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.

4 . For sharks, the Mesoamerican Reef, which stretches over 600 miles, is a busy highway. Sharks use it to find their way and it provides them with food and habitat.

But as with on-land highways, this superhighway can be dangerous. Overfishing, commercial development and illegal practices are endangering the species. “We’re seeing a continued decline in shark populations. Our goal is to turn that round.” says Rachel Graham, founder of Mar Alliance, a non-profit organization focused on conserving sharks.

By monitoring sharks, Mar Alliance can collect important knowledge on the species to help inform conservation and push for political action. But rather than acting in opposition to the local fishing community, MarAlliance enlists their help.

“They are the ones who are on the sea every single day,” says Graham, “and they’re the ones who decide the species’ future.”

MarAlliance employs up to 60 fishermen across its range, mostly on a project basis, training them to collect data, record and release fish. Not only does this provide an alternative income to fishing communities, making them less dependent on natural resources, but it also teaches them about the benefits of a healthy ocean ecosystem and how to fish sustainably.

Among them, Ivan Torres, who used to catch sharks to sell locally as food, has learned how critical they’re to the whole ecosystem, saying he’d never fish sharks any more.

If this attitude change continues to spread throughout fishing communities, Graham has hope for the shark populations. “The primary threat to sharks is unquestionably overfishing,” she says, “By reforming the industry, populations can bounce back.”

In 2020, Belize outlawed the use of gillnets, large panels of netting of trapping large sealife. The ban’s impact is already noticeable with a recorded 10-fold increase in shark populations.

But such regulations need to be copied along the whole superhighway for long-lasting impact, and countries need to find a sustainable balance between fishers and the fished. “We need to find a win-win strategy between fisher livelihoods and shark survival,” Graham emphasizes. “I hope that through education and providing an economic alternative for fishing communities, MarAlliance will help ensure safe passage for sharks along the reef”.

Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier has been in the spotlight in recent years, as scientists have undertaken a multi-part international project to study the vast glacier from all angles. The urgency comes from observations and analyses showing that the amount of ice flowing from Thwaites — and contributing to sea level rise — has doubled in the past three decades. Scientists think the glacier could witness even more dramatic changes in the near future.

This image pair demonstrates the changes that have occurred since the start of this century. The first image shows the glacier's floating ice tongue on December 2,2001. The second image shows the glacier on December 28, 2019. Both images show the glacier where it exits the land in West Antarctica and stretches over the Amundsen Sea as thick floating ice. Ice that originates on land can raise sea level if it is delivered to the ocean at a faster rate than it is being replaced inland by snowfall. The flow speed of Thwaites has been increasing, while inland snowfall has not changed significantly.

In the past ten years, the tongue has continued to break and separate from the Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf. By the time the 2019 image was acquired, the main tongue had declined greatly, and the ocean in front of Thwaites had become filled with floating ice.

Thwaites pours about 50 billion tons of ice into the ocean each year. That amount is nothing to sneeze at. But for the time being, it's “still a relatively small amount of sea-level rise,” said Ted Scambos, a scientist at the University of Colorado. “What the satellites are showing us is a glacier coming apart," said Ted Scambos.” Every few years a new area seems to be letting go and speeding. Like taffy being stretched out, this glacier is being drawn into the ocean.”

6 . It was a turtle that changed Victoria Cairns, a headteacher from Derbyshire. She was ________ in Bali underwater when she saw one of the island’s famous ________. It approached towards her in the crystal clear water, and she was ________ at first-until she saw the plastic bag in its mouth. She just thought the human was having a destroying ________ on the environment.

She set up anti-litter social media account to ________ awareness of the damage caused by ________ pollution. She regularly picks litter around her neighbourhood. “She’s done amazing work keeping the area clean, tidy and beautiful,” says her friend.

Cairns keeps a litter-picker in her car, and will frequently ________ on the way back from work to clean something up. When running, Cairns carries a ________ litter-picker in her backpack, and picks up rubbish on her cool-down walk.

“Some people don’t ________ things. There’s no value in a plastic bag, so they ________ it away, not into the bin but on the earth somewhere. It means they are doing it when people aren’t ________, as they know it’s unacceptable.”

When she collects plastic bottles and carrier bags, it feels like a small act of care: this bag will not end up ________ a turtle’s mouth. It is a(an)________ small act in the scheme of things, but it’s something.

Cairns makes a ________ to her surroundings. She has been litter-picking in the ________ near her house. “It’s so beautiful. You get a different perspective being on the water.” she says.

7 . Every day people board planes,get on trains and ready themselves for an adventure. But what about the deep sea? Although it covers 70 percent of the Earth's surface,we hardly stop to think of it as a tourist destination. However, the travel industry has made great advancement in creating aquatic(水中的) hotspots.

From the luxury to the relatively modest,underwater resorts have been popping up in recent years. For those with a truly adventurous spirit and some money to spend,you can even rent your own submarine. Staffed with a captain,a personal chef and a butler(管家),Oliver’s Travels’ submarine,the Lovers Deep,is a unique getaway. For those looking for a slightly different experience,there is Jules'Undersea Lodge in Florida,US,named after Jules Verne,the author of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Other sectors of the emerging underwater tourism industry have brought a bit of art to the deep sea. According to the BBC,“there's a move to combine underwater tourism with art tourism to attract a new kind of traveler." Underwater museums and exhibits like the Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park in Grenada and Australia's Museum of Underwater Art allow visitors to see incredible sculptures in a truly magnificent atmosphere. Underwater archaeological(考古的)sites have also become popular destinations, such as the ones in Turkey, where people can visit sunken cities.

Exploring Earth's bodies of water has brought more awareness to the importance of protecting oceans and the animal life that calls them home. British sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor,whose artwork can be seen in multiple underwater attractions around the world, feels this is key. “Most people just see the surface of the ocean and it is hard to think of something so plain and enormous as fragile. We don't regard our oceans as sacred(神圣的)and we should.”

9 . Earth Day is April 22. Every year, people around the world observe the day by helping to care for the environment. They carry out all kinds of activities in an effort to better the planet’s heath.

One way to support this goal is to grow plants native to your area. This helps wildlife like birds and insects that evolved alongside native plants. For many of these animals, plant pollen (花粉) is their food. Native pollinators often cannot recognize non-native plants as food. This means they do not collect the pollen or spread plants’ seeds. Planting non-native species creates so-called “food deserts” for pollinators including bees, birds, bats, butterflies and more.

Doug Taamy is a professor of entomology at the University of Delaware. Entomology is the study of insects. He found that non-native plant species can harm the natural food chain, which can lead to a collapse of the environment. “Plant choice matters,” he said. “The plants we choose to landscape our properties should be determined by how much life can live there.”

Humans depend strongly on insects. Without them, we would have no flowering plants, which would harm the food web that supports important animals. Birds, for example, depend on plants for food and spread their seeds while keeping the populations of harmful insects down.

Insects support plants that provide oxygen, clean our water, capture carbon and add nutrients to the soil. That builds topsoil and prevents flooding. Without insects, the biosphere — the living parts of the Earth — would rot because of the loss of insect decomposers. Humans simply could not survive that, Tallamy said.

In addition to providing food and habitat for insects and other wildlife, native plants are able to grow easily and do not require much care. That means less watering and less fertilizing. The situation is a win-win for gardeners and pollinators.