campaign group with a mission to end single-use plastic. “They should stop making false claims about the recyclability of plastics since they know most will either be littered (乱扔) or burned or landfilled (填埋). Using less plastics means shifting to reusable products and relying more on paper, cardboard, glass and metal- -all of which should be made from recycled content.”

6 . In Mombasa on the coast of Kenya is a place called Haller Park. People flood there to see 180 local species of plants and trees, and a variety of animals including hippos and giraffes.

In The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times, Jane Goodall discusses the park as an example of how our injured Earth can be restored and healed. At one point the park was “a large and frightening five-hundred-acre scar (伤疤) where almost nothing grew” because a cement (水泥) company dug large amounts of stone out of the ground. The company decided to repair the damage. Year by year, by growing flowers, fruit and vegetables and with introduction of wild animals, the area was changed.

It’s extremely important, Jane Goodall says in the book, that people — especially young people — know how positive action can still turn around the frightening path of climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and the ongoing global pandemic (疫情). “It’s mostly because people are so overpowered by our stupidity that they feel helpless,” Goodall states. They need to hear stories of “the people who succeed because they won’t give up.”

Jane Goodall is one of those people herself. She is the world’s leading chimpanzee (黑猩猩) expert; UN Messenger of Peace; winner of the 2021 Templeton Prize; activist through the Jane Goodall Institute and its many projects that help local communities and the environment; and author of numerous books, the first of which, In the Shadow of Man, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

Goodall speaks plainly and effectively throughout the book. As troubling as this current pandemic is, “we must not let this take our attention away from the far greater threat to our future — the climate crisis and the loss of biodiversity,” she says. Goodall calls each of us to action: “Let us use the gift of our lives to make this a better world.”

7 . Human rubbish can be a cockatoo’s treasure. In Sydney, the birds have learned how to open dustbins and throw rubbish around in the streets as they hunt for leftovers. People are now fighting back.

When cockatoos learn how to open dustbin lids, people change their behavior, using things like bricks to weigh down lids (盖子), to protect their trash from being thrown about. That’s usually a low-level protection and then the cockatoos figure out how to defeat that. That’s when people strengthen their efforts, and the cycle continues.

Tricks such as attempting to scare the parrots off with rubber snakes don’t work very well. Nor does blocking access with heavy objects such as bricks; cockatoos use force to push them off. Hanging weights from the front of the lid or placing items such as sneakers and sticks through a bin’s back handles work better. Researchers didn’t see any birds get inside bins with these higher levels of protection.

The findings suggest an arms race, but the missing piece is how the birds will respond as people try new ways of blocking bins. Some survey responses suggest that the parrots are learning.

Cockatoos may stay away from strategies that take too long to beat. Bricks, for instance, are easy to quickly push off a bin; breaking sticks placed through the bin’s back handle could take more time. Perhaps if enough people in a neighborhood adopt a highly effective method, Clark, a behavioral ecologist says, the cockatoos may not find it worth it to stop by.

The Amazon Rainforest is known     1     “the lungs of the planet”. However, it now releases more carbon dioxide than it absorbs. This is the conclusion of a study recently     2     (publish) in the journal Nature. For the study, scientists took 590     3     (flight) over the Amazon.

So what has gone wrong? There are     4     (clear) fewer trees taking in carbon dioxide. More than 17 percent of the trees in the Amazon have disappeared since the 1970s. Meanwhile, farmers get rid of the trees by     5     (burn) them. Huge amounts of carbon monoxide(一氧化碳) are released into the air in the process.

The really worrying thing, however, is the southeastern part of the Amazon. This is because the logging(伐木作业) has disturbed the balance of nature. Fewer trees means     6     (little) moisture (水分) in the air,     7     makes the air drier. The heat causes forest fires to spread more easily. As a result, more trees are killed.

For the Amazon to become “the lungs of the planet” again, we first need to end     8     forest fires. It sounds possible but it won’t be easy. Since 2018, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro     9     (encourage) people to develop land in the Amazon. If he doesn’t change     10     (he) mind, scientists say, large parts of the rainforest could be turned into savannahs (稀树草原) by 2026.

10 . Recently, a design student has developed an auto-mini robot — “A” seedbot that can search through vast deserts, sowing seeds when it finds a suitable area to plant a tree.

The “A” seedbot, created by Mazyar Etehadi from the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation, could be a new and creative way to transform deserts into greenery. “Planting trees in the desert area can keep the sand and protect the environment,” said Etehadi. It was launched at the Global Grad Show (GGS), an event that has designers come together to showcase innovations that could solve today’s environmental issues.

In an area where high temperatures are limiting to life, the importance of growing plants is crucial. Just eight inches long, the tiny robot is equipped with its own solar panels (太阳能板), allowing it to charge during the day and continue working through the night. It can operate all on its own, using its 3D-printed legs to search for viable spots to plant a seed. In doing so, designers seek to understand how roots work and also to design sensors that might monitor soil pollution, prospect for minerals and look for water.

The robot has a distance sensor that it uses to send reports back to its controller. The only time human needs to step in is to refill the robot with more seeds. “I think it was an easy solution to come up with, but no one had made it, and here comes my idea! It means a lot to the people who have been fighting against the deserts for generations,” said Etehadi. Going forward, he hopes his idea can be adopted by the government, the farming industry, and private individuals as a more efficient way to grow plants.