1 . “Leave no track” is popular among many campers who are concerned about our environment and favor sustainable (可持续的) travel. Its goal is simple; to minimize human-created impacts on the natural world.     1    

Reject plastic and paper. First and foremost, one of the easiest ways to reduce the impact of camping on the planet is to go plastic and paper-free. Instead of single-use plastics and paper plates, choose bamboo or other recyclable camping dinnerware and food packages.       2    

Rent or buy a used tent. Instead of brand-new equipment, consider renting camping equipment instead. Outdoor retail (零售) brands like REI offer a wide variety of camping products to rent, including tents.     3     For those keen on purchasing something new, try brands like Patagonia that put sustainability first to reduce waste and support eco-friendly practices.

    4     In addition to eco-friendly tents, it’s good to ensure that other camping essentials, from hiking shoes and sleeping bags to clothing and blankets, are also gentle on the environment. And remember, whatever is packed in should also be packed out.

Only camp in designated (指定的) camping areas.     5     However, developed campgrounds, which are specifically designated for camping, are usually available by reservation and don’t require campers to walk wearily into the wilderness to clear space to set up a tent. Designated camping spots usually have other advantages like bathrooms, showers, picnic tables, and more.

2 . “The era of global warming has ended and the era of global boiling has arrived,” the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said after scientists confirmed July 2023 was the world’s hottest month on record.

“Humanity is in the hot seat,” Guterres told a press conference on Thursday. “For vast parts of North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, it is a cruel summer. For the entire planet, it is a disaster. And for scientists, it is clear that humans are to blame. Climate change is here, it is terrifying, and it is just the beginning. The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”

Guterres urged politicians to take swift action. “The air is unbreathable, the heat is unbearable, and the level of fossil fuel profits and climate inaction is unacceptable. Leaders must lead. No more hesitancy, no more excuses, and no more waiting for others to move first. There is simply no more time for that.”

“It is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5℃and avoid the very worst of climate change but only with dramatic, immediate climate action. We have seen some progress, but none of this is going far enough or fast enough. Accelerating temperatures demand accelerated action.”

The WMO secretary general, Petteri Taalas, said, “The need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is more urgent than ever before. Climate action is not a luxury but a must.”

Other climate scientists confirmed the findings. Karsten Haustein at Leipzig University found the world was 1.5℃ hotter in July 2023 than in the average July before industrialisation.

Marina Romanello, a climate and health researcher at University College London, said, “We have data showing how the very foundations of health are being undermined by climate change. But we still have time today to turn the tide and to ensure a liveable future for us and our children.”

The Hangzhou Asian Games,     1     are the first carbon-neutral Asiad in history, are set to deliver a legacy (遗产) with long-term benefits for the host city and beyond, according to the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee (HAGOC).

Sustainability (持续性) has been     2     (large) integrated into all aspects of the planning and operations of the Games — from     3     (construct)to transportation and energy sources, right through to ensuring minimal waste. Green energy is used to power all venues (场地). Methanol fuels the main flame of the Games, electric     4     (vehicle) transport athletes and media between venues, a recyclable water cleaning system is put     5     use in the swimming pools,     6     a rain retention system (蓄雨系统) operates at all venues. From the beginning of the preparations, HAGOC learned about green efforts from all over the world, including some Chinese cities. They realized that a green Games should not only be     7     concept, but also a commitment and an action that is sustainable, and set a trend for     8     (lead) an environmentally friendly living.

    9     (achieve) these goals, HAGOC launched an extensive carbon-offset program that encourage the public to help the Games achieve a negative carbon footprint. Since the preparations for the Asiad began, more than 200 million people from all sectors of society     10     (respond) to the call for a “Green Asian Games” and participated in green initiatives for the event.

4 . While electronics can make life easier and more entertaining, the devices aren’t easy on the environment.

As newer, more advanced devices come out, huge amounts of old electronics are thrown away, instead of being recycled. These items often end up in landfills, where the chemicals inside them may be a danger to the environment. Electronics can contain noxious materials like lead or mercury (汞) . If these materials get into the ground or water, the pollution can cause serious problems.

Most electronics require rare metals. These metals must be mined (开采) from the earth. Often the mining process creates serious pollution. In many cases, these materials are getting harder and harder to find. If more e-waste was recycled, many of those rare metals could be taken from old electronic devices instead of being mined. A group known as WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Forum) is trying to make people more aware of the problems of e-waste. WEEE says that the rare metals and other materials that get thrown out as e-waste every year are worth about $ 57 billion.

Recently, WEEE asked researchers from the United Nations to study a kind of e-waste that’s often not noticed because people don’t consider the items to be electronics. The WEEE calls this type “invisible” e-waste.

The surprising type leading the invisible e-waste group was toys. Worldwide, about 7. 3 billion electronic toys are thrown away each year. In all, toys make up about 35% of invisible e-waste. But the problem is far larger than just toys. The report also shows that other everyday items like alarms, power tools, and computer cables (电缆) are also big sources of invisible e-waste. The UN report says that 36% of the world’s invisible e-waste comes from these three types.

WEEE is hoping that as more people and governments become aware of e-waste, they will make a much greater effort to make sure electronics get reused or recycled.

5 . Gardeners who use pesticides are contributing to the decline of British songbirds, a study suggests. Scientists have urged people to stop “spraying their gardens with poisons” in order to halt bird decline and adopt instead wildlife-friendly practices. The results of the University of Sussex study, which researchers call the first of its kind, were published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

The experiment, which surveyed 615 gardens in Britain, found 25% fewer house sparrows when glyphosate (草甘膦) was used regularly. This is an ingredient found in commonly used herbicide (除草剂) brands such as Roundup or Gallup. Slug pellets (鼻涕虫杀虫剂) also seemed to have an impact on bird sightings; in gardens where Slug pellets were used, house sparrow numbers were down by almost 40%.

Prof. Dave Goulson, of the school of life sciences at the University of Sussex, said, “The UK has 22 million gardens, which collectively could be a fantastic refuge for wildlife, but not if they are overly tidy and sprayed with poisons. We just don’t need pesticides in our gardens. Many towns around the world are now pesticide free. We should simply ban the use of these poisons in urban areas, following the example of France.” The Royal Horticultural Society, the UK’s leading gardening charity, said the use of pesticides and herbicides should be avoided if possible and they should only be used, if ever, in small and targeted applications.

The research also found that those who adopted wildlife-friendly practices such as planting native shrubs and flowers, or digging a wildlife pond, saw more birds than those who did not. Cannelle Tassin de Montaigu, a PhD researcher within the school of life sciences and an author of the study, said, “It’s encouraging to find that simple measures, such as planting native shrubs and trees and creating a pond, together with avoiding the use of pesticides, really make a measurable difference to the number of birds you will see in your garden.”

6 .    

Endangered Species Youth Art Contest

2023 Contest Now Open!

Join us for our 6th annual Endangered Species Youth Art Contest! In celebration of Endangered Species Day (May 19, 2023), Roger Williams Park Zoo is accepting art entries from local K-12 grade students in the New England area showing threatened and endangered species. Together we hope to raise awareness about the importance of saving endangered species and their wild habitats.

Winners will be formally announced by May 2023.

Rules & Art Submission Instructions:

▲All entries are to be submitted electronically. Web form will be made available beginning February 1,2023.

▲Students’   artworks must be original. Computer-produced images will NOTbe judged.

▲All artworks must be about threatened/endangered species.

▲Each art entry must also include a short explanation (3-5 sentences) as to why saving your chosen species from extinction is important.

Deadline: Entries must be received by Sunday, April 2,2023. Late entries will not be judged.

2023 Art Contest Prizes

GRAND PRIZE(Judges Choice)

▲One Family RWPZoo membership (a S149 value; or extra year added to current Zoo membership)

▲An adopt-an-animal package of your choice

▲One $100 gift card

GRADE CATEGORY WINNERS (Grades K-2, Grades 3-12)

Each grade-winner shall receive:

★Six General daytime admission tickets to RWPZoo

★One $25 gift card

HONORABLE MENTIONS (Grades K-2,Grades 3-12)

Each grade-honorable mention shall receive:

·Four General daytime admission tickets to RWPZoo

·An award certificate

All winning artworks will be highlighted on the Zoo’s website and social media pages, and in the Zoo’s summer WILD Magazine issue.

7 . Lithium (锂) is called “white gold” for good reason. The metal’s value has been growing rapidly over the last several years, mainly because it is an essential material of lithium-ion batteries, which play an important part in several key sustainable technologies, e. g. electric cars.

As ocean waves, wind and solar power have grown into major players in the energy industry, lithium has also become key to building a future free of petrol. But getting lithium comes at a huge cost. As with most metals, its mining is damaging. It often works like this: Briny water, containing lithium and other metals, is pumped to the surface from underground. Then it sits in pools to allow the water to evaporate, leaving the rest behind as poisonous matter. Workers use chemical reactions to remove the lithium from that, making it into powder which is then packaged and shipped to the buyers around the world. Any accident that releases mine matter into surrounding communities or the groundwater supply could have damaging long-term impacts.

Indigenous (原住民) communities often bear the result of the damage, and political leaders have paid little attention to their concerns. In Arizona, for example, an expanding lithium mine is threatening the Hualapai Tribe’s historical sites. And for politicians who have promised to work with native peoples to deal with it, mining lithium and other precious metals is putting them into a dilemma: How do you ensure the availability of materials which are essential to the future while protecting indigenous people’ rights?

Mining of the metal is expected to increase greatly in coming years. Over time, that will make electric cars inexpensive and, therefore, more popular.

As environmentally conscious consumers buy electric cars in ever-greater numbers, it’s important to be aware of the dirty process that powers those clean air vehicles.

10 . This summer, a $2.10 billion energy storage project called Nant de Drance opened in Valais, Switzerland . The project, which some people call a “water battery (电池)”, can store more energy than 400,000 car batteries.

The system works by gravity. There are two large water reservoirs high in the Swiss mountains. One is much higher than the other. The two are connected by a system of underground passages. When there is too much electricity, Nant de Drance can use that energy to send water from the lower reservoir to the upper one. To produce power, water goes down from the upper reservoir. Gravity pulls the water down into the passages, where it rushes through six large turbines. They produce electricity .

Though the system is quite a simple one, building it took 14 years and a lot of effort. The upper reservoir had to be doubled in size. Workers had to create 10.5 miles of large underground passages connecting the two reservoirs. That meant carving out huge amounts of rock from inside the mountains. The turbines are located over a third of a mile underground.

As the world turns more and more to renewable energy sources, being able to store energy is very important. Unlike oil, gas, or coal, many renewable energy sources only work some of the time and can not be burned to create energy any time. Solar panels only work when the sun is shining, for example. Wind turbines only create energy when the wind is blowing. Renewable energy must be stored if it’s going to be ready to use at any time.

Using water to store and create energy isn’t a new idea. But in the past, many water storage projects seriously changed or damaged rivers. Because Nant de Drance is almost completely underground, it’s caused little damage to the local environment.