2 . In a time when climate change becomes a more pressing issue, we sometimes may fail to realize that individual contributions have a huge effect on the big problem. Fortunately, there are some apps which can help the environment with the click of a button.

Buying and selling secondhand is a more responsible and environmentally friendly way to consume and part of the solution to reducing the carbon emission (碳排放) of mass production. This app helps users anywhere in the world make a little extra money from things they no longer need and moreover, how good it is to find that hidden treasure at a great price!

Created by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), this handy app provides you with a wealth of detail on the latest facts and information on climate change issues as well as enabling you to track your carbon footprint and see how different areas of your life contribute to this. With this knowledge, you can then take part in challenges of your choice to help reduce your footprint.

With the aim of reducing the masses of food waste from shops and restaurants, this app helps to connect users with local businesses that have unsold produce to be collected for a small part of the cost. The app is the most direct way for you to get involved-all you have to do is search, place your order and go to pick it up!

This app is a must-have that gives you the power to check the influence of brands (品牌) on issues that mean most to you. With more than 3,000 brands currently listed, and the option to request others to be added in time, this is a handy source of environment-friendly shopping information.

6 . A United Nations group of experts predicted that global warming would reach extreme levels by the early 2030s. The likely result: ever-worsening weather disasters and related events—hunger, extinction of some plant and wildlife species and the spread of infectious diseases.

There is still time to avoid these disasters, but the window for action is closing quickly. Yet the reality is, few countries are on track to meet their existing goals to address climate change. Luckily, there is one bright note in this otherwise black picture: individual innovators are stepping up to try to find solutions to fight climate crisis using technology in new and creative ways.

When Beth began working in the fashion industry, she was disappointed to find that many makers tended to largely guess what people would actually buy. As a result, companies overproduced clothes, creating needless waste and environmental pollution.

To reduce unsold products and material waste in the fashion industry, in 2015, Beth began her own company, Unspun, which seeks solutions by making on-demand custom clothing tailored to a buyer’s body using a 3D-body scan. “We will never make clothes before they have a home.” said Beth. Its self-developed 3D-weaving(编织) machine enables customisation using a body scanner.

Unspun launched its first 3D woven items using the innovative tech last year. Since then, the company has produced thousands of pairs of pants, hats, bags in a test run for a large European retailer(零售商).

Unspun doesn’t intend to keep its novel production technique to itself. The company is in the process of building microsites around the world to localize 3D weaving production. For example, the company has set up its office in Hong Kong with a focus on business development, marketing and customer services. “Our goal is to reduce the global human carbon footprint by 1 percent, and the only way to realistically get there is to become a platform, working with forward-thinking brands (品牌) to collectively cleanup the industry,” says Beth.

7 . Re-purposing diapers to make building materials would reduce the amount of garbage that goes to a landfill. It could also make homes more affordable. Maybe giving used diapers a new use could help tackle both problems.

Building material—especially those that are used for strengthening structures — are often expensive. They’re often the biggest hurdle to making homes affordable. So researchers have previously investigated unusual materials that could save costs. These materials included many that would otherwise pile up as waste, such as fly ash.

“There is a big need in developing countries such as the Southeast Asian nation, Indonesia. There, demand for low-cost housing outstrips what’s available. The number of people in Indonesia’s cities has climbed by about 4 percent per year in the last 30 years. By 2025, more than two-thirds of Indonesians are expected to live in urban areas. Indonesia’s population boom is intensifying the demand for housing,” says Siswanti Zuraida, an environmental engineer in Indonesia.

“Despite the need for more affordable housing, there are significant problems that stand in the way of adopting diapers,” Zuraida says. Used diapers contain wood pulp, cotton and plastic, which are potentially useful building materials. Diapers plastic components would have to be separated from the organic fibers, a complicated recycling process currently available only in developed nations. And Indonesia’s building regulations restrict together-materials to bricks, wood, steel and concrete (which is used to hold bricks together) — materials that also bear a high cost in terms of carbon emissions.

But reusing diapers might not be that environmentally friendly, especially on a large scale. “It’s tricky to separate dirty diapers from waste and disinfect them. So it would take a lot of energy to recycle diapers. It’s maybe worthwhile to start thinking about ways to replace single-use diapers with something less frequently thrown away,” says Christof Schrofl, a chemist who works at Technische Universität Dresden in Germany.

8 . Aristotle was among the first thinkers to become interested in the red snow on Mount Parnassus in the 4th century BC. The Greek philosopher owed the colour to hairy worms living in freezing conditions at high altitude. The phenomenon has puzzled scientists ever since. Now a team of French researchers find that snow is getting redder all the time.

The red is indeed produced by organisms in the snow - not by hairy worms, but by microalgae(微藻类)that inhabit ecosystems up to 3, 000 metres above sea level. The microalgae that are green and invisible in the winter become loaded with pigments(色素)in the summer which protect them from the sun, turning the snow reddish. It's when the sun's rays become strong that the microalgae create a protective layer of red molecules(分子) that are like a sun cream.

The researchers say on their website, “The appearance of ‘red snows’ seems to be more and more frequent at high altitudes, as well as in the Arctic and Antarctic regions.” One explanation for the spread of red snows could be global warming, the scientists say. Microalgae capture carbon dioxide when exposed to light, turning it into organic matter and placing it at the foundation of ecosystems in soil, water and snow. With climate change, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing. “It is therefore expected that certain microalgae respond positively to this increase, behaving as markers of climate change,” the website says.

Yet scientists are unsure about what impact the microalgae have on melting glaciers and snow. They suspect that because the red pigments absorb the heat they are accelerating environmental change. “Even if it is fantastic to see microalgae developing in the snow, one of the consequences is... the disappearance of their environment,” the researchers added.