1 . Not only does the use of plastic water bottles hurt your wallet, it also increases pollution and wastes energy and water. Only 23% of all plastic in America ends up in a recycling bin, meaning over $ 1 billion worth of plastic is treated as rubbish a year. Recently, Skipping Rocks Lab has invented a kind of water bottle called Ooho.

It is a convenient, clear water bottle that can either be drunken or eaten. To drink it, you can either peel off the membrane (薄膜) or tear a hole in the membrane with your teeth to pour the water into your mouth. To eat it, you simply put the whole bottle in your mouth. One problem the scientists have run into is how to ship large amounts of Ooho bubbles(水泡) without arriving with a very wet truck. However, they have attempted to package units of individual bubbles together inside a larger and thicker membrane. It is targeting large outdoor events, such as marathons, music festivals, and sporting events, where tons of plastic bottles are used, and frequently left behind as litter. And too much plastic is sure to do harm to the environment, which could account for their purpose of such a new invention.

The team has been working for the past two years to develop the technology and materials needed to produce Ooho; they have recently applied a patent for their new advancements. The price for an individual bubble or a unit of bubbles has not been set yet, but they cost about two cents to create a unit, which is cheaper than plastic bottles. It has appeared at events in London, San Francisco, Boston, at conferences, festivals, and so on.

Ooho is catching many people’s attention and has raised over $ 1 million and gained 1,000 investors in only three days. It is mostly being sold at events at the moment to keep the consumer’s interest while the production machine is getting up and running. It is quickly making a rise,so keep an eye out this year for these bottles of the future.

2 . Buildings, pollution, poor soil, insects, and even car crashes can add to tree loss. However, between 2016 and 2021, the city of Seattle in Washington state was reported to have lost about 255 hectares of tree covering, for which climate change was blamed. Then came the driest summer on Seattle’s record books in 2022. The drier conditions and hotter temperatures have left many trees with brown leaves, naked branches, and extreme seeding. These are all signs of tree stress.

According to Nicholas Johnson, a tree expert for Seattle City Parks, if this warming climate continues we are going to have a lot of trees die. Just like people, under the heat trees get weak.

Researchers from France and Australia studied the effect of hotter temperatures and less rain on more than 3,100 trees and plants in 164 cities across 78 countries. They found about half the trees in the cities were experiencing climate conditions beyond their limits. They also found that by 2050 nearly all trees planted in Australian cities will not survive.

It’s not the gradual change but these extreme swings of too much water, too little water, too much wind, and terrible storms that are going to cause these rapid changes. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed about 10 percent of the trees in New Orleans, Louisiana. And in 2021, Hurricane Ida uprooted many new tree plantings.

To settle the problem of tree loss, non-native trees have been brought to cities for some time. In the city of Bellevue, Washington, experts are growing different kinds of trees specifically for climate change. On city grounds, they are planting baby giant sequoias, just a few centimeters tall. The giant sequoias are not native to the Pacific Northwest area. But the trees can deal with the lack of rain and insects. Once these trees are established, they grow incredibly fast. Having many different kinds and ages of trees is important to keeping urban forests alive.

“Life always finds a way,” said Nicholas Johnson. “And in Seattle, people are helping life find a way.”

There was a job vacancy for taking care of the Great Barrier Reef!

    1     (locate) off the coast of North-east Australia, it is the     2     (large) living thing on the planet. About     3     size of Japan, it even can be seen from outer space. More than 25 million years old, the Great Barrier Reef is made up of living coral     4     (grow) on dead coral. Now this unique and delicate place is under threat from pollution and climate change.

    5     (get) this job, the candidates needed to prove why they were the best person to do the job. Out of the thousands of applicants, eleven     6     (elect), including a young woman from China. Eventually, Ben Southall from the UK received the job offer.

Ben did a lot during his time     7     an island caretaker. Besides blogging, he made an umber of appearances on television to argue in favor of its     8     (defend). Whether it was a genuine job offer     9     an eye-catching marketing event isn’t really important. The most important thing was that people all over the world became aware of the beauty of the ocean in the area. What’s more, they came to understand the delicate balance     10     the environment exists in and what can, and must, be done to protect the reef. That way, it will remain a safe habitat for wildlife and a dream destination for tourists.

With economy development there comes a time when the old must give way to the new.     1     (keep) the right balance between progress and the protection of cultural sites can be     2     big challenge.

Big challenges, however, can sometimes lead to great solutions. In 1950s，the Egyptian government wanted to build a new dam     3     the Nile. But water from the dam would     4     (possible) damage a number of temples and destroy cultural relics. After     5     (listen) to the scientists and citizens, the government turned to the United Nations for help. After a process of     6     (prepare), finally a document     7     (sign), and the work began in 1960.

Temples and other cultural sites were taken down piece by piece, and then moved and put back in a place     8     they were safe from the water. In all, thousands of engineers and workers rescued 22 temples and     9     (count) cultural relics.

The project ended in 1980, it was considered a success. Not only had the countries found a path to the future, but they had also learned that     10     was possible for countries to work together to build a better tomorrow.

9 . Working at a bank in New York City in the mid-2010s, Anna Sacks was living the life-just not the life she wanted. Sure, she was happy. But she wanted to do something that felt important.

Some people seeking meaning might read a self-help book or perhaps volunteer a few hours a week. Sacks packed up her life and moved to Connecticut to participate in Adamah, a farming program that focuses on sustainable living and growing sustainable food. When she returned to New York, her life was with a new purpose and a variety of new skills to make her dreams a reality.

“One of the things that really stuck with me from Adamah was how little waste they produced and how they handled the waste they did have, primarily through composting (堆肥),” she says. “And I just thought, ‘Why aren’t we doing that here?’”“The Adamah program opened Sacks’ eyes to the damage consumer culture is doing on a local, national, and global level, and the need to find solutions. So in 2017, she began what she calls “trash walking”.

During tours around her community, Sacks picks through garbage to look for reusable items. Soon, her “trash walking” expanded to include corporate trash along with residential trash. Surprisingly, she discovered a wide range of really great stuff-like clothing, decorations, and food-all of which she documents on TikTok.

Under the name The Trash Walker, Sacks quickly gained popularity for her videos that highlight the problems with consumerism. “The root issue is overproduction, which leads to overconsumption, which leads to a large amount of waste,” she says.

The fact is, companies often choose to trash items rather than give them away to people who might need them. A big reason for this waste is the way our current tax laws are structured, Sacks says. Sellers who destroy goods can claim the cost as a loss on their taxes and be refunded. If they give away goods, they can claim only a small amount as a charitable reduction on their taxes.

Sacks’ main focus is simply getting people to pay attention to how many unnecessary things they buy and then throw away. “Once you become aware of the way you consume, you can see ways you improve,” she says.

10 . The idea that having narrow local focus leaves little room for anything but a selfish mindset is a misconception, according to a new study that found that concern for local affairs could help with global environmental conservation.

You might have heard of NIMBY which means “not in my back yard” and describes an individual or group opposed to a new addition to the neighborhood, typically a factory, roadway or power station. Nimbyism and parochialism(眼界狭小), which is a focus on a local area,   can go hand in hand, and there are concerns that parochialism paves the way for prejudice, narrowmindedness, and selfishness.

But researchers found the exact opposite to be true in a new study published. The researchers argue that positive parochialism can inspire a larger awareness of global environmental problems and encourage people to action.

“We did not find evidence that parochialism was necessarily negative and inward -looking,” said Patrick, a researcher for the study. “It can be those things, but there's no necessary conflict between feeling connected to your local area and feeling connected to the wider world. ”

For the study, the researchers reviewed documents from the 1987 Parish Maps project. The researchers showed how the Parish Maps project also demonstrated a passion for the environment and conservation. The researchers say that the Parish Maps project is a strong example of “positive parochialism”, and shows that thinking locally can influence a global mindset.

“For a long time,   it has been generally agreed that if we want people to think about global affairs they need an international worldview-but this may not be the case,” said Patrick. “Given where we are now in terms of trying to encourage people to make changes to help the environment, positive parochialism offers something that has been overlooked.”